DxSpider User Manual
Contents
1. I sh c i Node Callsigns I IEISTCR 7 users IGB7ADX I IGB7BAA G4FPV G8TIC IGB7BIG GDOTEP GD3UMW I SB7BPQ GOINA GORCI G3AKU G30CA i 1 GB7CDX G3JNB G4ALR I IGB7DJK GOFYD GORE G1TLH G4PEL G4soz I 1 GATVR G7SQW K8AZ MOCTQ 1 MM1CXE 10 1 i ON7WP i SB7DXA GORDI G8SJP i IGB7DXC GOHDB GOWFK G1FYC G3KWK G3LME I 1 G30IL GABGW GAFUJ G4PDO GW7SMV I IGB7DXE G1NNB I GB7DXG GU6EFB GU7DHI IGB7DXK G1NTW G3IBI G3NSM G3XAQ G4CUS i GAXQY G7GAN i GB7DXM G1EUC G3GAF G3LAS G4ZTR G8WXU I 1 MOBCT MLEMF I I I ppp 3 You will notice that EISTCR is showing only that it has 7 users and not giving the actual callsigns This means that this node is on a limited protocol of some kind probably because of a contest situation where slow radio links can block up and fail if too much information is sent between nodes The second example would just show the nodes connected in the network like this I sh c n Node Callsigns 1 IGB7BAA GB7BAA GB7BPQ GB7CDX GB7DJK GB7DXA I I GB7DXC GB7DXE GB7DXG GB7DXK GB7DXL L GB7DXM GB7DXS GB7IPT GB7MRS GB7UJS I GB7YDX KL7G N2TLY ON0DXK I IGB7BIG EI5TCR GB7ADX GB7BIG GB7UDX 1 1GB7MBC I I I kemam m m m em mamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamasmi Version 1 0 Page 13 DxSpider User Manual IPA4AB 14 PA4AB 14 IPT4TUF 8 PI4TUE 8 I INode Callsigns l PI4TUE 8 9A1CMA 6 DF6PW DL4FAY DL4K2. 1 1 set home gb7mbc Version 1 0 Page 6 DxSpider User Manual 3 Getting and posting DX When all is said and done this is the main function of a DX cluster In its simplest form you can just connect to the node and you will start to receive DX spots almost immediately You can check on recent postings in either a general manner or on a particular band or mode You can even check DX by callsign or a fragment of a callsign Of course once you get the hang of things it is expected that you start posting some yourself After all there would be no clusters if people did not post DX and you get the added thrill of the hunt Receiving DX As we have already said it is possible just to connect to the cluster and you will receive spots automatically However you may wish to check on spots just posted Maybe you wish to see if a particular band is open or if a certain callsign is active perhaps a DXpedition The command to do this is SHOW DX Without any other arguments this command will output the last 10 spots posted It is possible to look at more than this for example the last 20 or 50 spots by adding the number to the command You can make it even more specific by adding a band in either wavelength or frequency and or any additional information such as QSL details Examples Ishow dx show dx 5 show dx 20 will show the last 10 5 and 20 spots received by the cluster respectively Examples 1 show dx
3. ie not your own callsign The remarks section allows you to add information like the operators name or perhaps a location Actually DXSpider will allow the frequency and callsign fields to be entered in any order Example I ldx 14004 pa3ezl OP Aurelio 599 Idx pa3ezl 14004 OP Aurelio 599 dx pa3ezl 14 004 OP Aurelio 599 1 I This posting or callout as it is known will be forwarded to all other connected stations both at the cluster you are connected to and other active clusters in the network The callout will also be sent to you as proof of receipt Version 1 0 Page 9 DxSpider User Manual 4 Headings and propagation There are three commands in DXSpider to help you get the best DX possible These are SHOW SUN SHOW MOON and SHOW HEADING These commands will only work for you if you have entered your personal details They use your entered location as a reference so if you have not entered it or have entered it incorrectly they will not return the correct information Sun The SHOW SUN command can be used in three different ways It can be used to show sunrise and sunset times for your own station a particular callsign or a prefix Example sh sun Location Rise Set 1GOVGS Morecambe Lancashire 07 08Z 17 392 Ish sun 5b4 ILocation Rise Set 158 Cyprus 5B 04 232 15 40Z sh sun gw4veq 5b4ab zs Location Rise Set Version 1 0 DxSpider User Manual IGWAVEQ Brungwran Isle of Anglesey IO
