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Re: new POTA and SOTA poll #poll-notice

 

+ AA6YQ comments below
How is all this going to be affected when an activator goes home znd uploads to LotW, eQSL, etc, as if he was at home and not in a park?? This is just about as common as breathing.
+ Neither LoTW nor eQSL provide "POTA credit". What matters is that an activator correctly submit QSOs to POTA so that chasers will get credit.

? ? ? ? ? 73,

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Dave, AA6YQ
Re: new POTA and SOTA poll #poll-notice

 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

Since POTA hunters don't submit logs to the POTA system, any POTA awards are contingent upon the activator submitting their log for any "awards" to be issued.? For that reason, especially when I'm activating at a park, if I work a Park-to-Park station that tells me they have multiple park numbers, I thank them and tell them I don't need all their numbers, since I'll get credit for them when they submit their log.? That saves lots of time on the exchange.? Granted, doing it this way, I don't track on my end all the parks I "hunt", but my POTA "hunting" is done mainly for fun and to give the activators the Qs in their log.? My POTA activations are what I? REALLY keep track of.

73,
Ken, KJ9B


From:[email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Dave AA6YQ via groups.io <aa6yq@...>
Sent:?Friday, May 23, 2025 12:02
To:[email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject:?Re: [DXLab] new POTA and SOTA poll #poll-notice

<snip>
+ The fact that one activator can simultaneously activate up to 6 parks with no way to identify all of those parks in spot notes (which are limited to 29 characters) makes realtime award tracking for POTA less valuable to POTA chasers.

? ? ? ? ?73,

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Dave, AA6YQ
Re: new POTA and SOTA poll #poll-notice

 

How is all this going to be affected when an activator goes home znd uploads to LotW, eQSL, etc, as if he was at home and not in a park?? This is just about as common as breathing.

Earl / KD5XB

Sent from Proton Mail Android



-------- Original Message --------
On 5/23/25 10:02 AM, Dave AA6YQ wrote:
+ AA6YQ comments below
A bit late to the party but here is my .02 on the matter.? FWIW, I have 5500+ total contacts with POTA activators and ~2200 confirmed parks.
+ Thanks for your comments, Dennis!
The first issue is that the POTA database is very dynamic with new parks being added continuously, sometimes literally daily.? For example, there are about 8 areas that I could submit today within 15 miles of my QTH that would be eligible to be issued a POTA number.? I have on 3 occasions submitted an area and usually within a few hours they have been assigned a POTA number.? I would think that it would be a nightmare to keep such an organic database up to date.? Not sure, but I pretty sure that there are multiple individuals that have the authority and ability to add new POTA entities.? Not to mention that entities get deactivated (deleted) from time to time.? All of this, IMHO, leads me to believe that it would be an exercise in frustration to even be able to utilize such a database much less keep it up to date.
+ My thought was to enable each user to direct DXView to download the current POTA definitions file to generate an up-to-date local POTA database at whatever frequency they desired.?
The second issue it that it is somewhat common for an activation counting for multiple parks.? The operator N2NWK is famous for his five-fer and six-fer activations in the Washington DC area.? If a dedicated POTA field is implemented, you would probably need to have at a minimum 4 of them per QSO like you do with the grid squares (Grid 1 - Grid 4).? Spots on the DXcluster system rarely indicated more than one POTA entity, and if they do there is no set format on how they are indicated.
+ If that's the case, the POTA progress report can be extended to handle a comma-delimited list in the user-defined item whose caption is POTA.
Given all of that, my suggestion is the following:
?
1)? Only deal with whether or not you have worked that entity on any band or mode.? Don't worry about different bands and/or modes - period.
2)? An organic database isn't needed - do what the POTAPlus Chrome extension does - parses the spots on the pota.app as well as you POTA records on their database to determine ATNO status.??
3)? Extract the POTA data from other spots like what DXKeeper does already when you have the USERDEFINED_0 as POTA and like GridTracker does for WSJT modes and check it like #2 above.
+ SpotCollector has for several years been extracting POTA tags from spot notes. Multi-park activations must not be common, as no one has previously mentioned this. So long as a QSO can log all of the park codes in a comma-delimited list and an accurate progress report can be generated, that's sufficient for the first few steps.
Bottom line, I don't think you need to do anything dealing with an organic database within DXLab - just determine if it is an ATNO from your POTA records based on spot data.
+ Realtime award tracking for POTA was the 4th step described in

