Tune spot density, position, font size and lifetime¶

The Display tab in SpotHub controls how spot labels appear on the panadapter: how many stack vertically, where they sit, how large the text is, and how long each spot lives before it fades. Adjust these settings to reduce clutter on a busy band or make spots more readable on a small screen.

Before you start¶

AetherSDR must be running. A radio connection is not required to change these settings.
At least one spot source (DX cluster, RBN, WSJT-X, SpotCollector, POTA, or FreeDV) should be active so you can see the effect of your changes in real time.
The master spot overlay must be on. On the Display tab, confirm IsSpotsEnabled is active (the "Spots:" toggle reads Enabled).

Steps¶

Open Settings > SpotHub....
Click the Display tab.
Confirm Spots: is set to Enabled. If it is not, click it to enable the overlay.
To control how many spots stack vertically before they start overlapping, drag the Levels: slider. Higher values allow more rows of spot labels.
To move the spot labels up or down on the panadapter, drag the Position: slider.
To change the text size of spot labels, drag the Font Size: slider.
To set how long a spot remains visible before it disappears, drag the Spot Lifetime: slider. The value is in seconds.
Auto Mode: is enabled by default. When on, AetherSDR automatically switches the slice mode when you click a spot that carries mode information (e.g. CW, FT8, RTTY). Click Auto Mode: to toggle this behaviour.
To show or hide the vertical lines drawn from the spectrum up to each spot label, click Spot Lines:. The button toggles between Enabled and Disabled. Disable this during contests to reduce visual clutter.
Close the dialog. Changes take effect immediately.

What each control does¶

Control	Setting key	Behavior
Spots:	`IsSpotsEnabled`	Master toggle for the spot overlay on the panadapter.
Auto Mode:	`SpotsAutoMode`	Automatically selects spot density based on zoom level. Default: Enabled.
Levels:	`SpotsStackLevels`	Number of vertical stacking rows for spot labels.
Position:	`SpotsPosition`	Vertical position of the spot label band on the panadapter.
Font Size:	`SpotsFontSize`	Size of the text in each spot label.
Spot Lifetime:	`SpotsLifetime`	Seconds a spot label remains visible before fading.
Spot Lines:	`IsSpotsLinesEnabled`	Draws vertical lines from the spectrum up to each spot label. Default: Enabled. Disable during contests to reduce visual clutter. New in v0.9.7.
Override Colors:	`IsSpotsOverrideColorsEnabled`	Forces a single text color for all spots.
Override Background: Enabled / Auto	`IsSpotsOverrideBackgroundColorsEnabled` / `IsSpotsOverrideToAutoBackgroundColorEnabled`	Enables a custom spot background color and auto-contrast mode.
Background Opacity:	`SpotsOverrideBgOpacity`	Opacity of the spot background color. Default: 48.
DXCC Coloring	`DxccColoringEnabled`	Colors spots by worked/confirmed/needed status.
Log File (ADIF):	`DxccAdifPath`	Loads an ADIF log file to drive DXCC coloring.
Auto-Reload Log:	`DxccAutoReload`	Re-reads the ADIF file automatically when it changes on disk.
Enable FreeDV Reporter reporting when RADE is active	`FreeDvAutoReport`	Enables station-reporting to the public FreeDV Reporter map (qso.freedv.org) whenever the RADE modem is active. Requires a valid callsign and grid square or the checkbox refuses to enable. If either field is blank when you check it, a warning dialog appears and the checkbox reverts to unchecked.
Callsign: (FreeDV Reporter)	`FreeDvMyCallsign`	Callsign to report to the FreeDV Reporter map. Read-only when Use radio (callsign) is checked. Automatically updated when the radio's callsign changes and Use radio is active.
Use radio (callsign)	`FreeDvUseRadioCallsign`	Pre-fills the callsign field from the radio's configured callsign and locks the field read-only. Default: enabled.
Grid Square: (FreeDV Reporter)	`FreeDvMyGrid`	Maidenhead grid square to report. Read-only when Use GPS (grid) is checked.
Use GPS (grid)	`FreeDvUseGpsGrid`	Pre-fills the grid field from the radio's GPS module and locks the field read-only. Only shown on radio models that have GPS hardware.
Station Msg: (FreeDV Reporter)	`FreeDvMyMessage`	Optional free-text message shown beside the callsign on the public FreeDV Reporter map.
Total Spots:	—	Live readout of how many spots are currently tracked across all sources. Updated whenever spots are added or cleared. Resets to 0 when Clear All Spots is pressed.

Double-clicking a spot to tune¶

Double-clicking a row in the Spot List table tunes the active slice to the spot frequency. As of v0.9.7, AetherSDR also forwards the mode extracted from the spot comment (for example CW, FT8, or SSB) so the slice mode switches automatically to match the spot, not only the frequency.

FreeDV Reporter reporting¶

The FreeDV (tab) in SpotHub contains a Station Reporting group. When Enable FreeDV Reporter reporting when RADE is active is checked, AetherSDR reports your station to the public FreeDV Reporter map at qso.freedv.org whenever the RADE modem is running.

Before enabling reporting, supply both a callsign and a grid square. AetherSDR resolves these values in the following order of priority:

Callsign — if Use radio (callsign) is checked and the radio has a callsign configured, that value is used and the field is locked. Otherwise, type a callsign directly into the Callsign: field.
Grid Square — if Use GPS (grid) is checked and the radio has GPS hardware with a valid fix, the grid is filled automatically and locked. This checkbox only appears on radio models with GPS hardware. Otherwise, type a Maidenhead grid square (up to six characters) into the Grid Square: field.

If either the callsign or grid is empty when you check Enable FreeDV Reporter reporting when RADE is active, a warning dialog appears and the checkbox reverts to unchecked. This prevents blank or placeholder values from appearing on the community-shared public map.

Optionally, type a short message in Station Msg: to display alongside your callsign on the map.

The FreeDV tab is only present in builds compiled with HAVE_WEBSOCKETS. On Windows, the reporting checkbox additionally requires HAVE_RADE to be defined.

Tips¶

If spot labels overlap badly on a crowded band, increase Levels: to add more stacking rows, or decrease Spot Lifetime: so old spots clear sooner.
Disable Spot Lines: during contests or on very busy bands to reduce visual clutter without hiding the spot labels themselves.
WSJT-X spots have their own per-source lifetime setting (Spot Life: on the WSJT-X tab, stored as WsjtxSpotLife). The Spot Lifetime: slider on the Display tab applies to all other sources.
When Use radio (callsign) is active, the callsign field updates automatically if you change the callsign in Radio Setup without reopening SpotHub.

Troubleshooting¶

Spot labels are not visible at all — Check that Spots: on the Display tab is set to Enabled (IsSpotsEnabled). Also confirm at least one spot source is connected and receiving spots.
Changing Levels: has no effect — Auto Mode: is likely enabled. Click Auto Mode: to disable it, then adjust Levels: manually.
"Enable FreeDV Reporter" checkbox keeps reverting to unchecked — Both a callsign and a grid square must be set before enabling. Fill in the Callsign: and Grid Square: fields (or enable Use radio and Use GPS if the radio provides those values), then check the box again.
The FreeDV tab or the reporting checkbox is not visible — Your build of AetherSDR was compiled without HAVE_WEBSOCKETS (tab not present) or without HAVE_RADE on Windows (checkbox not present).
Double-clicking a spot does not switch the slice mode — Confirm the spot comment contains a recognisable mode string. Mode extraction relies on the comment text supplied by the spot source; spots with no mode information in the comment will still tune the frequency but will not change the mode.