Turn spots on or off¶

DX spots from cluster sources appear as overlays on the panadapter. This page explains how to enable or disable that display using the master spot toggle in the Spot Settings dialog.

Before you start¶

A panadapter must be visible in the main window.
Spot sources (DX cluster, RBN, etc.) should be configured via Settings > SpotHub... if you want live spots to appear once you enable the overlay.

Steps¶

Right-click anywhere on the panadapter to open the context menu.
Select the spot overlay option to open the Spot Settings dialog.
Locate the Spots: toggle button at the top of the dialog.
Click the button to toggle between Enabled and Disabled.
The button displays the current state as its text label: "Enabled" or "Disabled". The checked state (highlighted background) also indicates the active status.
When Enabled, DX spots are drawn on the panadapter.
When Disabled, no spots are drawn. The setting is saved immediately; no additional confirmation is needed.

What each control does¶

Label	Kind	Default	Setting key
Spots:	Toggle button	Enabled	`IsSpotsEnabled`
Memories:	Toggle button	Disabled	`IsMemorySpotsEnabled`
Levels:	Slider	3	`SpotsMaxLevel`
Position:	Slider	50	`SpotsStartingHeightPercentage`
Font Size:	Slider	16	`SpotFontSize`
Spot Lifetime:	Slider	—	`DxClusterSpotLifetimeSec`
Override Colors:	Toggle button	Disabled	`IsSpotsOverrideColorsEnabled`
Spot text color picker	Button	`#FFFF00`	`SpotsOverrideColor`
Override Background:	Toggle button	Enabled	`IsSpotsOverrideBackgroundColorsEnabled`
Override Background: Auto	Toggle button	Enabled	`IsSpotsOverrideToAutoBackgroundColorEnabled`
Spot background color picker	Button	`#000000`	`SpotsOverrideBgColor`
Background Opacity:	Slider	48	`SpotsBackgroundOpacity`
Spot Lines:	Toggle button	Enabled	`IsSpotsLinesEnabled`
Clear All Spots	Button	—	—

The Total Spots: indicator at the bottom of the dialog shows how many live spots are currently tracked.

Control details¶

Spots: This master toggle turns DX spot overlays on or off. The button text updates dynamically to show the current state: "Enabled" when spots are active, "Disabled" when they are not. Toggling this off does not clear buffered spots — they reappear when you re-enable.

Memories: Toggles memory channel overlays on the panadapter. The button text updates dynamically to show the current state. The setting key changed from IsMemoriesShownOnPanadapter in v0.9.7.

Override Colors: Forces a single text color for all spots. The button text updates dynamically to show the current state. When enabled, the color picker button becomes active.

Override Background: Enables drawing a background under spot text. The button text updates dynamically to show the current state. When enabled, the Auto toggle and color picker become active.

Spot Lines: Draws a vertical line from the spectrum baseline up to each spot label. The button text updates dynamically to show the current state. Disable this during contests to reduce visual clutter. This control was added in v0.9.7 (issue #2349).

Spot Lifetime: Uses a non-linear scale ranging from 10 seconds to 24 hours. The value is stored in seconds in DxClusterSpotLifetimeSec. On first read, any value previously saved under the old minutes-based key DxClusterSpotLifetime is automatically migrated.

Setting key changes in v0.9.7¶

Several setting keys were renamed. If you reference these keys in scripts or external configuration tools, update them accordingly.

Control	Old key	New key
Memories:	`IsMemoriesShownOnPanadapter`	`IsMemorySpotsEnabled`
Levels:	`SpotsStackLevels`	`SpotsMaxLevel`
Position:	`SpotsPosition`	`SpotsStartingHeightPercentage`
Font Size:	`SpotsFontSize`	`SpotFontSize`
Spot Lifetime:	`SpotsLifetime`	`DxClusterSpotLifetimeSec`
Background Opacity:	`SpotsOverrideBgOpacity`	`SpotsBackgroundOpacity`

Tips¶

Toggling Spots: to Disabled does not clear buffered spots. When you re-enable it, spots that have not yet expired will reappear.
Toggle buttons in the Spot Settings dialog now display their current state as the text label: "Enabled" when active, "Disabled" when inactive. The checked state (highlighted background) also indicates whether the feature is active.
The Spot Lifetime: slider uses a non-linear scale: fine steps in seconds at the low end, then minutes, then hours up to 24 hours.
Disable Spot Lines: during contests to keep the panadapter uncluttered while retaining spot labels.
The Spot Settings dialog now follows the current theme. Title labels and the Total Spots indicator use the theme's primary text color for consistent appearance across different theme profiles.