/g/DXLab/message/229282

+ Given the significant development effort involved, initiating it would be contingent on significant utilization after the first 3 steps were complete. As of today, the poll shows 54 DXLab users pursuing POTA.

+ The fact that one activator can simultaneously activate up to 6 parks with no way to identify all of those parks in spot notes (which are limited to 29 characters) makes realtime award tracking for POTA less valuable to POTA chasers.

? ? ? ? ?73,

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Dave, AA6YQ
Re: new POTA and SOTA poll #poll-notice

 

+ AA6YQ comments below
A bit late to the party but here is my .02 on the matter.? FWIW, I have 5500+ total contacts with POTA activators and ~2200 confirmed parks.
+ Thanks for your comments, Dennis!
The first issue is that the POTA database is very dynamic with new parks being added continuously, sometimes literally daily.? For example, there are about 8 areas that I could submit today within 15 miles of my QTH that would be eligible to be issued a POTA number.? I have on 3 occasions submitted an area and usually within a few hours they have been assigned a POTA number.? I would think that it would be a nightmare to keep such an organic database up to date.? Not sure, but I pretty sure that there are multiple individuals that have the authority and ability to add new POTA entities.? Not to mention that entities get deactivated (deleted) from time to time.? All of this, IMHO, leads me to believe that it would be an exercise in frustration to even be able to utilize such a database much less keep it up to date.
+ My thought was to enable each user to direct DXView to download the current POTA definitions file to generate an up-to-date local POTA database at whatever frequency they desired.?
The second issue it that it is somewhat common for an activation counting for multiple parks.? The operator N2NWK is famous for his five-fer and six-fer activations in the Washington DC area.? If a dedicated POTA field is implemented, you would probably need to have at a minimum 4 of them per QSO like you do with the grid squares (Grid 1 - Grid 4).? Spots on the DXcluster system rarely indicated more than one POTA entity, and if they do there is no set format on how they are indicated.
+ If that's the case, the POTA progress report can be extended to handle a comma-delimited list in the user-defined item whose caption is POTA.
Given all of that, my suggestion is the following:
?
1)? Only deal with whether or not you have worked that entity on any band or mode.? Don't worry about different bands and/or modes - period.
2)? An organic database isn't needed - do what the POTAPlus Chrome extension does - parses the spots on the pota.app as well as you POTA records on their database to determine ATNO status.??
3)? Extract the POTA data from other spots like what DXKeeper does already when you have the USERDEFINED_0 as POTA and like GridTracker does for WSJT modes and check it like #2 above.
+ SpotCollector has for several years been extracting POTA tags from spot notes. Multi-park activations must not be common, as no one has previously mentioned this. So long as a QSO can log all of the park codes in a comma-delimited list and an accurate progress report can be generated, that's sufficient for the first few steps.
Bottom line, I don't think you need to do anything dealing with an organic database within DXLab - just determine if it is an ATNO from your POTA records based on spot data.
+ Realtime award tracking for POTA was the 4th step described in

/g/DXLab/message/229282

+ Given the significant development effort involved, initiating it would be contingent on significant utilization after the first 3 steps were complete. As of today, the poll shows 54 DXLab users pursuing POTA.

+ The fact that one activator can simultaneously activate up to 6 parks with no way to identify all of those parks in spot notes (which are limited to 29 characters) makes realtime award tracking for POTA less valuable to POTA chasers.

