CARTO basemap showing “API KEY REQUIRED” watermark

[AF1E]

I’m running OpenHamClock v26.5.0 on a Raspberry Pi.

Beginning around August 26–27, 2026, the Dark basemap started displaying repeated:

“API KEY REQUIRED — carto.com/basemaps/apikey”

across the map.

The rest of OpenHamClock appears to be working normally. Switching the basemap from Dark to Dark (Esri) removes the message, so this appears to be related specifically to the CARTO basemap tile service.

It looks like CARTO may now require an API key for requests to:

• basemaps.cartocdn.com/dark_all/...
• basemaps.cartocdn.com/rastertiles/voyager/...

The current OpenHamClock source appears to use those URLs for the Dark and Streets map styles.

System:

• OpenHamClock v26.5.0
• Raspberry Pi
• Problem observed August 27, 2026
• Dark (Esri) works normally as a workaround

I’m attaching a screenshot showing the watermark.

Is there a plan to replace the CARTO tile URLs or add support for a CARTO API key?

Thanks for all the work on OpenHamClock.

[accius]

Good catch and a clean report, the Dark (Esri) workaround was exactly the right instinct. CARTO started watermarking keyless raster tiles this week (it hit Home Assistant and others at the same time), and their raster service is headed for retirement entirely, so rather than chase an API key we've moved off it.

Fix is on Staging as d306afd and ships with the next release:

• Dark now defaults to Esri World Dark Gray Base (what you knew as Dark (Esri), which is why your workaround looked right)
• Streets now defaults to Esri World Street Map
• The now-redundant Dark (Esri) and Political entries are folded in, saved configs migrate automatically

If you prefer the original CARTO look, they hand out free keys (5M tiles/month) at carto.com/basemaps/apikey, and after this update you can run this in the browser console (F12) and reload:

localStorage.setItem('ohc_carto_apikey', 'YOUR_KEY')

Dark and Streets switch back to CARTO with localized labels when a key is present.

Until the release lands on your Pi, Dark (Esri) remains the workaround. Leaving this open until it ships.

73, K0CJH

[accius]

v26.6.0 is out with the fix — Dark and Streets now default to Esri tiles, and your saved settings migrate automatically on first load. If you ever want the CARTO look back, there's now a key field in Settings → Integrations. The hosted site picks this up within the hour; self-hosted installs get it with a normal update. Thanks again for the same-day report with the exact right diagnosis.

73, K0CJH

[AF1E]

Thanks for your support and a great product. BTW today I set up OpenHamClock to show QSOs from my logger Log4OM which supports sending an N1MM UDP packet and it is working perfectly. There is limited documentation of the support for N1MM UDP messages in the documentation. Log4OM just added the N1MM message to its send option. Now when I log in Log4OM the spot can be shown in OpenHamClock. Let me know if I can help with the documentation. Again thanks. Joe AF1E

…

On Thu, Aug 27, 2026 at 4:43 PM accius ***@***.***> wrote: *accius* left a comment (accius/openhamclock#1162) <#1162 (comment)> v26.6.0 is out with the fix — Dark and Streets now default to Esri tiles, and your saved settings migrate automatically on first load. If you ever want the CARTO look back, there's now a key field in Settings → Integrations. The hosted site picks this up within the hour; self-hosted installs get it with a normal update. Thanks again for the same-day report with the exact right diagnosis. 73, K0CJH — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1162?email_source=notifications&email_token=ABDZIR6KOFOSFDJGY277CB35MCMQPA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTKNBUGQ4TSMJXGIZ2M4TFMFZW63VGMF2XI2DPOKSWK5TFNZ2KYZTPN52GK4S7MNWGSY3L#issuecomment-5444991723>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABDZIR2XSCSLFKFFOAM4B3D5MCMQPAVCNFSNUABGKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHMYTCNBVGY3TKNBUGY5US43TOVSTWNJSGY3TMMZTG4YDNILWAI> . Triage notifications, keep track of coding agent tasks and review pull requests on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/ios/ABDZIR6FW74ZGTL2FF6O5QT5MCMQPA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTKNBUGQ4TSMJXGIZ2M4TFMFZW63VGMF2XI2DPOKSWK5TFNZ2KUZTPN52GK4S7NFXXG> and Android <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/android/ABDZIR2U2NJNELTM5JFWZXD5MCMQPA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTKNBUGQ4TSMJXGIZ2M4TFMFZW63VGMF2XI2DPOKSWK5TFNZ2K4ZTPN52GK4S7MFXGI4TPNFSA>. Download it today! You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>