[Ham-Mac] QCluster is no longer in beta. Full release issued.

[Keith, G6NHU]

I have just removed the beta tag from QCluster so it’s now officially released.

The web site now includes a very simple startup guide, from installing to setting up your first alerts.

https://qso365.co.uk/qcluster

https://groups.io/q/qcluster

Latest release notes:

0.71b (110) - 2026-08-12

• Improved network connection drop detection by using an intelligent keepalive ping after five minutes of no traffic.

-----

0.71b (116) - 2026-08-13

• Further work to autoreconnect code, including sleep detection.  QCluster detects when your Mac goes to sleep, it disconnects cleanly from the DX cluster and reconnects when it wakes up. It should never just hang in an unknown state.
• Because QCluster works best with an unfiltered stream from the DX cluster, it now checks for the presence of any filters upon first connection and offers to remove them.

Some more details regarding the second item.

When QCluster initially connects after starting, it checks for the presence of filters on the DX cluster node.
If there aren’t any, nothing happens. If filters are present, they’re shown and QCluster offers the option to clear them.
If this is declined, that choice is respected for the remainder of the session. If “No and don’t ask again” is selected, it is respected for as long as that filtered state persists.
QCluster will still check silently on future starts. If it later finds that the filters have been removed, perhaps by other software, the suppression is automatically reset. If filters are subsequently added again, QCluster will offer to clear them again.
Filters are not checked on the backup connection.

-----

0.80b (120) - 2026-08-14

• Tweaks to mode filtering. In a rare edge case, RTTY wasn't being recognised as RTTY.
• Added mode filter and RBN interlocks.  For example, if you have the hide FTx filter enabled, you can't enable the FTx RBN feed.  It does still allow hiding modes that are enabled via RBN because this is useful sometimes for quick looks.
• QCluster is now notarised.  No need to jump through all the Security & Privacy hoops.


-----

0.90b (123) - 2026-08-15

• Removed interlock code.  What seemed like a good idea was too restrictive in practise.


——

0.90b (125) - 2026-08-16

• SEEME spots are now handled correctly and displayed.
• Manually logging off via cluster commands no longer triggers auto-reconnect.

-----

1.0 (126) - 2026-08-17

• Updated cty_wt.dat
• Updated lotw-user-activity.csv
• QCluster is no longer beta, version number bumped to 1.0