? ? ? ? ?73,

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Dave, AA6YQ
Re: Spotcollector frozen (well sorta)

 

+ AA6YQ comments below
Thanks Joe, all four spot sources are showing green status.
Pre Filtering is off.
?
Oh, I just found it (or something that got it going).? I had size control set to 7 days.? I changed that setting from Prune @ 7 days to setting below, setting a database file size at 30K QSO's and it kicked everything loose.? Spots are once again flying in and populating the bandspreads etc.?
?
I have no idea what or why, but it appears that we're good now.?
+ Your Spot Database was evidently so large that the resulting load was more than your PC could handle. Preventing this is why SpotCollector provides the ability to monitor the number of entries inthe Spot Database and keep it pruned to a manageable size.

? ? ? ? ? ? 73,

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Dave, AA6YQ
?
Re: Spotcollector frozen (well sorta)

 

Thanks Joe, all four spot sources are showing green status.
Pre Filtering is off.
?
Oh, I just found it (or something that got it going).? I had size control set to 7 days.? I changed that setting from Prune @ 7 days to setting below, setting a database file size at 30K QSO's and it kicked everything loose.? Spots are once again flying in and populating the bandspreads etc.?
?
I have no idea what or why, but it appears that we're good now.?
?
Thanks for the help.? Back to DXing...
?
73, Mike? K9MK
?
Re: new POTA and SOTA poll #poll-notice

 

A bit late to the party but here is my .02 on the matter.? FWIW, I have 5500+ total contacts with POTA activators and ~2200 confirmed parks.
?
The first issue is that the POTA database is very dynamic with new parks being added continuously, sometimes literally daily.? For example, there are about 8 areas that I could submit today within 15 miles of my QTH that would be eligible to be issued a POTA number.? I have on 3 occasions submitted an area and usually within a few hours they have been assigned a POTA number.? I would think that it would be a nightmare to keep such an organic database up to date.? Not sure, but I pretty sure that there are multiple individuals that have the authority and ability to add new POTA entities.? Not to mention that entities get deactivated (deleted) from time to time.? All of this, IMHO, leads me to believe that it would be an exercise in frustration to even be able to utilize such a database much less keep it up to date.
?
The second issue it that it is somewhat common for an activation counting for multiple parks.? The operator N2NWK is famous for his five-fer and six-fer activations in the Washington DC area.? If a dedicated POTA field is implemented, you would probably need to have at a minimum 4 of them per QSO like you do with the grid squares (Grid 1 - Grid 4).? Spots on the DXcluster system rarely indicated more than one POTA entity, and if they do there is no set format on how they are indicated.
?
Given all of that, my suggestion is the following:
?
1)? Only deal with whether or not you have worked that entity on any band or mode.? Don't worry about different bands and/or modes - period.
2)? An organic database isn't needed - do what the POTAPlus Chrome extension does - parses the spots on the pota.app as well as you POTA records on their database to determine ATNO status.??
3)? Extract the POTA data from other spots like what DXKeeper does already when you have the USERDEFINED_0 as POTA and like GridTracker does for WSJT modes and check it like #2 above.
?
Bottom line, I don't think you need to do anything dealing with an organic database within DXLab - just determine if it is an ATNO from your POTA records based on spot data.
?
Dennis - WB0WAO
Re: Spotcollector frozen (well sorta)

 

On 2025-05-23 9:57 AM, K9MK wrote:

I'm not sure what else to try. Thoughts and/or suggestions would be appreciated.
See:
<>

In particular, check your computer clock and make sure the spot sources
are all "green" (fully logged in).

I would bet your computer's time zone is set to the correct local time
zone and thus the offset from GMT it not correct.

