I’m struggling to get the system to work and am probably missing something simple!!
Here’s an example:
A trigger for an Australian station being spotted on the Cluster on 20M SSB in Europe.
Prefix: VK
Band: 20m
Mode: SSB
Source: Cluster
Continent: Europe
Destination is my iPhone and Notifications are on.
There are real examples of this appearing on the Cluster currently, but they are not generating any notifications. Also a simulation doesn’t work.
Any help appreciated.
73
David- G0PBS
Hello David,
Have a look:
Also, the way you describe it, you will probably want a “Spotter continent = Europe” condition, not a regular Continent condition (which applies to the spotted station rather than the spotter).
73,
Manuel
Hi Manuel,
I appreciate your support.
I made the changes you suggested and had limited success.
The following trigger worked and successfully alerted me to VK stations on the 20M band:
Band: HF
Mode: SSB
Source: Cluster
DXCC: 150 - Australia
Spotter Continent: Europe
However, I also set up this trigger to alert me to tropo openings on the 6M band, which didn’t work today during a significant opening:
Band: 6m
Mode: SSB
Source: Cluster
DXCC: 223- England
Spotter Continent - Europe
I tried the same trigger replacing England with France (in case it didn’t like me using my own DXCC entity) but neither worked, despite there being several English and French stations audible on the band and listed on the cluster.
Please can you advise me why the first HF trigger worked but the 6m specific trigger didn’t work?
Many thanks
David - G0PBS
Could you please post an example/screenshot of a spot that should have triggered an alert but didn’t? Then I can check what’s wrong.
– Manuel
Hi Manuel,
Here’s some examples of 6m phone contacts on the cluster earlier. Excuse the GI, that one is Northern Ireland and wouldn’t cause a trigger.
thanks
David
The problem here is that cluster spots don’t include mode information, so HamAlert has to guess based on the frequency and spot comments. Spots between 50.000 and 50.100 are considered to be CW, while 50.200 and up are considered to be SSB. The range from 50.100 to 50.200 is considered to be unknown, unless there is some comment in the spot, e.g. “FT8”.
I’m not a 6m operator, so perhaps you have suggestions on changes to this logic based on actual practice on the bands. The band plans that I found were not entirely consistent.
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks Manuel. I didn’t realise the cluster data set doesn’t include Mode! As a mainly SSB operator, I wanted to avoid alerts for FT8 (there will be too many and it doesn’t necessarily indicate the band is open for voice.). In terms of band plan, it’s not easy! CW would be 50.000 to 50.100. Then SSB DX activity is mostly between 50.100 and 50.500. However, data sits in the middle of this range at 50.313 and 50.323. So I would assume anything between 50.100 and 50.300 and then 50.325 and 50.500 is SSB (and likewise 50.300 to 50.325 is digital). Would you be able to accommodate that subtlety? If not, I will have to accept ‘all modes’ along with the multitude of “false alerts” that would likely generate.
Many thanks - David - G0PBS
Thanks for the explanation – done! Hope it improves 6m spot matching.
73, Manuel
Thanks Manuel, I appreciate your support!
73
David
