[SFDXA] Excellent Description of DX Clusters and Usage
Bill
bmarx at bellsouth.net
Sat Apr 21 15:47:47 EDT 2018
BTW early days of DXing were One Ringers in the SFDXA. If you got one
you went to the repeater to find out what and where. I got them at 3:00
in the morning often. Before repeaters you would meet up some where on
20 and find out from local DX friends. It was ground wave but it worked!
Bill W2CQ
On 4/21/2018 3:42 PM, Bill wrote:
> *Introduction and Brief History to DX Clusters*
> I often get questions about the use of DX cluster connections. There’s
> a lot of misinformation out there. The purpose of this newsletter is
> to explain a bit more about DX clusters. This will help you get the
> best out of your DXing. Understanding how DX clusters work will
> enable you to get the best out of the DX aspects of amateur radio.
> The purpose of a DX cluster is to alert interested hams (DXers) that
> there’s a DX station on-the-air.
> Before there were DX cluster nodes available, hams alerted each other
> by using a technique called “the two-ringer.” When this was used, a
> ham would call his buddy and hang up on the second ring. This alerted
> the buddy that there was DX on-the-air. But what? And where? A few
> hams in the area would begin to gather on a local VHF repeater or
> simplex frequency and this is where the information was provided.
> “Hey guys, I just worked King Hussein, JY1, on 14.175 MHz!”
> I’m pausing for a moment to point something out. That is – this
> information has now been shared with how many hams? Three? Five?
> Maybe ten? Top end, fifteen? I’ll get back to this point about
> coverage area later in this newsletter. It’s an important point.
> Eventually, software was created that allowed hams to connect over a
> VHF frequency (if I remember correctly, it was something like 144.95
> MHz; if not, I’m close). The connection was a telnet connection.
> Now, the number of connected stations began to increase. Now, several
> dozen hams in a local area could connect and share DX information.
> The “two-ringer” was gone.
> Soon, the software was capable of connecting to other (peer) nodes
> over the Internet. At first, some hams resisted this. “The Internet
> is not ham radio.” (Neither was the telephone connection used for the
> “two-ringer.) But now, spots were propagated between DX cluster
> nodes. Information was now shared between hundreds of hams.
> Once broadband Internet service became widely available, it was no
> longer necessary to use VHF for the connections. Now, hams could
> connect over a telnet connection over the Internet. Now, information
> could be shared between thousands of hams. This is accomplished when
> DX cluster “nodes” are connected together as “peers” across the Internet.
> DX Cluster node software developed into the three most popular types –
> AR Cluster was the early favorite. Later came DX Spider and CC
> Cluster. While each type had some minor differences, standards
> developed that enabled spots to be propagated between them. For
> connected hams, there’s not a great deal of difference in the node
> software itself. Other considerations are more important.
> *Coverage Area*
> Through all of this, one thing is clear. That is – the more hams that
> are sharing DX information, the better.
> Someone recently said, “When I submit a spot, I don’t see it on my
> favorite Internet site. Why?”
> This ham received a response that said, “Your spots are only displayed
> on the node you’re connected to.”
> In most cases, this is not true. In fact, if it were true, then it
> would defeat the purpose of all the advancements I referenced in the
> introduction about expanding the coverage area of the DX cluster
> system. Right?
> Still, there are a couple valid reasons why a spot sent on a given DX
> cluster node would not be seen on systems on the Internet. One – the
> system could be filtering spots such that they were prevented from
> propagating outbound. Likewise, an Internet system that displays
> spots could be filtering spots inbound. And two – the DX cluster node
> that the spots are being sent from are not connected to any peer nodes.
> The latter is an important point to consider. That is – if you’re
> connecting to a DX cluster node that is not connected to any other
> cluster nodes, then it’s no different than the original VHF cluster
> systems that only propagated spots to local connected stations. It’s
> only slightly better than “the two-ringer.”