73,

... Joe, W4TV


On 2025-05-23 9:57 AM, K9MK wrote:
Greetings to the Group,
? ?Two days ago, I did a PC reboot to capture the latest Windows update. Like dozens of times before I did not see any issue.? To be candid I'm not sure this update and reboot is related to the problem I'm seeing.? After the update when everything was up and running, I launched Commander, DXKeeper, DXView, and Spotcollector.? Several hours later I noticed spots were not showing up in the band spread window and not on my FLEX6400 display.? The Spotcollector window was not capturing new spots.? It is displaying the last spots captured before the Windows update on 5/21 @ 1413z.? Symptoms include, I can initiate and send a spot to the DXcluster but it would not be captured in the Spotcollector screen or the bandspread etc.? Going into the individual cluster windows, I see that Spots are coming in from the clusters I monitor, but nothing "new" was showing in the spotcollector window. SH/DX inquiries to the clusters stream the latest spots right back.? I tried doing a restore to Spotcollector but that did not change anything.
? ?I'm not sure what else to try. Thoughts and/or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks, Mike K9MK
PS: PC is a i9 gaming platform running W10_Pro.
Spotcollector frozen (well sorta)

 

Greetings to the Group,?
?
? ?Two days ago, I did a PC reboot to capture the latest Windows update. Like dozens of times before I did not see any issue.? To be candid I'm not sure this update and reboot is related to the problem I'm seeing.? After the update when everything was up and running, I launched Commander, DXKeeper, DXView, and Spotcollector.? Several hours later I noticed spots were not showing up in the band spread window and not on my FLEX6400 display.? The Spotcollector window was not capturing new spots.? It is displaying the last spots captured before the Windows update on 5/21 @ 1413z.? Symptoms include, I can initiate and send a spot to the DXcluster but it would not be captured in the Spotcollector screen or the bandspread etc.? Going into the individual cluster windows, I see that Spots are coming in from the clusters I monitor, but nothing "new" was showing in the spotcollector window. SH/DX inquiries to the clusters stream the latest spots right back.? I tried doing a restore to Spotcollector but that did not change anything.? ?
?
? ?I'm not sure what else to try. Thoughts and/or suggestions would be appreciated.
?
Thanks, Mike K9MK
?
PS: PC is a i9 gaming platform running W10_Pro.
?
?
Re: Spots per minute

 

+ AA6YQ comments below

So it's 0715Z, I just woke up and checked Spot Collector.

I'm receiving about 37 spots per minute with all skimmers turned off.

Is this normal? Seems kinda low.

+ At 2033Z, I'm receiving 11.4 spots per minute from K1RFI, N6WS, JH1RFM, DH8WR, and DX Summit

+ With the solar flux index at 119, this isn't surprising. Re-enabling my local instance of WSJT-X on 20m will significantly increase the number of spots, as it's decoding ~50 signals every 15 seconds.

73,

Dave, AA6YQ
Spots per minute

 


So it's 0715Z, I just woke up and checked Spot Collector.

I'm receiving about 37 spots per minute with all skimmers turned off.

Is this normal?? Seems kinda low.

Spot sources are:






DX.HAMNET.NETWORK

Thanks,
Earl / KD5XB
GN

e e

Sent with secure email.

Re: appending the log

 

I tried by TCP/IP.? Current log4OM manual says to use with slicemaster.? Unable to get it to work.? Using Omnirig was the only way I could get it to work.

Greg
AB7R

Sent with secure email.

On Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 at 6:31 PM, Dave AA6YQ <aa6yq@...> wrote:

+ AA6YQ comments below
Joe, can you share how W9MBB is/was connected to Log4OM.? I ask because I could not find any reference to his call sign on the Log4OM site or forum.
+ see
?
?
? ? ? 73,
?
? ? ? ? ? ? ?Dave, AA6YQ


--
?
73,
Greg - AB7R
?
Flex 8600
PGXL & TGXL
AG
Re: appending the log

 

+ AA6YQ comments below
Joe, can you share how W9MBB is/was connected to Log4OM.? I ask because I could not find any reference to his call sign on the Log4OM site or forum.
+ see
?
?
? ? ? 73,
?
? ? ? ? ? ? ?Dave, AA6YQ
Re: Fat-finger problem in Spot Collector

 


Good idea.

