[Dxspider-support] Self spotting - More

Robert Chalmas rchalmas at users.ch
Mon Nov 8 19:14:54 GMT 2004 

Michael J. Tubby B.Sc (Hons) G8TIC wrote:

> Hmmm... whats's the big deal mwith self spotting then?
>  
> Okay, in some contests its against the rules - in which case report the 
> person (with evidence) to the contest adjudicator.
>  
> At other times, like working meter scatter, self spotting is VERY USEFUL 
> in letting people know who's where.

Your're 100% right: self-spotting may be very useful in some
circonstances. But this does not mean that it has to be done
by misusing the DX command !

The DX command was designed to share DX information with other
operators, not to tell the whole world that you are QRV.
Using the DX command for this purpose means that all users of the
cluster worldwide will receive your self-spot, and well over 90%
of them will not be able to do anything with it because:
- they are not QRV on VHF, or
- they are QRV on VHF but not on MS, or
- they are QRV on VHF and MS but located over the 2300 km limit of MS
   (just think about all W's and JA's) or too close to you for MS, or
- they are QRV on VHF and MS and at an appropriate distance but worked
   you already, or...or...or...

The final result is that maybe 20 people will appreciate your selfspot,
while 5000 others will be disturbed by it, and the dozens of other
self-spots received daily. This means a very poor efficiency.

Althought there were not a lot of alternatives to the DX command with
the old AK1A software, DXSpider offers the excellent CHAT function.
This makes possible to reach only people that share a common interest
without disturbing the others. Well, the problem may be that not all
users are aware of this command, but some will never try to use new
solutions as long as the old one is working sooooooo easily.

That's why I consider that we now have to stop self-announcemnets sent
with the DX commands and also to try doing some education among our users
(but education alone can't do wonders; similar discussions already
happened 10 years ago and you can see the result...) to let them know
about CHAT groups (just mention them on your logon message for example,
with a reference to a message giving more information about this topic).

DX'ers have a lot of opportunities to exchange information, so it should
not be so difficult to inform your fellow VHF DX'ers about existing CHAT
groups and the way to use them. Such information could also be published
on VHF oriented publications like DUBUS, on VHF oriented WEB sites, and
I'm sure that few people would still ignore CHAT groups in one year !

Self-spots have been blocked on my node for 1 year and a half now and
nobody complained about it. Most users appreciate to have a clean cluster
without loosing the ability to send the information they want; they just
have to use the right command for each purpose.

As the author of a Cluster client called RXCLUS, I also made the effort to
add a full support for CHAT information in the next version. Like DX or ANN,
CHAT spots from selected groups (up to 10 currently) will be able to be
saved to disk, displayed with special colors, and searched for in a local
database by group, logger or keyword. An alpha version of this software can
be downloaded from my WEB site: http://rchalmas.users.ch . Comments and
suggestions about that function are welcome.

So you see, althought I'm fighting self-spots sent with the DX command,
I try to encourage other way to send out similar information with a
better efficiency !

73's de                          Robert - HB9BZA, sysop of HB9IAC-8



> Darren... would you like me to fit one of my company's GPS based 
> tracking boxes to your car... I'm sure I could get it to report you 
> directly to the Police each time you went over the speed limit and 
> generate a "you silly git you need to drive slower or get a smaller 
> engine" message along with having you sent three points :o)
>  
> Mike 'tic
>  
> 
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     *From:* Darren G0TSM <mailto:spider at g0tsm.com>
>     *To:* The DXSpider Support list <mailto:dxspider-support at dxcluster.org>
>     *Sent:* Friday, November 05, 2004 8:21 PM
>     *Subject:* Re: [Dxspider-support] Self spotting - More
> 
> 
> 2) "Ground" incoming remote self-spots:
> 
> - Backup the file /spider/perl/DXProt.pm
> - Edit this file
> - Look for the line:
>    # bash down the list of bands until a valid one is reached
> - Just BEFORE this line, copy/paste the 4 lines below:
> 
>         if (($_[2]
> =~ $_[6]) || ($_[6] =~ $_[2])) {
>                 dbg("PC11:
> self: $_[6] attempted to spot $_[2]");
>                 return;
>         }
> 
> 
> 
>     Well done Robert, I can't see where to add the above 4 lines into
>     the DXProt.pm file for build 58.304
> 
> 
>     Darren
> 
> 
>     At 19:46 05/11/2004, you wrote:
> 
>>     Darren G0TSM wrote:
>>
>>>     Was there ever a conclusion to the self spotting saga?..
>>>     I wonder if self spotters could have their spot stopped and be
>>>     sent a message..
>>
>>
>>     That's exactly what I've been doing for over one year on my node
>>     HB9IAC-8 and the trick to do so that was posted on this list on
>>     May 7th, 2004 (it can be seen in the DXspider-support archive).
>>
>>     Both local and distant self-spots are stopped and local offenders
>>     receive an appropriate warning message.
>>
>>     This requires adding a few lines in 2 files in the source code:
>>     dx.pl (for local spots) and DXProt.pm (for distant spots).
>>     I did that for DXSpider 1.51 build 57.245 (a bit old now)
>>     but the same code should be applicable to other versions.
>>
>>     BUT it would be much better if Dirk would change one day his mind
>>     about this problem and allow us to set a variable at program start
>>     so that each sysop can choose if he (and his users) want this kind
>>     of information or not...
>>
>>     Greetings from Geneva,                  Robert - HB9BZA
>>
>>     -- 
>>     Robert CHALMAS, PO Box 1225, CH-1227 Carouge/GE, SWITZERLAND
>>        email:        rchalmas at users.ch    AX-25: HB9BZA @ HB9IAP
>>     homepage: http://rchalmas.users.ch <http://rchalmas.users.ch/>
>>
>>     _______________________________________________
>>     Dxspider-support mailing list
>>     Dxspider-support at dxcluster.org
>>     http://www.tobit.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/dxspider-support
> 
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-- 
Robert CHALMAS, PO Box 1225, CH-1227 Carouge/GE, SWITZERLAND
    email:        rchalmas at users.ch    AX-25: HB9BZA @ HB9IAP
homepage: http://rchalmas.users.ch

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