[Dxspider-support] Compatibility of calls etc

[Lee Sawkins]

Hi Dirk et al

I hope the following is useful.  This is what I found works for CC Cluster software in regards to call signs.  I have had no complaints about what I am doing. 

I allow almost any legal call sign to connect to my cluster and send dx spots.   This sometimes leads to very long call signs.  ie HB0/S50STAYHOME/P.  If this call was used for a skimmer it could be HB0/S50STAYHOME/P-11-#.  While this is rather extreme, I believe it is possible.

Sometimes users of my cluster connect several times with the same call.  At one time I would not allow this.  Now I try my best to accommodate it.  If G0AAA connects twice, I will change his second connection to the call G0AAA-0.  If he connects again, the third call becomes G0AAA-00.  If he connects as G0AAA-1, the second instance of his call will be treated as G0AAA-01.  The third time he tries I will disconnect one of his previous connections, and then connect him.  Calls I will accept include no SSID, -0, -00, etc all the way to -99.  No more than two numbers, but including leading zeros.  I have done this for quite some time.  No complaints from anywhere.  Many times users have more than one computer and want to connect them all.  Sometimes multi multi contest stations want to make different connections for each operating position.  This can lead to 6 or more connections from one location, as long as they can be accommodated with different calls.  Maximum of 10 calls per IP address.

When calls used are longer than normal, special handling is required for dx spots other than CC11 spots, which have delimited fields.  One thing that should not change is where the time is placed.  Usually the time is the last field in the spot.  Some users want grid squares, zone, cty and this can be after the time.  Fields after the spotter call need to be pushed to the right for long calls.  If necessary, I will remove all the spaces between the colon following the call and the frequency before pushing it to the right.  Sometimes this requires dropping of data in the comment field to prevent increasing the spot length.  This is the only field that can be truncated.  I modify skimmer comment fields to shorten them and allow grid squares etc to be inserted.

There are compatibility problems between AR Cluster and the RBN.  This does not happen with my software.  The RBN increases the length of its spots to accommodate long spotter calls.  Calls like 3V/KF5EYY-# and BG4GOV-3-# will cause the spots to be dropped by AR Cluster as they are too long.  No one can change the AR Cluster software.  To get around this BG4GOV changes his call to BG4GOV3-#.  AR Cluster accepts this.  When my software sees this call, it changes the call back to BG4GOV-3-#.

I save each user's information in one file.  One file per user, not per SSID.  Each SSID can have different filtering.  This allows users to easily change SSID for different filtering for specific contests etc.  At VE7CC-1 cluster I have 147,000+ of these user files

Lee VE7CC