I meant to include this in my original message, but forgot -- my checklist is at??

Vy 7 3
Earl / KD5XB

e e

Sent with secure email.

On Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 at 2:23 PM, Dave AA6YQ <aa6yq@...> wrote:

+ AA6YQ comment sbelow
Once I got it going again, I started going through ALL the config settings in Spot Collector, one-by-one like a checklist.? I had a hit on the first one!? Apparently, some time in the past, I meant to set "Maximum Separation in Time) to 60, which is reasonable, but I found it set to 600!!!?
+ With that setting, each time a new spot arrived that was not a duplicate of a recently-received spot (e.g. from another cluster), SpotCollector was searching through the last 600 minutes (10 hours) of Spot Database Entries looking for an existing Spot Database Entry matching that new spot. If your Spot Database contains only an hour's worth of spots, this would have no adverse impact, but with a larger Spot Database, a lot of CPU time would be spent needlessly searching.

+ When you have a DXLab application working they way you want it, terminate it and direct the Launcher to save its settings to a Workspace. Then if you experience an unexpected change in the future, you can direct the Launcher to restore those setting to quickly recover from an inadvertent setting change.



? ? ?73,

? ? ? ? ? ?Dave, AA6YQ
Re: DXKEEPER NOT POPULATING ALL QSO DATA

 

+ AA6YQ comments below
HI THERE, I AM USING DXLAB FROM 2007 AND IT IS FOR ME THE BEST. A FEW DAYS AGO AND I AM NOT SURE IF IT WAS AFTER THE INSTALATION OF THE LATEST VERSION OF DXKEEPER 18.1.4 DXKEEPER STARTED DOING THIS, AND IT DRIVES ME NUTS.?
THIS IS HAPPENING IS WHEN I CONCLUDE A QSO ONLY FROM WSJT-X RUNNING FT8 OR FT4. WHEN I ENTER A CALLSIGN AT THE? DXKEEPERS CAPTURE WINDOW AND PRESS LOG ALL THE DATA ARE THERE. BUT NOT FROM WSJT-X.
IT IS NOT FILLING UP (THE QTH TAB THE TX FREQUENCY TAB THE ADDRESS TAB THE CONTINENT TAB CQ TAB ITU TAB) WHAT IS CAUSING THAT I HAD NO PROBLEM BEFORE IT STARTEDBAS I SAID A FEW DAYS AGO.
YOUR HELP WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
+ When you are making QSOs with WSJT-X, you must log them by clicking WSJT-X's Log button - not by using DXKeeper's Capture window. If you've been doing this in the past, then you either have configured SpotCollector to use WSJT-X as a spot source (which sends the QSO information to DXKeeper when you click the WSJT-X Log button) or you've been using JTAlert, which also sends the QSO information to DXKeeper when you click the WSJT-X Log button.

? ? ? ? 73,

? ? ? ? ? ? ?Dave, AA6YQ
?
Re: Fat-finger problem in Spot Collector

 

+ AA6YQ comment sbelow
Once I got it going again, I started going through ALL the config settings in Spot Collector, one-by-one like a checklist.? I had a hit on the first one!? Apparently, some time in the past, I meant to set "Maximum Separation in Time) to 60, which is reasonable, but I found it set to 600!!!?
+ With that setting, each time a new spot arrived that was not a duplicate of a recently-received spot (e.g. from another cluster), SpotCollector was searching through the last 600 minutes (10 hours) of Spot Database Entries looking for an existing Spot Database Entry matching that new spot. If your Spot Database contains only an hour's worth of spots, this would have no adverse impact, but with a larger Spot Database, a lot of CPU time would be spent needlessly searching.