4. 07 14Z 17 482 204 9 24 9 15B Cyprus 5B 04 23Z 15 402 244 5 18 3 I IZS So Africa ZS1 ZS 04 31Z 17 282 289 9 41 3 I IZS So Africa ZS5 ZS 03 44Z 16 342 278 5 32 0 l 128 So Africa ZS6 ZS 03 597 16 422 277 6 35 0 ee ee 55555 XXX Xxx xx x eee RR I Moon The SHOW MOON command works in the same way as the SHOW SUN command This program however calculates the rise and set times of the moon for a prefix or callsign together with the current azimuth and elevation of the sun at these locations Example 1 1 1 sh moon ea I 1 1 1 pLocation Rise Set Azim Elev RGain dB IEA Spain EA 08 15Z 20 092 257 2 975 20 06 I Laos a Z L _ You can see that the output is similar to the SHOW SUN command with slightly different fields Heading The SHOW HEADING command works in the same way as the SHOW SUN and SHOW MOON commands but outputs beam headings for a specified callsign or prefix Reciprocal beam headings are also calculated Example sh heading zl 2L New Zealand ZL1 ZL 7 degs dist 11238 mi 18087 km Reciprocal heading 355 degs 12L New Zealand ZL2 ZL 9 degs dist 11540 mi 18574 km Reciprocal heading 353 degs IZL New Zealand ZL3 ZL 19 degs dist 11634 mi 18724 km Reciprocal heading 345 degs IZL New Zealand ZL4 ZL 34 degs dist 11783 mi 18963 km Reciprocal heading 332 degs Version 1 0 Page 11 DxSpider User Manual 5 Announcements Making announcements Occasionally you may wish to
5. A eirinen anaE aa EE EEE eE aAa eea naa E SS 15 Malin 16 The directory COMM Md emision qusayuq ass 16 Reading u su n r S SDS SSS s a S S a EA 17 Sending mail u uuu uu 17 Replying to mall ay CO E AN 18 Deleting Mail IO Dm NM 18 Filtering From Version 1825 u u tote e ote e te n e Reprise rueda 19 General terri 19 Types Ort EET TUDIN LINER 20 Version 1 0 Page 2 DxSpider User Manual A AN 22 Advanced filtering 2 ERO Re t een ad 22 A Piiteping Tutoria uy 22 10 Hints tips and common questions cccecssececsessececeeseeecseueeecseeeeecseaeeeceeaaeeecseueeeceesaeeeeseneeeceeea 23 Page 3 Version 1 0 DxSpider User Manual 1 Logins and logouts You might not think that there is a lot of point of including a section on how to log in and out of DXSpider However you would be surprised at the difficulties some people have in simply getting in and out of the cluster There are several ways a login might be achieved dependant on how the sysop has DXSpider configured It is impossible for me to cover all variations but here are the basic ones AX25 logins Simplicity itself The usual CONNECT command will log you straight into the cluster and you will not have to do anything else Obviously you will have to connect to the correct callsign Some nodes use an SSID with
6. on 0 30000 I racc spot 2 on 50000 1400000 and by zone 14 15 16 or call zone 14 15 16 I Note that the first filter has not been specified with a number This will automatically be assumed to be number 1 In this case we have said reject all HF spots in the CW section of the bands but accept all others at HF Also accept anything in VHF and above spotted in or by operators in the zones 14 15 and 16 Each filter slot actually has a reJect slot and an accept slot The reject slot is executed BEFORE the accept slot It was mentioned earlier that after a reject test that doesn t match the default for following tests is accept the reverse is true for accept In the example what happens is that the reject is executed first any non hf cw spot is passed to the accept line which lets through everything else on HF The next filter line lets through just VHF UHF spots from EU A Filtering Tutorial There is now an excellent primer tutorial on filtering written by Jim Samuels W3BG with an introduction by Dave Hawes N3RD that I strongly suggest you read You can read it here The DXSpider User Filtering Primer Version 1 0 Page 22 DxSpider User Manual 10 Hints tips and common questions Q These commands seem very long Can I shorten them 10 course you can and the usual abbreviations work If you are Unsure try it IDo not be afraid to try a command to see if it will work at the worst you will get an error mes
7. post something that does not fall into the normal parameters for a DX callout You may wish to tell everybody connected that 10 FM is open for example or ask if anyone knows the QSL manager for a certain callsign etc You can do this using the ANNOUNCE command Example That would let everyone know locally that this was the case however it would not be forwarded to other nodes connected To send announcements to other connected nodes as well you would use the FULL extension Example Be cautious in your use of announce full There are many other tools available to get the information you require and the judicious use of this command is frowned upon as it creates a great deal of traffic across the network Listing announcements You can list previous announcements in the standard format with the SHOW command As before you can list just the last 5 or as many as you wish Example I I I show announcements 1 show announcements 10 I I Version 1 0 Page 12 DxSpider User Manual 6 Nodes and users You can check which nodes are connected in the network who is logged on locally who is logged on at all the nodes or even just one node in particular This is handy if you wish to see whether a friend is connected at the node they use To see who is connected to the nodes the SHOW CONFIGURATION command is used Ishow configuration show configuration nodes ishow configuration node call Ishow configuration prefix
