[SCCC] Skimmer Networks

[Bill Shell]

Hi Dave,

I have been comparing the outputs of VE7CC-1 and N6WS-2 using two 
instances of the CC-User Application side-by-side, and there is a 
difference in the outputs.  To get similar results between the two, I 
had to change back to the ± 100Hz QSY for repeating spots.

The repeating of the same DX station without a frequency change on 
VE7CC-1 seems to be 25-30 minutes, but I am not sure.  That is hard to 
estimate, because so many skimmer spots are off by a hundred Hertz, and 
that minor change looks like refresh of the spot.  I have N6WS-2 set to 
resend a DX spot after 10 minutes with no change in frequency, and the 
only reason I made that change was to keep my N1MM bandmap fresh.  My 
reasoning for doing that was just to get rid of incorrect spots that 
accumulate around an actual DX station on the bandmap.  When I had it 
set to the default 30 minutes, the bandmap would tend to accumulate a 
larger cluster of wrong calls and stations calling around the actual DX 
station.  Setting the spot timeout in N1MM to 10 minutes without the 
node refreshing spots every 10 minutes meant some valid spots would 
disappear prematurely.  (I hope that makes sense.  I have it straight in 
my mind, but I'm not sure it translated to my fingers properly.)

The filter tuning in CC-User for spot origin/countries/times/band etc. 
are really good features to simplify the filter selection during a 
contest.  I got into the habit many years ago of setting the function 
keys in the N1MM telnet window to the desired filters for a particular 
contest, and I have stuck with that method. Unfortunately, it requires 
me to remain proficient in the filter syntax used in DXSpider to program 
the keys.  Old habits are hard to break.  Using CC-User really 
simplifies the filtering, and they work well with DXSpider nodes.

Dave, if you do get a chance to look at N6WS-2, please let me know what 
you think.

73, Bill
N6WS


On 03/24/2014 07:28 PM, Dave Hachadorian wrote:
> I use VE7CC's CC-User program to connect to a telnet node that carries 
> CW/RCK skimmer spots, usually VE7CC-1.  CC-User has extensive 
> filtering commands for telnet nodes, especially CC-Cluster nodes,  and 
> feeds spots to N1MM Logger.  For CW, I usually set spotterstate=UT, 
> NV, CA.  For RTTY, I use all USA spotters, because the best RCK 
> Skimmers are on the east coast. For SSB human spots, I usually pick 
> W6, W7, W0, W5.  I use 10 minute timeout for CW, 15 minutes for RTTY, 
> and 20 minutes for ssb. CC-Cluster nodes can eliminate dupes, and do 
> quality checking.
>
> Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
> Yuma, AZ
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Bill Shell
> Sent: Monday, March 24, 2014 6:56 PM
> To: SCCC
> Subject: [SCCC] Skimmer Networks
>
> All SCCC'ers,
>
> I have been running DXSpider on a Raspberry Pi as a dedicated node to
> feed N1MM worldwide spots and either the RBN or RCK skimmer network for
> the particular contest I am playing in.  I have the N6WS-2 DXSpider node
> set to filter out dupes within +/-200 Hz, and not update the same
> callsign within that frequency range for 10 minutes.
>
> I was wondering how many SCCC members use RBN, RCK, or local skimmers to
> populate bandmaps.  If you do use the skimmer networks, what method do
> you use to filter out duplicates or to add source filters. During
> contests I typically set my source filters in the morning hours for
> zones 1-5, & 14, and in the afternoon shift to zones 1-5 & 25. I'm not
> sure that is optimum, but it works pretty good for me.  I set N1MM to
> timeout spots after 10 minutes which keeps the bandmap pretty current.
>
> My N6WS-2 DXSpider node is used occasionally during contests by some of
> the other local contesters, but I am usually the only user. N6WS-2 is
> accessible at n6ws.dyndns.org:7302, if anyone wants to see how it
> works.  If you would like to limit the spots to zones 1-5, you can use
> the command:
>
> reject/spot 1 not by_zone 1,2,3,4,5
>
> If anyone has any thoughts on improving this this method of populating a
> bandmap, I would appreciate any suggestions.
>
> TU es 73,
> Bill
> N6WS
>
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