I am brand new to Ham Alert. I put the Ham Alert code on my QRZ profile page at W5WWW - Callsign Lookup by QRZ Ham Radio . But for reasons unknown, it always says I’m Off-the-air even though I have had many QSO’S lately. It has never displayed a single QSO of mine, even though I’ve had many. Why is that? Is there a setting I’m not aware of? Many thanks. Ron/W5WWW w5www@yahoo.com
HamAlert does not know whether you make QSOs
It reacts on spots from various sources (DX cluster, RBN, PSK Reporter etc.). If you’re not spotted anywhere, then the “MySpot” image will show that you’re offline. If you run machine-decodable modes like FT8 or CW, then you’re usually spotted automatically when you call CQ. For SSB, this is obviously not possible.
Also note that by default, the MySpot image only takes spots from the last hour into account. To increase that, follow the instructions given on https://hamalert.org/account.
Mni tnx for the quick response, I appreciate it. I only run CW, nothing else. I worked another station this weekend who also has Ham Alert on his QRZ profile. The Ham Alert on his profile was very accurate as it showed the exact frequency of our CW QSO only minutes earlier. But when I went to the Ham Alert on my profile, it showed Off-the-air. That’s why I’m so confused.
Then most likely the RBN spotted his callsign, which it sometimes does even when one is not calling CQ, but just sending it in another context (XXX de YYY). Or perhaps the other station called CQ before your QSO.
If you call CQ in CW yourself, the RBN should pick it up and your MySpot image should show your frequency. If not, then check on reversebeacon.net whether the RBN actually spotted you.
Again, many thanks for your quick response, I really appreciate it. I never call CQ, so maybe that has something to do with it. I didn’t know that I had to call CQ for Ham Alert to work. I simply respond to other hams calling CQ. Thanks for your time and efforts!