> I hear hams say, “I connect to my buddy’s DX cluster node.” Okay,
> wonderful. How many peer nodes is he connected to? How many users
> connect locally? How many are connected across the system? Is his DX
> cluster node running on a server that employs high-availability
> methods to make sure that it’s always available?
> Does it matter? Absolutely! If you’re connecting to a DX cluster
> node that is not connect to other peer nodes, then you won’t receive
> spots from outside that node and no one will see the spots you’re
> sending.
> Coverage area of the DX cluster system you connect to is the PRIMARY
> concern. The secondary concern is availability.
> Some hams tell me, “I have no idea what DX cluster to connect to. So,
> I randomly connect to various clusters to see what spots other
> clusters have to offer.”
> Okay. This is only necessary if either (a) you’re connecting to
> clusters that are not connected to many peer nodes or (b) you have no
> idea how all this works.
> Let me save you some time and effort.
> *Selection*
> So far, we’ve identified two important things to consider when looking
> for a DX cluster node to connect to – peer node connections and node
> availability. I would go so far as to say that the first item is
> “significant peer nodes.” That is – there’s less benefit to
> connecting to 24 peer nodes that have five users in New England and
> being connected to 24 peer nodes from around the world that had
> several thousands of connected users. After all, this is
> “crowd-sourcing.” We need to maximize the crowd.
> In order find a “well-connected” cluster, there’s a website that you
> may want to consider. Go to http://www.hamcluster.net
> <http://links.hrdsoftwarellc.com/wf/click?upn=UFL8zxvF9LL8R-2FM-2BX9ojPXa8lO6HgpsoVtIxXqD7sS99-2BsLeP7MxBKDF3V7G1UzK_iHTyBLDFgYMbY2cKnIhC7mtkylVEN6ygwk5GFMEl-2BeULz7xtRfIbXfTnzhBHQOh5RekLqxsGtgP0y04zMKfKtzssSZ24nvvHitnMmltu6u-2FCxtG-2BwwSCJ8r6xlRlf55XGK1RLwfRvTo5YlxRyJNNH0pOn3va1K3ulTJdwBOG470ZEW4xZIqs0rJof-2BN1ewdrTWm-2BGRt8PCLDP4KuO4ZOcWhvmeDaiZVXDFUgrDdNpAXIDeeyqiRs4DVcC5nyZxqaGGCw735qk98SbcmbxMwdnRuZrE8Cd2UITGhvsCbP7FCToSV0bSaO0NwrjFP5AaHzvHZk0vqQODYEtE-2Fach5ZIQf9nn59ELJ1fFpgwHcI60JsrXtbPN9qmd80nPArMe92hIpmKLUtUBix4OVIceMQ-2FW9U9jrghnQNFTvLPaWmJPMqO-2FwieZ67-2FR5rUIXuTUlk>and
> you’ll see a map of the world. Most of the time, it begins in Italy.
> Drag the map to your area of the world. Find a cluster node that’s
> near you or looks familiar. Click it (once). What does it say? How
> many “links” (peer nodes) does it have? How long has it been up
> without failure?
> I’m not writing this newsletter to promote my DX cluster, but it’s
> been up without downtime for 513 days. According to hamcluster.net,
> my node has 16 links (peer nodes). I’m not sure why, but
> hamcluster.net has a top-end figure of 16 for DX Spider nodes. So
> let’s see how many peers that WA9PIE-2 really has. We can do that by
> typing “show/uptime” at a console prompt on a DX Spider node. For my
> node, you’ll see this:
> This data was collected on a Thursday. It’s not the busiest day for
> DX connections. There are 286 hams connected directly to WA9PIE-2 and
> 3,263 hams connected to the extended network. Instead of the 16 nodes
> shown by hamcluster.net, there are actually 24 nodes connected. These
> nodes are connected from around the world. In fact, these are the
> highest volume DX cluster nodes in their respective areas of the
> world. And because WA9PIE-2 doesn’t filter spots inbound or outbound,
> all spots available to propagate worldwide flow through WA9PIE-2.
