Being disconnected from a given cluster (regardless of connection type)
is a common-place occurrence with DX4WIN. The reason is, it has no built
in auto-reconnect routine. Plain and simple. I have asked the authors
for this feature in a series of emails and the last answer suggested
they would look at what was required to implement the feature. End of
story.
On certain clusters where the traffic loads are high, you will be
dropped during periods of inactivity. This is especially true if the
cluster servers a large number of rf connections in addition to
telnet-based connections. The polling process rate to deliver spots
under an rf connection is such that under normal conditions -- not to
mention during a contest weekend, you can have a huge backlog of spots
waiting to be delivered -- sometimes the cluster simply times out on
certain connections. That having been said, the incidence of higher
bandwidth (i.e. cable modem or ADSL) telnet-based connections assures
the user they will never miss a spot -- even on a contest weekend where
the spot rate per hour on many clusters can reach over 1000 spots per
hour. But even with higher bandwidth, certain clusters will still drop
your connection during periods of inactivity. Given our current band
conditions, I observe a much slower rate of spots today than say one
year ago when for instance 10m was wide open. So being dropped by a
cluster when the spot rate slows is a fact of life. It's the cluster'
way of managing its data flow to ensure it can serve all users equally.
As cluster hosting software improves (witness the latest incarnation of
AR Cluster for instance) the spot delivery process and clusters ability
to serve all users more efficiently also improves.
So what's the answer to the disconnect question? As registered users of
the program you could voice your desire for an auto-reconnect routine
with the program authors. You could -- as one person has suggested, look
at the VE7CC program which is fabulous in terms of how it manages and
dissects spot data to keep your connection alive and port data from it
to DX4WIN. If you're a registered DXTelnet user, you can also use a
similar porting routine to send spots from it to DX4WIN. There is great
documentation available for setting up the program. No matter how you
look at the challenge, we do have some options in terms of staying
connected.
73 de Paul, VE7AVV
StoneyGround Station
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