SpotHub

The SpotHub dialog (Settings > SpotHub...) is the central hub for connecting to DX spot sources and configuring how spots are displayed on the panadapter.

Opening SpotHub

1. Open Settings > SpotHub....

The dialog remembers its size and position between sessions.

Source tabs

Cluster (tab)

The Cluster tab provides a telnet connection to a DX cluster.

1. In the Server: field, enter the hostname of the DX cluster.
2. In the Port: field, enter the telnet port (1-65535).
3. In the Callsign: field, enter your login callsign.
4. Click Connect to establish the telnet connection. The button label changes to Disconnect while connected.
5. Optionally, enable Auto-connect on startup to connect automatically on launch.

The Cluster Console shows raw telnet traffic. Type commands in the input field and click Send to send them to the cluster.

Click Spot Color: to open a color picker for cluster spots.

Click Startup Commands… to edit commands sent automatically after every login. One command per line — for example: - SET/NAME - SET/QTH - ACCEPT/SPOT

RBN (tab)

The RBN tab connects to the Reverse Beacon Network via telnet with rate limiting.

1. In the Server: field, enter the RBN telnet hostname.
2. In the Port: field, enter the telnet port.
3. In the Callsign: field, enter your login callsign.
4. In the Rate Limit: field, set the maximum spots per second.
5. Click Connect to establish the telnet connection.
6. Optionally, enable Auto-connect on startup to connect automatically on launch.

The RBN Console shows raw telnet traffic. Type commands in the input field and click Send to send them to the RBN server.

Click Spot Color: to open a color picker for RBN spots.

Click Startup Commands… to edit commands sent automatically after every login (independent from the Cluster tab commands). One command per line.

WSJT-X (tab)

The WSJT-X tab listens for UDP broadcasts from WSJT-X.

1. In the Address: field, enter the UDP bind address for WSJT-X messages.
2. In the Port: field, enter the UDP port.
3. Click Start to begin listening. The button label changes to Stop while listening.
4. Optionally, enable Auto-start on startup to start the listener automatically on launch.

Use the filter checkboxes to control which decodes appear: - CQ — Show only CQ calls. - CQ POTA — Show only CQ POTA calls. - Calling Me — Show only decodes addressed to your callsign.

Click a color swatch to open a color picker for each WSJT-X spot category (CQ color, POTA color, Calling Me color, Default color).

Set Spot Life: to control how many seconds WSJT-X spots remain on the panadapter.

SpotCollector (tab)

The SpotCollector tab listens for UDP broadcasts from Ham Radio Deluxe SpotCollector.

1. In the UDP Port: field, enter the port SpotCollector broadcasts on.
2. Click Start to begin listening. The button label changes to Stop while listening.
3. Optionally, enable Auto-start on startup to start the listener automatically on launch.

POTA (tab)

The POTA tab polls api.pota.app for current activations.

1. In the Poll Interval: field, set the seconds between polls.
2. Click Start to begin polling. The button label changes to Stop while polling.
3. Optionally, enable Auto-start on startup to start polling automatically on launch.

Click Spot Color: to open a color picker for POTA spots.

FreeDV (tab)

The FreeDV tab connects to the FreeDV QSO reporter WebSocket feed at qso.freedv.org. This tab is only available when the build includes WebSocket support.

1. Click Start to connect to the FreeDV WebSocket. The button label changes to Stop while connected.
2. Optionally, enable Auto-start on startup to connect automatically on launch.

Click Spot Color: to open a color picker for FreeDV spots.

Station Reporting

The Station Reporting group inside the FreeDV tab lets AetherSDR broadcast your station's activity to the public FreeDV Reporter map at qso.freedv.org whenever the RADE modem is active.

Requirements

• The build must include WebSocket support (HAVE_WEBSOCKETS). On Windows, HAVE_RADE is also required.
• Both a callsign and a grid square must resolve to non-empty values before the Enable FreeDV Reporter reporting when RADE is active checkbox can be turned on.

How callsign and grid are resolved

When you enable reporting, AetherSDR resolves the callsign and grid in the following order:

Callsign 1. If Use radio is checked and the radio has a configured callsign, that callsign is used. 2. Otherwise, the value typed in Callsign: is used.

Grid square 1. If Use GPS is checked, the radio has GPS hardware, and a GPS-derived grid is available, that grid is used. 2. Otherwise, the value typed in Grid Square: is used.

If either value is empty after resolution, a warning dialog appears and the checkbox reverts to unchecked. This prevents blank or placeholder values (such as N0CALL or AA00) from being broadcast to the shared public map.

Setting up reporting

1. Open Settings > SpotHub....
2. Click the FreeDV tab.
3. In the Station Reporting group, confirm the callsign field shows the correct callsign.
4. If Use radio is checked, the field is populated from the radio's configured callsign and is read-only. Uncheck Use radio to enter a callsign manually.
5. Confirm the grid square field shows a valid Maidenhead locator.
6. If Use GPS is checked (visible only on radios with GPS hardware), the field is populated from the GPS module and is read-only. Uncheck Use GPS to enter a grid manually.
7. Optionally, enter a short message in Station Msg:. This text appears beside your callsign on the public map.
8. Check Enable FreeDV Reporter reporting when RADE is active.
9. If either the callsign or grid is empty, a warning appears and the checkbox remains unchecked. Fill in the missing field and try again.

