[Dxspider-support] Incorrect User details

[Michael Carper]

DX Spider doesn't do a "callsign lookup" when it sends out spots.  For my
friends outside the US, this topic requires a bit of detail.

In the US, there are 10 call areas.  Many many years ago, the governing
body here in the US (the FCC) forced people to change their callsign when
they moved to another call area.  But this became an administrative problem
for the FCC as the volume of people relocating in this country increased.

SO... here's the current significance of the NUMBER in a US ham's callsign.
- the number is assigned from the call area that the person lived when they
were issued their first license
- if they move to another call area, they are not required to change their
call.

A nice map of this is at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_licensing_in_the_United_States

SO... what this means for DX Spider...

The "COUNTRY" field in the CC11 string for DX Spider is composed of a "US
State" followed by the "Country Prefix".  So in this example, we know that
W9TVX is in the United States... so the prefix "K" makes sense.  But here
is what I've figured out about why it shows as "Illinois".

The US Call areas and associated States are as follows:
US Call Area 1 - CT,MA,ME,NH,RI,VT
US Call Area 2 - NJ,NY
US Call Area 3 - DC,DE,MD,PA
US Call Area 4 - AL,FL,GA,KY,NC,SC,TN,VA
US Call Area 5 - AR,LA,MS,NM,OK,TX
US Call Area 6 - CA
US Call Area 7 - AZ,ID,MT,NV,OR,UT,WA,WY
US Call Area 8 - MI,OH,WV
US Call Area 9 - IL,IN,WI
US Call Area 10 - CO,IA,KS,MN,MO,ND,NE,SD

Because clusters do not do a callsign lookup when sending a spot to
connected users, the cluster has no idea which US State the spotted station
or spotting station are in.

So... what DX Spider does is use the FIRST US State in alphabetical order
for a given callarea and sends the full name of the state.

For example...

W9TVX... it's got a "9" in it... the first US State (alphabetically) in the
list of States in call area 9 is "IL"... and that's "Illinois"... so let's
send that one!  That's why you get ^Illinois-K^, even though he's in
California.

If you spotted me (WA9PIE), you would also get ^Illinois-K^, even though I
live in Texas now.

In reality, the only States that ever get used are the first ones
alphabetically - Connecticut, New Jersey, District-of-Columbia,
Alabama, Arkansas, California, Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, and Colorado.
Regardless of where the station is actually located, DX Spider looks at the
number in the call and grabs from these.

Most of the time, the US State in this field will be incorrect.  Within Ham
Radio Deluxe, we offer the display of a field that strips off the US State
(because people complained about it being wrong).

The only fix for this is to re-code DX Spider so that the Country field no
longer has the US State in it.  However...

If you look at spots for other countries, you'll see that it also populates
"Secondary Administrative Districts" for other countries too... in Canada,
you'll see Provinces and Territories that are incorrect for the same
reasons.

But anyway... a long-winded answer.  But very complete.

Bottom line is - the inclusion of this information into the Country field
is an "estimation" and is not related to any valid callsign lookup
information.

Mike, WA9PIE

On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 3:29 AM, Ian Maude <maudeij at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> I have a user who is not being shown correctly in the cluster.  He
> sent me the output from a test spot he sent..
>
> CC11^14262.0^W9TVX^
>
> 5-Apr-2015^2332Z^TEST^W9TVX^226^226^GB7MBC^8^4^8^4^CA^CA^Illinois-K^Illinois-K^CM87^CM87
>
> W9TVX is in Mountain View CA and sh/usdb puts him in the right place.
> This is happening for him even with a direct telnet to the cluster so
> it would appear to not be a logging program issue.  Any thoughts would
> be appreciated.
>
> 73 Ian
>
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