8. the time you are logged in Mail is not only sent to callsigns though Mail can also be sent to subjects like all or local or dx etc You can treat these bulletins in the same way as personal mail with the directory command Examples 1 directory new directory own Idirectory own 10 Idirectory all I idirectory from call I The last option will only show mail from a callsign if it was sent to you personally or was sent as a bulletin There are some additional commands and these can be found in the DXSpider Command Reference section Version 1 0 Page 16 DxSpider User Manual Reading mail The output of the DIRECTORY command could be something like this lair 120735 2 ALL GW7SMV 21 Feb 1204Z REC 9E1S QSL TDY 50Mhz I 120823 308 U GOHDB 22 Feb 23342 Help which district code I 120824 105 ALL W9AE 23 Feb 0349Z SONY QSL address I 120825 2 UK GOLRJ 23 Feb 0806Z QSL REC LZ2CJ 1 CARD NO 750 I 120858 2 ALL GW7SMV 24 Feb 0905Z REC S92DX QSL CARD TDY 50Mhz 1 120921 200 ALL GMAFDM 27 Feb 2203Z Trip to VP8 1 120949 375 ALL KOMN 27 Feb 0428Z STOP cards are gd ARRL 1 120950 2 U GOLRJ 28 Feb 08352 QSL REC SV9 IZOCKJ P EU 187 I 120987 569 ALL GDOTEP 1 Mar 17332 Portable contests I 121076 2 ALL G4AFJ 3 Mar 17432 kh6nd kh5 qsl received i 21184 p 599 GW4HAT GOVGS 4 Mar 1518Z Re Time 1 1 The first column is the actual message number If the message is a personal one to you you will see a letter
9. their call so you would have to add that Examples connect GB7MBC connect GB7MBC 1 Netrom logins There are several possibilities here dependant on how the sysop has configured his system If you are connecting via netrom then you are most probably connecting from another station Listing the nodes in that station with the NODES command will tell you what callsign or netrom alias to connect to Then just issue the connect command from there It is possible that the netrom alias may connect you to a node with an alias for the cluster such as DXC Just type this and you will be connected Example Version 1 0 Page 4 DxSpider User Manual Telnet logins With telnet connections the source callsign is not seen by DXSpider so you will be asked to login with your callsign To telnet to DXSpider you would connect to a specific port There is no standard at the moment for a cluster telnet port but ask the sysop if you are unsure Example All the above are possible ways of connecting to a DXSpider cluster You may have some or all of these available to you There may be one or two additional ways to connect dependant on the network local to you However I am sure you get the idea Logouts Logging out can be done by simply issuing the standard BYE command You could also send a disconnect if you are using AX25 or a CLOSE command if you are connected via telnet If you do not log out gracefully using one of the above co
10. AK DL4WE 2 i F5NOD 2 F5PAC IZOCSR N6CR OH2BLD i 1 ONLLVL 13 ON4CBT ON4CJP ONSDXL 14 ON7NQ i I PAORCT PA3DYS PA3FDO PASKW 4 PIATUE 9 I I YT1XX I I I I I As you can see only the users of the requested node are shown You can also use a prefix to show only a group of nodes For example you may only wish to see who is connected to the nodes in the UK To do this simply use a prefix like this Example qr gm Er ER EE EE RE NER MIR MIR MIR MR MR MR IR IR MIR MR OR MIR IR IR ER MIR u kutu MIR MIR OR FER TER NO hos I I Ishow users I I Callsigns connected to GB7MBC 1 1GOJHC GONEI GOVGS GOVGS 2 GOYLM I IG3JAG G30WO G3UEU I ee a a a a ee a er ee re ee E Version 1 0 Page 14 DxSpider User Manual 7 Talk mode You can send a single comment or start a dedicated talk session to another user by using the TALK command Talk mode is used to send a one line comment or greeting to a specific user connected either at your node or another in the network You can also enter into a dedicated talk session with another user Talks will be automatically forwarded to other nodes if the station you are talking to is not connected locally You can find out who is connected by using the SHOW CONFIGURATION command described earlier Examples This example would send the line Having a good day lain to the user gOrdi but would leave you in normal mode 1 1 Italk gOrdi 1 lEntering Talkmode
