[Dxspider-support] HamClock show/heading update

[Dirk Koopman]

Keith

Old age is creeping up (at least I think it's just "creeping"), I 
remembered something about this after I posted. Thank for your efforts 
in sorting this (and other annoyances) out with HamClock. It's much 
appreciated.

For the absence of any doubt. As standard, anyone can connect up to 
three (different) dxspider nodes in a cluster with the same callsign. On 
the fourth+ connection, again as standard, that callsign will be 
disconnected with an error message.

The (default) limit of three simultaneous connections to different nodes 
was arrived at many years ago through experiment and debate. In those 
days, there was still some justification for multiple connections as the 
internet was slower and (in places) a bit unreliable. Those days are 
long gone and that is no longer the case. As far as I am concerned all 
multiple connections achieve is an increase the duplicate traffic 
flowing from nodes (which client programs don't always deduplicate 
properly). No one has demonstrated any advantage to having more than one 
connection in terms of speed of arrival of spots - which I presume is 
the point of having more. Two connections provide resilience in 
connection to the wider cluster (useful in contests) but not much else.

The kicker is that all major nodes already have have many 
interconnections to other nodes. They manage this diversity so that a 
client user - does - not - need - to - roll their own "solution". If a 
user thinks that they can get a better result by doing something 
themselves then I would a) like them to try one the major nodes in the 
UK, Spain, Germany and other European countries first and then b) if 
they can _demonstrate_ an advantage of more than a second connecting to 
another node, then communicate with your local node and ask *them* to 
connect to that node rather than doing it yourself. This will then help 
everyone.

My 2p worth...

Dirk G1TLH

On 17/01/2024 13:52, du3tw via Dxspider-support wrote:
> Well done Keith
>
> Such a refreshing change from toxic and un-constructive posts with 
> sadly abound these days …
>
>
>
>> On 17 Jan 2024, at 21:49, Keith Maton via Dxspider-support 
>> <dxspider-support at tobit.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Dirk,
>>
>> No, nothing wrong with it, it works perfectly but if you read back 
>> through some messages to this reflector, there have been complaints 
>> about HamClock sending a show/heading after every spot so it can use 
>> the response to plot the spotted callsign on a map. This change stops 
>> that and the calculation is done locally on the HamClock.
>>
>> Now HamClock will be very quiet, will only issue a handful of 
>> commands on connect and that’s about it.
>>
>> 73 Keith
>>
>>
>>> On 17 Jan 2024, at 11:52, Dirk Koopman via Dxspider-support 
>>> <dxspider-support at tobit.co.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>> Is there something wrong with the show/heading command?
>>>
>>> On 17/01/2024 08:24, Keith Maton via Dxspider-support wrote:
>>>> As previously mentioned, I’ve been in regular contact with the 
>>>> author of HamClock and following feedback, I am beta testing a 
>>>> version of HamClock which no longer uses the show/heading command 
>>>> for locating stations and plotting them on the map.  It now does 
>>>> all the calculations locally.
>>>>
>>>> When a HamClock initially connects to a node, it sends the following:
>>>>
>>>> 1705478550^(DXCommand) *G6NHU-10*connected from 192.168.1.137 cols 80
>>>> 1705478550^(progress) CMD: 'set/qra JO01ou' by *G6NHU-10*ip: 
>>>> 192.168.1.137 1mS
>>>> 1705478550^(progress) CMD: 'set/location 51 50 N 1 13 E' by 
>>>> *G6NHU-10*ip: 192.168.1.137 1mS
>>>> 1705478550^(progress) CMD: 'unset/here ' by *G6NHU-10*ip: 
>>>> 192.168.1.137 0mS
>>>>
>>>> And that’s it.  The only other interaction it will have with the 
>>>> node is that if there is no traffic passed in a ten minute period, 
>>>> it does this:
>>>>
>>>> 1705466270^(progress) CMD: '*ping*' by G6NHU-10 ip: 192.168.1.137 0mS
>>>>
>>>> Once this has gone through testing and rolls out, it will rely on 
>>>> the HamClock owners to update their software.  Elwood feels that 
>>>> the half-life for HamClock updates is a couple of months so it will 
>>>> take a while for the changes to pickle through but we should start 
>>>> seeing a decrease in show/heading commands straight away and that 
>>>> decrease will continue as more people update.
>>>>
>>>> Hopefully this will satisfy everyone.
>>>>
>>>> 73 Keith G6NHU
>>>>
>>>>
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