[Dxspider-support] Login on DxSpider

[Dirk Koopman]

On Fri, 2006-12-29 at 18:49 +1300, Eddie Olson wrote:
> I have a user from VK with a 4 letter call.
> As he has 4 letters in his call he cant log into DxSpider.
> Is there a way around this ?
> 
> This is a legitimate call ...check VK5FUEL on qrz.com

This is a fairly long standing request. There are, however, a number of
reasons why it is as it is. They include:

      * DX Cluster calls have traditionally been limited to 6 characters
        + ssid. This is because of limitations in the AX25 header;
        VK5FUEL could not connect, on packet, with that callsign. 
      * It is unknown what the consequences would be for other software,
        but at least two use databases and there may well be issues with
        field sizes that need to be taken into account. 
      * There is a check on what is consider a "valid" callsign.
        Currently this is a relatively simple regular expression. Adding
        an extra character would not, of itself, make it a huge
        difference, but some of the other "variations" on a standard
        callsign that have appeared (for specials as much as anything) -
        would.  

Having said all that, given the OK from AR-C and DXNet, I would be happy
to change it as, these days, by far the majority of people connect to
nodes via non (amateur) radio means.

Dirk G1TLH