> Another thing that’s useful is to type “show/users” at the command
> prompt. You’ll see the callsigns for all the connected hams. There’s
> really not enough space to show you the results here, but there are
> 286 hams connected now. On a busy weekend, there are over 1,000 hams
> connected directly and 10,000 hams connected worldwide. Try typing
> “show/config” at a console prompt, you’ll get a big list of all nodes
> and users connected. [In Ham Radio Deluxe Logbook, getting to the
> “Console” is a matter of dropping down the “Show” dropdown and
> switching from “Spots” to “Console”. Don’t forget to switch back.]
> If you try this on your node and you don’t see lots of users and peer
> nodes, you need to leave that node and find another one. Your buddy’s
> node serves no one if there’s no one else connecting.
> Yes, WA9PIE-2 is a high-volume global spotting network. It’s not
> necessary to use Ham Radio Deluxe in order to connect to it. Anyone
> who can setup a telnet connection to dxc.wa9pie.net on port 8000 can
> connect with whatever software they use. WA9PIE-2 is in a Google data
> center in the central United States. Hams from all around the world
> connect to it and share DX information. Because WA9PIE-2 doesn’t
> filter spots, its’ a “globally local node”. In other words, two hams
> in Europe connected to WA9PIE-2 are able to immediately see the same
> spots that two hams in the Pacific Northwest would see.
> It’s worth pointing out that the VE7CC-1 cluster node is also very
> popular. Lee lives east of Vancouver, BC and he’s the author of
> CC-Cluster and the popular CC-User software. VE7CC-1 and WA9PIE-2 are
> directly connected and share spots unfiltered.
> *Setting Up Your Connection*
> Once you have selected a DX cluster node that has a broad coverage
> area and high availability, there are a few things you should consider.
> The first thing you should consider is filtering spots that get
> delivered to you. Many times hams have asked me, “Is there some way
> that Ham Radio Deluxe will filter spots coming to me from outside my
> area?” My answer is always, “Why would you want your computer to do
> all that work when you can prevent the spots from being sent to your
> PC in the first place?” That is – let the cluster node do that work
> for you, rather than asking your PC to do it.
> There’s little benefit in seeing a DX spot from Spain in the middle of
> the afternoon in Chicago telling you that a station from Mount Athos
> is on 160m. You won’t hear it. As such, you should filter it from
> being sent to you. There are a number of ways to do this. But the
> easiest way is to send the following command to your cluster node –
> "accept/spots by_zone 3,4,5". If you live in the United States, you
> will only see spots from CQ zones 3, 4, and 5. (This is the way I do
> it myself.) You can find DX cluster filtering guides on the internet.
> Within Ham Radio Deluxe, make use of the “WSI filter” (Worked Status
> Indicator). This filter will hide all the DX spots that you don’t
> need and leave only the DX spots remaining that help build your DXCC
> mixed, mode, band, or challenge totals.
> *Summary*
> It’s not necessary to bounce around between DX cluster nodes to “see
> if there are better spots elsewhere.” There’s no value in connecting
> to “your buddy’s DX cluster” (or your own) if that node isn’t globally
> relevant. Pick a DX cluster node that is a “global spotting network”
> and has high-availability.
> Pick a DX cluster node that doesn’t filter spots inbound or outbound.
> But do filter the spots in your cluster connection so that you won’t
> see irrelevant spots.
> This is “global crowd-sourcing” at it’s finest. In fact, hams were
> early pioneers of crowd-sourcing. Find a crowd. Don’t just be a
> consumer of spots. Send some too!
> As always, feel free to share this with your friends. I will also
> post this on our blog - along with all other newsletters - at
> https://www.Ham-Radio-Deluxe.com/blog
> Thank you es 73 de Mike, WA9PIE
> ______________________________________________________________
> South Florida DX Assoc. "SINCE 1974"
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