What's the best OpenHamClock substitute for the old HamClock Live Spots function?

[jonnyborbs]

The number one thing I use my HamClock for today is this view: live spots on each band filtered by my DE grid. I love that it shows me at a glance which bands I am likely to have the best chance with, and that the spots are represented on the main map as well.

All of this information seems to be in OpenHamClock but kind of scattered around and not presented in a way that is as immediately useful. Has anyone else found a way to replicate this?

Insights are much appreciated!

[alanhargreaves]

Band Health shows colours for bands and modes based on spots to DX Cluster.

[jonnyborbs]

Thanks for the note! Agree, that's part way there but it's nowhere near the at-a-glance level of useful that the old widget was.

[accius]

there is a new view that shows band heat map and counts over top of it. should be in the propagation section of dockable. The panel is called band activity. give it a shot.

[jonnyborbs]

Oh, that's cool - hadn't seen this panel before. It's a start, I still really like the way that HCL represented the same information on a map (super easy to see where I could expect a given band to get me). Thanks for the note!

[navyitc]

The same functionality is available in the PSKReporter window. It is implemented a bit differently but you can view who has heard you and/or who you hear as a list. You can display those call on the map if desired.

1. In Settings>Display>Scroll to Layout - choose Dockable
2. Scroll to bottom and Save Settings
3. The resultant window is completely customizable. panes can be both moved and resized. Font size can be adjusted, per pane.
4. Pick a pane and click on the plus sign - the one to the right:

5. Click on PSK Reporter to add that view to the pane:

6. go back to the pane and adjust the features to your preferences. You can turn on/off map display, select what bands are monitored/filtered, etc...

So....having said all of that, I am having trouble with making the connection to PSK Reporter today so it is not working presently for me. about to close browser/restart and verify my openhamclock settings before I open an Issue. I hope this works for you and provides the data view you are seeking.

[navyitc]

A restart resolved the PSKReporter Connection! Play around with this and see if you can get a view that works for you.

73, WZ4K

[jonnyborbs]

Thanks for the thought! This isn't quite the same thing - the panel is scoped by stations hearing my call, or stations I am actively hearing as uploaded by a local app (WSJT-X in this case, or something that runs on the same port and shares the same data)

What I'm looking for is the crowd/community sourced PSK information, rolled up and summarized to help pick a band to operate. That often informs what antenna gear it makes sense to pack for a quick POTA, etc. It's all available out there if I look in several other tools, I just really would like it to be included in this "one stop dashboard" that has so much other information in it already.

[navyitc]

Go to the Issues Tab here
[https://github.com/accius/openhamclock/issues]
and request the features you desire. The Devs have been amazing implementing requests.

[navyitc]

Also, the VOACAP tiles feature views that do inform active bands and conditions. Some of that data is based upon what DX target you set.

[lbatalha]

Just a note, the PSKReporter panel by itself actually defaults to showing spots by your QTH gridsquare, so it already does what you seem to want in that regard. You can see it in the filters:

[jonnyborbs]

Oh, I don't think I knew this setting was there - it might help a lot. But yes, the visual overlay is incredibly useful; as much or more so than the numbers. The combination of the two is really powerful though. I'm totally here for testing and feedback. I just don't (as noted in my logged issue) have the cycles to learn the framework here to contribute myself; plus it sounds like you all have a keen focus on design w/r/t implementation of something like this. Thanks everyone for the attention here! With the formal death of the old HamClock Classic (the "new" open backends are unreliable at best) this is the one thing holding me back from fully switching.

[lbatalha]

I agree some sort of UI to show actual effective spot numbers would be pretty nice.

It will require some brainstorming the design on it, find a nice location to put it.

Making it just a map overlay doesnt seem like a terrible idea, since the panels are pretty crowded as is.

One particular implementation I've found is pretty cool is the Digital Spots Map in UberSDR, here is an example live server: https://ei4hq.tunnel.ubersdr.org/digitalspots_map.html

Its obviously more focused on the SDR station itself and only works if you let UberSDR decode digital modes for you, but this particular panel is pretty condensed and informative:

Something similar to that would work well as a map overlay, for displaying PSKReporter info, maybe?

Thoughts?

[accius]

it would make a nice dockable panel or secondary view for pskreporter on the default layout. I think you may have found a new project/feature to work on ;)

[jonnyborbs]

Looking at these numbers, they're useful but seem even above and beyond the basic view I'm seeking at first - no problem at all if you want to shoot for the moon with implementation but if you wanted to make smaller steps, I can see cutlines emerging here for sure

[jonnyborbs]

Thanks for the consideration on this everyone! I am at your disposal for testing and feedback.

[lbatalha]

Feature discussed and implemented via #1134