Is there an easy way to track bands and modes for a specific, currently active DX-expedition?
Right now I’m creating a trigger rule for the callsign and the mode, and then selecting which bands should trigger. As I work them, I manually remove bands from the trigger rule. This also means I need to create three separate rules for each station I want to track: CW, SSB, and Digital.
I’ve tried using only the callsign and the band slots, but that produces no hits at all (if I’ve already worked the country).
What I really want is to track all expeditions on all band/mode slots — not only the new, unworked ones.
Has anyone found a good way to do this, or am I missing something?
73 de Jonny, SM5TOG
I create an entry, per mode (CW, Phone, Digital) for the specific call, for the band/s I want to know about; limiting the spotter to ‘local’ (based on which direction too, east or west of me).
This has worked well, BUT you must update the triggers after each QSO.
Why exclude a spotter call? Because he is rent a rig so his spots could be from the wrong zone causing a false alarm.
Because it is call specific; repeat as needed but you could try adding other DXpedition calls in as well, which may/not match your band mode needs.
Yes, I may have several trigger sets when there are many teams in the field. That’s where cloning the triggers takes up less time; copy/clone, adjust the trigger, save, repeat.
Hi, and thanks for your reply.
I’m doing exactly as you describe, and it works, but it requires quite a lot of manual work. I was hoping there would be a simpler way, but I guess that would require having my entire log uploaded to HamAlert.
73 de Jonny, SM5TOG
Not sure if HamAlert is the only spotting program you are using. I use Ham Radio Deluxe and have the spotting portion of the program set for spots I want. I also have the spotting program set for giving me ATNO/band/mode for each spot, with spotter too, so I can see if spotted near me, and if I need them for particular band or mode. Other spotting programs should be able to be set up this way.
Thank you for your reply.
I’m actually doing exactly what you describe, but it becomes a bit cumbersome to set up three separate triggers—CW, SSB, and Data—and then manually edit them for every QSO I make.
A clear improvement would be if the trigger itself allowed you to directly select which band/modes should activate it. That way, you would only need one trigger per callsign you are chasing. For example, you could define in a table that on 80 m you need CW + SSB, and on 40 m you need CW + Data.
However, I can’t really judge how much development effort this would require from the owner
