Spot 1.9.6 Released on 15 November.
This release fixes two bugs: the first bug involved the formatting of frequencies of spots causing some programs using Spot's server function to not recognize the spot. The frequency sent to programs using Spot as a server no longer have formatted frequencies. Second bug was the inappropriate warning that an update was in progress via Spot's update mechanism. This initial check has been disabled and a newer version of the update mechanism will be implemented in the next release.
K3NC Review in Oct., 2008 CQ Magazine
Read Neal's review of the fantastic Flex-Radio Systems Flex-5000a transceiver in the October 2007 CQ Magazine or download a pdf version from the Flex-Radio website (click here).
Neal Campbell, K3NC, Receives Software Excellence Award.
On May 17, 2008 at the FlexRadio Banquet and Forum held at the Dayton Hamvention, a Flexi Award was presented to Neal Campbell, K3NC, in honor of providing services and solutions to all Flex Radio operators. Flex-Radio stated that Flexi award were given to people who recognized an opportunity to unselfishly give of themselves a knowledge or skill that advanced the cause of software defined radio and benefited the FlexRadio community as a whole. You can read more about the Flexi awards on the FlexRadio web page at this URL: http://www.flex-radio.com/Users.aspx?topic=flexies.
virtuallY
A virtual Y cable, for Windows platforms, makes connecting amateur radio programs to each other possible. Go to download page for version 1. If you are a PowerSDR user, use K5FR's DDUtil program.
Program options available in Preference window
Screen Details
We are continuing to explore the preference window, this time exploring the program options you can setl.
Starting at the top left, you can see a check box that will enable Spot's server function. This allows up to 10 programs to connect to Spot which emulates a DXCluster. Any spots, announrcements, etc. received by Spot will be sent to the programs connected to it and likewise any text you send from those programs will be forwarded to the cluster. This means you do not have to have several connections to DXClusters just because you have programs that use the spot announcements. Once you have changed these band settings, click on the Update Cluster button to activate the filter in your cluster session.
For programs wanting to utilize this feature, the DXCluster address they should use is 127.0.0.1 (or the word localhost). You need to specify whatever port number you place in the port field of the preference pace.
Below the server settings is a group of check boxes that will set band filters on the DXCluster. These are REJECT only filters, so any band you check here will not have DX spots sent to you. I do not have the capability to operate on 60m, 6m, 2m, 1m, 70cm or any of the microwave bands so they are checked. They are also checked by default so if you are a fan of these bands, be sure to change your preferences!
There are some buttons below that will help you check the relevant bands automaically (WARC, etc.).
Spot allows you to change the font and font size if you wish. This is retained from session to session so once you have it like you want it, it should be there everytime you run Spot.If you get things all crazy (selecting Dingbats for instance), you can always go back to the original settings with the Default button.
Next are a series of checkboxes that affect the way that Spot behaves.
The first checkbox will allow Spot to automatically connect to the cluster you were last connected to.
The second checkbox will attempt to re-connect to the DXCluster if, for some reason, the session gets terminated. I would recommend having this checked. I stay connected for days to my DXCluster with this feature.
If you have memorized the DXCC prefix list and do not want to see the country name inserted in the comments field of the spot display, you can uncheck the next box. It is turned on by default (since I cannot remember country names!)
The next two check boxes affect how Spot handles the Botton-of-band dx spot announcements. If you check the Include BoB in Announcements box, Spot looks for BoB dx spots and will treat them (also) as announcements.
If you would prefer that BoB spots are only treated as announcements (and do not appear in the spots display) click on the Delete BoB spots.