+ When you have a DXLab application working they way you want it, terminate it and direct the Launcher to save its settings to a Workspace. Then if you experience an unexpected change in the future, you can direct the Launcher to restore those setting to quickly recover from an inadvertent setting change.



? ? ?73,

? ? ? ? ? ?Dave, AA6YQ
DXKEEPER NOT POPULATING ALL QSO DATA

 

HI THERE, I AM USING DXLAB FROM 2007 AND IT IS FOR ME THE BEST. A FEW DAYS AGO AND I AM NOT SURE IF IT WAS AFTER THE INSTALATION OF THE LATEST VERSION OF DXKEEPER 18.1.4 DXKEEPER STARTED DOING THIS, AND IT DRIVES ME NUTS.?
THIS IS HAPPENING IS WHEN I CONCLUDE A QSO ONLY FROM WSJT-X RUNNING FT8 OR FT4. WHEN I ENTER A CALLSIGN AT THE? DXKEEPERS CAPTURE WINDOW AND PRESS LOG ALL THE DATA ARE THERE. BUT NOT FROM WSJT-X.
IT IS NOT FILLING UP (THE QTH TAB THE TX FREQUENCY TAB THE ADDRESS TAB THE CONTINENT TAB CQ TAB ITU TAB) WHAT IS CAUSING THAT I HAD NO PROBLEM BEFORE IT STARTEDBAS I SAID A FEW DAYS AGO.
YOUR HELP WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
Fat-finger problem in Spot Collector

 


For MONTHS now, I've been having an on-again off-again problem.? If I let my spot database get too large (around 10,000 entries is when I start noticing it), it gets slower & slower processing spots, until it finally just stops doing ANYTHING and I usually have to use Task Manager to kill the program before staring over.

Well, this morning, it happened again.? I had let it run overnight, and the database had around 20,000 entries, and when I first came into the radio room this morning, the Q said 842 and was just sitting there, not processing.

Once I got it going again, I started going through ALL the config settings in Spot Collector, one-by-one like a checklist.? I had a hit on the first one!? Apparently, some time in the past, I meant to set "Maximum Separation in Time) to 60, which is reasonable, but I found it set to 600!!!? My finger must have bounced on the 0 key and I never noticed.? Spot |Collector sure seems to run better now that it's changed to 60, with my current database at ~11,300 and all Telnet sources are turned on with skimmer turned on throughout.? Oops, now we're at ~11,350...

A fat-fingered wrod ot teh wsie...

Vy 7 3
Earl / KD5XB
DM84

e e

Sent with secure email.

Re: appending the log

 

Joe, can you share how W9MBB is/was connected to Log4OM.? I ask because I could not find any reference to his call sign on the Log4OM site or forum.
?
Chip - W6MY
Re: Got a 404 on a link from teh help files

 
Edited

# more AA6YQ comments below

+ I strongly disagree. The core principle underlying SpotCollector is that there is exactly one Spot Database Entry for a station operating in a specific mode near a specific frequency - no matter how many times that station has recently been spotted, and no matter the locations of the spotting stations. That one Spot Database Entry contains information harvested from all relevant spots.
Square that with the display I get when I right click on a spot database entry and click "Display spots of XX#YYY near 14###.## in MM"? I see multiple spots from multiple spotters. Those spots should differentiate between a human source and a Skimmer source ... or between station W4TV and W4TV-4 if I'm running two rigs with two versions of SC.

# The "Display spots of XX#YYY near 14###.## in MM" command shows you all spots that contributed to the Spot Database Entry you right-clicked - including the spotting stations.

# The callsigns of spotted stations are displayed with appendages like -# and -4 removed.

# As you just pointed out via email, there is an unintentional regression in SpotCollector 9.9.2: spotting station callsigns are displayed with appendages like -# and -4 removed; in previous versions of SpotCollector, they were displayed.

# I have sent you and Earl KD5XB a new version of SpotCollector with this defect corrected.

73,


Dave, AA6YQ
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