[Dxspider-support] Number of characters for the Comment field

[Dirk Koopman]

Fabio

I think you mean that when a spot appears on your screen, it only shows 
(the first) 30 characters. In fact there is no theoretical limit on the 
length of the comment field when actually sending that spot, as in:

dx g1tlh 14.150 this is a long comment of more than 30 characters just 
to make a point

Only the first 30 characters will be displayed. There is a problem with 
changing the format of the spots, for example:

DX de RK3AWX:    28451.0  R3AA         CQ CQ CQ DX CQ DX             1246Z

Basically this format is fixed in stone because other software tries to 
parse (decode) each spot and absolutely relies on each field starting at 
the same position on the screen. Node software that uses this method 
(called a "passive" connection) does this to handle the fact that the 
original inter-node protocol could not cope with loops.

Also, despite all the problems this causes, many user client programs 
*also* rely on decoding the spot in this very machine unfriendly format. 
There is an alternative, just for spots, that was invented by Lee for 
his CC Cluster suite of programs that I implement and some client 
software now uses. This format allows the full comment (and other 
information) to be seen.

I am working on a completely different way of connecting for both user 
programs and node software, which I shall be publishing the 
specification of in the next few months.

But the truth is that the telnet interface won't change. It is a useful 
"ultimate backup", that means that is possible to use a node on any 
networked computer, just by using what comes with the operating system.

Dirk G1TLH

On 08/01/15 12:14, IZ8MBW Fabio wrote:
> Hi.
> I have noted that the "default" number of characters for the Comment
> field is 30 (I talk about when you connect via telnet to a Cluster Node).
> But looking into .DAT files of the Spots (...data/spots/2015/xxx.dat)
> there are Spots that have more then 30 characters....
> So it seem that limitation of 30 characters for the Comment field is
> only during a telnet access because it seem that Spots with more then 30
> characters for the Comment field exist as "message" for the Cluster system.
> I wrong?
> Is it possible to increase the number of characters for the Comment
> field during a telnet connection to a Cluster Node so it will be
> possible to see also Comment with more than 30 characters ?
> Thanks!
> 73
> Fabio, IZ8MBW
> www.iz8mbw.net
>
>
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