11. DxSpider User Manual DXSpider User Manual Version 1 0 Description Who Date Created from the DXSpider documentation wiki lan Marsh MOUAT 16 December 2011 Formatting and creation of a contents page with minor corrections lan Marsh MOUAT 16 December 2011 The latest release of the DXSpider program can be downloaded fromhttp www dxcluster org Version 1 0 Page 1 DxSpider User Manual Table of Contents 1 LOBINS and logOUts y u eer e ice re as 4 AX25 loginis tese A ed ecc toot Dee det id loa eeu de 4 Netrom log Sinai io Ro DERE ce EORR SCR RE E RR RUNDEN aspas 4 u hrabrtee m S 5 Kerle cfe n 5 Setting your personal details a 6 Getting and posting DX nidore a diese e dete Ert oett te reos ea sedegeet od cerae dee kupaskuqsk 7 Receiving DX p 7 edv 9 Headings and Dropagati fiua uuu ede esent da E EEEE 10 Me cadets 10 IMIG ON T M di 11 Heading nn a R u S SS S RENI etie ie LEE 11 ANNOUNCEMENTS pe 12 Making announcements a da aaa 12 Listing announcements issii aaa Ta a AE canada eere ta cados 12 Nodes INS Sora A A E E masana RS 13
12. EX to end cmd to run a command I Talk GORDI gt I As you can see you can still run commands whilst in talk mode Simply prefix the command with a like sh dx and you will get the expected output If the user is connected to another node you may have to use a slightly extended version of the TALK command To exit talk mode you issue the command ex Whilst in talk mode you will still receive DX spots This means that you can chat to a friend whilst working DX Version 1 0 Page 15 DxSpider User Manual 8 Mail You can send and receive both personal mail and bulletins with DXSpider quite easily The directory command To list mail you would use the DIRECTORY command On its own this command will output the last ten messages received by the node either to or from yourself or bulletins such as DX and ALL As with other commands you can display more by specifying a number with the command You should be aware that Spider will accept these commands by separating with either a slash or a space so dir new and dir new work in the same way Example Idirectory Idirectory 20 directory 20 Of course most of the time you will only want to list new mail sent to you personally since your last login However you might also like to check for general mail received by the node In fact if there is new mail for you the cluster will tell you when you login You will also be informed if new mail arrives for you during
13. ccept filter which can have up to 10 lines in it You do this using for example prc a i cc m 1 1 laccept spots 1 Ireject spots I 1 s s mus s us momo m x ORO aaa es mr a OO w x x mm mmm x momo mom momo mom momo mcos l where are the specific commands for that type of filter There are filters for spots wwv announce wcy and for sysops connects See each different accept or reject command reference for more details There is also a command to clear out one or more lines in a filter They are clear spots 1 clear spots all There is clear xxxx command for each type of filter and you can check that your filters have worked by the command Version 1 0 Page 19 DxSpider User Manual For now we are going to use spots for the examples but you can apply the same principles to all types of filter Types of filter There are two main types of filter accept or reject You can use either to achieve the result you want dependent on your own preference and which is more simple to do It is pointless writing 8 lines of reject filters when accept filter would do the same thing Each filter has 10 lines of any length which are tried in order If a line matches then the action you have specified is taken ie reject means ignore it and accept means take it If you specify reject filters then any lines that arrive that match the filter will be dumped but all else wi