AetherSDR saves the setting to FreeDvAutoReport and begins reporting to qso.freedv.org whenever the RADE modem is active.

Spot List (tab)

The Spot List tab shows a unified searchable table of all live spots.

1. Use the per-band checkboxes to toggle visibility of spots on each band (160m, 80m, 60m, 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, 10m, 6m, 2m, etc.).
2. Click Clear to empty the current spot list.
3. Double-click a row in the table to tune the active slice to the spot's frequency. If mode information is present in the spot comment and Auto: is enabled on the Display tab, the slice switches to that mode automatically.

The table columns are: Time, Freq, DX Call, Comment, Spotter, Band, Mode, Source.

Display (tab)

The Display tab controls panadapter spot-visualization, Signal History tunables, and DXCC coloring.

Master toggles

Control	Description	Setting Key
Spots:	Master toggle for DX spot overlay. The button always shows "Enabled".	IsSpotsEnabled
Memories:	Toggles memory-channel overlay on panadapter.	IsMemorySpotsEnabled
Auto:	Automatically switch slice mode when clicking a spot that includes mode info (e.g. CW, FT8, RTTY).	SpotAutoSwitchMode
Signals (Signal History)	Gold markers for detected voice-width signals on the panadapter.	SHistoryMarkersEnabled
QRM (Signal History)	Red markers for persistent carriers and wideband interference.	SHistoryQrmEnabled
Clear All	Clears all DX spots, memory feed, Signal History markers and QRM markers from the spectrum.	—

Spot appearance

Control	Description	Setting Key
Levels:	Number of vertical stacking rows for spots (1-10).	SpotsMaxLevel
Position:	Vertical position on panadapter (0-100).	SpotsStartingHeightPercentage
Font Size:	Spot text size (8-32).	SpotFontSize
Spot Lifetime:	Seconds before a spot fades away (10 sec – 24 hrs, non-linear steps).	DxClusterSpotLifetimeSec

Color overrides

Control	Description	Setting Key
Override Colors:	Forces a single text color for all spots. The button always shows "Enabled".	IsSpotsOverrideColorsEnabled
Spot text color picker	Opens QColorDialog to pick spot text color.	SpotsOverrideColor
Override Background: Enabled	Enables custom spot background color.	IsSpotsOverrideBackgroundColorsEnabled
Override Background: Auto	Auto-picks background color for contrast.	IsSpotsOverrideToAutoBackgroundColorEnabled
Spot background color picker	Opens QColorDialog for spot background color.	SpotsOverrideBgColor
Background Opacity:	Opacity of spot background color (0-100).	SpotsBackgroundOpacity
Spot Lines:	Draws vertical lines from the spectrum up to each spot label. The button always shows "Enabled". Disable during contests to reduce visual clutter.	IsSpotsLinesEnabled

DXCC Coloring (section)

The left column below the divider.

Control	Description	Setting Key
DXCC Colors:	Colors spots by worked/confirmed/needed DXCC status. The button always shows "Enabled".	IsDxccColoringEnabled
Log File (ADIF):	Loads an ADIF log file to drive DXCC coloring. Auto-watches the file for changes after selection.	DxccAdifFilePath
Imported:	Shows QSO count and entity count when a log is loaded. Format: <N> QSOs / <M> entities.	—
DXCC Color swatches (New DXCC / New Band / New Mode / Worked)	Opens a color picker for each DXCC status category.	DxccColorNewEntity / DxccColorNewBand / DxccColorNewMode / DxccColorWorked

Signal History (section)

The right column below the divider.

Control	Description	Setting Key
Marker Lifetime:	How long an inactive Signal History marker persists before being removed (15-300 sec). Default 60 s.	SHistoryLifetimeS
QRM Gate:	How long a narrow carrier or wideband signal must persist before being classified as QRM (3-30 sec). Default 6 s.	SHistoryQrmGateS
Edge Threshold:	Threshold above noise floor for the slope edge walk that refines the S-History carrier-side edge (1.0-10.0 dB). Default 3.0 dB.	SHistorySoftEdgeDb
Signal History color swatches (Signals / QRM)	Opens a color picker for the voice signal markers (gold) and QRM markers (red). Defaults: #FFC800 / #FF0000.	SHistoryColorSignals / SHistoryColorQrm
Snap to Step:	Rounds S-History click-to-tune to the nearest multiple of the active slice's step size, hiding the small carrier offset. The button always shows "Enabled". Default Disabled.	SHistorySnapToStep

Indicator

Total Spots: shows the live count of spots currently tracked across all sources.

Auto-reload ADIF log when updated by a logger

When DXCC coloring is enabled, AetherSDR reads your ADIF log once at startup. Auto-reload tells AetherSDR to re-read the file whenever your logging software updates it, so worked/confirmed/needed coloring on the panadapter stays current without manual intervention.

Before you start

• DXCC coloring must be enabled and an ADIF log file must already be loaded. See Enable DXCC coloring from an ADIF log.
• Your logging software must write updates to the same ADIF file path stored in DxccAdifFilePath.

Steps

1. Open Settings > SpotHub....
2. Click the Display tab.
3. Confirm that DXCC Colors: is enabled (the toggle shows "Enabled").
4. Confirm that Log File (ADIF): shows the correct file path.

Auto-reload is always enabled when a file is selected. AetherSDR watches the file at DxccAdifFilePath for changes. Each time your logger writes