« Spothole Help

Connecting from your Logging Software

As well as a web interface and an HTTP API, this Spothole server has its own DX cluster node. You can connect to it from a traditional desktop logging program, or any other software that supports telnet DX clusters, and receive spots in the normal way.

To connect, set up your logger with the server address spothole.app and port 7300, and log in with your own callsign. You can also connect from a terminal with telnet spothole.app 7300.

The node runs DXSpider, so all the usual DXSpider commands are available, for example to set up filters or look up past spots. Type help once you are logged in to find out more.

What you will see

The spots you receive depend on how this server has been set up, and on your own settings.

DX cluster spots

The node is part of the worldwide DX cluster network, so you will receive the same spots as you would from any other cluster node.

Spots added via Spothole

When someone adds a spot using Spothole's "Add" page, or a client that uses Spothole's API, they can choose to send it to the cluster. These spots are posted to this node under the spotter's own callsign, and shared with the rest of the DX cluster network. You will see them in the same way as any other cluster spot.

Spots from Spothole's other sources

This server can also send you the spots Spothole receives from its other sources, such as POTA, SOTA and WWFF. These are turned off by default, so that you only see normal DX cluster spots unless you ask for more. To turn them on, log in and type:

set/xota

To turn them off again, type:

unset/xota

This setting is remembered next time you log in. While it is turned on, you will see spots from most of Spothole's other sources alongside the normal cluster spots. The comment will include the mode, activity and reference where known, for example:

DX de G4XYZ:     14285.0  M0TRT/P      SSB POTA GB-0001 tnx 73         1234Z

Please note:

  • These spots are only sent to users of this node. They aren't shared with the rest of the DX cluster network, so you won't see them on any other node. (This isn't the server owner being selfish and wanting more users for their node. Other node sysops would be absolutely against a Spothole instance dumping all POTA, SOTA etc. spots into the global cluster network, so please don't ask for this to be changed!)
  • Because of this, these spots aren't stored in the node's spot database, so they won't show up if you use show/dx to look up past spots.
  • The time shown is the time the spot reached the cluster node, which may be a minute or two after the original spot.
  • Your filters and set/dx / unset/dx settings apply to these spots as normal.

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