14. ll be accepted If you use an accept filter then ONLY the lines in the filter will be accepted and all else will be dumped For example if you have a single line accept filter then you will ONLY get VHF spots from or to CQ zones 14 15 and 16 If you set a reject filter like this Then you will get everything EXCEPT HF CW spots You could make this single filter even more flexible For example if you are interested in IOTA and will work it even on CW even though normally you are not interested in CW then you could say which achieves exactly the same thing You should choose one or the other until you are comfortable with the way it works You can mix them if you wish actually you can have an Version 1 0 Page 20 DxSpider User Manual accept AND a reject on the same line but don t attempt this until you are sure you know what you are doing You can arrange your filter lines into logical units either for your own understanding or simply convenience Here is an example reject spots 1 on hf cw reject spots 2 on 50000 1400000 not by zone 14 15 16 or call zone 14 15 16 What this does is to ignore all HF CW spots and also rejects any spots on VHF which don t either originate or spot someone in Europe This is an example where you would use a line number 1 and 2 in this case if you leave the digit out the system assumes 1 Digits 0 9 are available This make it easier to see just what filters you have
15. mmands you may find you are unable to get a full connect next time This may also happen if a netrom connection drops You may get connected but nothing else will happen because the program thinks you are still connected and will not let you connect twice under the same call However you could reconnect by adding a number to the end of your call for example GOYLM 2 This can be done by either altering your MYCALL setting in the TNC or by altering your program configuration Version 1 0 Page 5 DxSpider User Manual 2 Setting your personal details Once logged in to the cluster you should set your details so that anybody who wishes to contact you can find out who and where you are There are four items to set your name qth location and home node Setting these details also allows the use of the SHOW HEADING and SHOW SUN commands from within the cluster Unless you set your QTH and location these commands cannot function Once you have set your name DXSpider will greet you with it next time you login Your QTH setting is where you live and it is a good idea to add your locator to this as the location setting is converted to latitude and longitude once inputted You can actually set your location in latitude longitude or as a locator Setting your home node will tell the program where you wish mail to be sent to you Examples 1 set name Ian Iset qth Morecambe Lancashire IO84NB I Iset location 48 34 n 12 12 e I set qra IO84NB
16. o send the message or use abort at any time to abort it You can now display the message in the normal way There are several send options and these are listed in the Command Set section These include sending mail to several recipients and asking for a return receipt Replying to mail If mail is addressed to you or to a bulletin address you can use the REPLY command to reply to 1t Using this command the subject will be automatically set for you as Re subject whatever the subject was I I To delete a message you use the delete command You can only delete I messages sent to or received by yourself Bulletins are dealt with automatically or by the sysop I Version 1 0 Page 18 DxSpider User Manual 9 Filtering From version 1 45 General filter rules Upto v1 44 it was not possible for the user to set their own filters From v1 45 though that has all changed It is now possible to set filters for just about anything you wish If you have just updated from an older version of DXSpider you will need to update your new filters You do not need to do anything with your old filters they will be renamed as you update There are 3 basic commands involved in setting and manipulating filters These are accept reject and clear First we will look generally at filtering There are a number of things you can filter in the DXSpider system They all use the same general mechanism In general terms you can create a reject or an a
17. on 20m I Ishow dx 10 on 20m I Ishow dx 20 on 20m I I I I will show the last 5 10 or 20 spots on 20 metres only It is also possible to check for certain callsigns or fragments of callsigns in the same way Examples I I I show dx gOvgs I show dx 10 g0vgs I Version 1 0 Page 7 DxSpider User Manual would show the last 5 or 10 dx spots containing the callsign gOvgs You can check for DX by offset and also by specifying a comment to search for Examples l I I show dx 30 40 Ishow dx 14000 14033 I Ishow dx iota l I would show the spots that arrived between 30 and 40 spots ago and any spots with the word iota in the comment field The case of the comment is not important Checking DX posted on a certain day is possible too All you have to do here is to specify how many days ago it was like this Example It is of course possible to specify multiple arguments Example This would show the last 20 spots posted by or about calls with the prefix 9a on vhf 30 days ago As you can see the SHOW DX command is very flexible so if you are not sure whether something will work or not try it and see More information can be found in the Command Set section Version 1 0 Page 8 DxSpider User Manual Posting DX To post DX you use the DX command The syntax is shown below Example Where frequency is in kilohertz and the callsign is the callsign of the station you have worked or heard
