Cluster spot : Emission Type determination

[NN7D]

Seems that hams should add the mode when spotting.

That would be nice, but most spots with mode defined in notes are from Skimmers.
Skimmers always add the mode to the note field.

That said I am surprised that when Log4om makes a spot it defaults to my grid > his grid and not just inserting CW, PHONE, etc. I always delete the grid info and type my comment.

I take it you are referring to when you send a spot report using Log4OM.
In as much as Log4OM can determine the mode the radio is on from CAT control (CW, SSB, AM, RTTY, etc - CAT has no idea about FT8, FT4, etc.) the mode is included in the spot notes - see example below - where mode is CW.

SpotSend.PNG (3.43 KiB) Viewed 3537 times

Doug - W7DRM

[KD0ZV]

Doug, I totally missed the CW on the front of the grid square. I was busy deleting the grid and never caught that!

So that is awesome.

Rich

PS: I am blaming my mistake on my 2560x1440 resolution. Or Terry... I usually blame Terry.

[KA4CDN]

Juergen,

I understand with how you described the operation of marking spots with spot mode and emission. However, I still haven't seen the explanation as to why, in my posted example, BH1VCS, marked as Spot Mode FT8, has Emission PHONE. Why is that? I think it has something to do with the fact that the spot came in over the SuperCluster but I am not sure.

Thanks,
Mike

[KA4CDN]

CV2 2.4.0.0 is still spotting stations as Emission Type Phone even if Spot comments clear is saying FT8. I don't understand this. It seems that a spotter is telling us mode is digital, the emission should match that above all else. [having said that, I don't know what you would do if you get conflicting spot reports.]

Great s/w Log4OM!
Mike

Log4OM: 2.4.0.0
Manual: Updated: 06/03/2020 1:54 PM
OS: WIn7 64bit
CAT: OmniRig
Rig: FTdx3000

[G4POP]

CV2 2.4.0.0 is still spotting stations as Emission Type Phone even if Spot comments clear is saying FT8. I don't understand this. It seems that a spotter is telling us mode is digital, the emission should match that above all else. [having said that, I don't know what you would do if you get conflicting spot reports.]

Great s/w Log4OM!
Mike

Log4OM: 2.4.0.0
Manual: Updated: 06/03/2020 1:54 PM
OS: WIn7 64bit
CAT: OmniRig
Rig: FTdx3000

You need to realise that the incoming spot does NOT contain the mode

The mode is derived inLog4om from the bandplan and there are only three, phone, cw and digital

Many users became confused because this new FT8 mode uses part of the dedicated phone area of the bands, not the delegated digital area! Blame Joe Taylor for that!

Users being users dictated that we show spots which were FT8 as FT8 not digital

So how the heckcould we do that? To some degree we were able to make areas like 7.074 of the bandplan FT8 areas but then of course the phone guys bleated!

Next idea was to read by parsing any message in the notes field of a spot that had FT8 in it, so this is what we do - Partly read a modified bandplan and add any occurrence of FT8 to provide an indication called spot mode.

However it still remains in the phone part of the band so emission type for that frequency is Phone.

If you have a better idea then let us know but really it's a problem caused solely by the advent of FT8

[KA4CDN]

Terry,

I understand all you have written here.

I guess my "better idea" is given that the station has been spotted as FT8 and in the Cluster (F8) grid it is marked Spot Mode = FT8, the Emission Type should be Digital overriding the band plan.

Am I missing something or is there any reason not to do it that way?

Band plans are after all just guidelines to some degree. I can operated CW in "phone". RTTY in "cw", etc.

73,
Mike

Log4OM: 2.4.0.0
User Manual: Updated: 06/03/2020 1:54 PM
OS: Win7 64bit