18. p after this number If the message has been read there will be a between the message number and the p This only works for personal messages The next column shows the file size of the message The third column shows the address the message was sent to and the next column shows who sent it The rest is fairly self explanatory Reading a message is as simple as typing read followed by the message number that you wish to read will read message number 25 However the mail will be displayed in it s entirety unless you specify a page length You can set your page length to any number you like and when the message reaches that number of lines you will get a prompt giving you options Example Sending mail Sending mail is done in the time honoured way First you specify a recipient for the message then you will be prompted for a subject Once you have done this you will be asked to type your Version 1 0 Page 17 DxSpider User Manual message Please remember that there is no automatic word wrap so unless you are using a client that wraps lines automatically remember to hit return at the end of each line Example send m0azm Enter Subject 30 characters See you Thursday Enter Message EX to send or ABORT to exit IHi Ian IJust a quick note to say that I can make Thursday after all The lappointment I had has cancelled so we are go Cheers lan At this point you can either hit return and enter ex t
19. sage If you require any help on a command just type help followed by the command you want help on Look at the DXSpider Command Reference section to see what help can be found With respect Use the command by all means but please only use the jy full extension if absolutely necessary It can create a LOT of messages passing between clusters Q I ike to be working in the shack while logged into the cluster but I can t be looking at the screen all the time How can I be alerted when anything happens lUse the SET BEEP command You can find information on this in the DXSpider Command Reference section IProbably the cluster thinks you are still logged on and will not let lyou reconnect using the same call to prevent loops Try logging on lagain adding an ssid to your callsign as DXSpider treats GOYLM and 60YLM 1 as different users IThe latest and greatest will always be on the Website IL will also lbe included with every release of DXSpider As always if unsure ask I your sysop what version number is the latest I Version 1 0 Page 23
20. set It also makes it more simple to remove individual filters during a contest for example You will notice in the above example that the second line has brackets Look at the line logically You can see there are 2 separate sections to it We are saying reject spots that are VHF or above APART from those in zones 14 15 and 16 either spotted there or originated there If you did not have the brackets to separate the 2 sections then Spider would read it logically from the front and see a different expression entirely on 50000 1400000 and by zone 14 15 16 or call zone 14 15 16 The simple way to remember this is if you use OR use brackets Whilst we are here CASE is not important And BY Zone is just the same as and by zone As mentioned earlier setting several filters can be more flexible than simply setting one complex one Doing it in this way means that if you want to alter your filter you can just redefine or remove one or more lines of it or one line For example Version 1 0 Page 21 DxSpider User Manual Filter options You can filter in several different ways The options are listed in the various helpfiles for accept reject and filter Advanced filtering Once you are happy with the results you get you may like to experiment The previous example that filters hf cw spots and accepts vhf uhf spots from EU can be written with a mixed filter for example rej spot on hf cw 1 jacc spot
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