wtDxTelnet 4.0 – User Guide

1. Introduction

wtDxTelnet connects Win-Test to the DX cluster network. It keeps several connections open at the same time, one per tab:

• Telnet DX clusters (DX Spider, AR-Cluster, CC Cluster, DxNet, CLX, pyCluster, GoCluster...), including the Reverse Beacon Network nodes;
• CW Skimmer, through its Telnet port, following the frequency of a Win-Test radio;
• DX Summit (www.dxsummit.fi), for the spots entered on its web site.

Everything received is sent to Win-Test over the network, each spot only once when several clusters relay it. The spots and commands typed in the cluster window of Win-Test are sent to the clusters.

wtDxTelnet runs on Windows 7 SP1 and later. Version 4.0 is a complete rewrite of version 3.8; its settings are imported automatically (see Getting started).

This guide is always available from Help > User Guide (Online) in wtDxTelnet.

2. Getting started

Start wtDxTelnet from the Options menu of Win-Test, or directly. At the first start:

• Coming from version 3.8: its profiles become connections, and its network and window settings are kept. A copy of the old settings file is saved as wtDxTelnet.ini.v1.bak. The log tells what was imported.
• New installation: the window is empty. Click the + tab (or press Ctrl+T) to add a connection.

Then click Connect in the tab, or Connect all at the bottom of the window. To connect everything at each start, check Connect all enabled connections at startup in the general settings.

3. The main window

• Tabs: one per connection, with an icon showing its state, then the + tab.
• In each tab: the Connect, Disconnect and Settings... buttons; on the right, the cluster software (a link to its documentation) and the address; the received text; at the bottom, the command line.
• Log: the events of every connection, with their time in UTC (as the spots). Click its title (or View > Log Pane) to show or hide it. Errors are in red.
• Bottom: Connect all, Disconnect all, General settings..., and the status bar with the number of active and inactive connections and the version.

State icons

A small badge on the icon means that a direction to or from Win-Test is turned off for that connection (see Connections).

4. Connections

Each connection has its own settings: Settings... in its tab, or a double click on the tab. The dialog always has the same layout: the common and server settings on the left, the settings of each type on the right (those of the other types are greyed out).

The Host field also accepts the forms found on the cluster web sites: host:port, telnet://host:port, telnet host port or host port: the port goes to its field.

Most settings apply at once. A change of host, port, login, password or commands of an active connection is used at the next connection: wtDxTelnet offers to reconnect now.

4.1 Telnet DX clusters

wtDxTelnet recognizes the software of the cluster in its welcome text and shows it, with a link to its documentation, on the right of the tab. It uses it to send the commands of Win-Test in the right syntax (see Command translation).

Most clusters have their own filters (bands, modes, spotter continent, skimmer spots...). Set them on the cluster itself: the filtered spots are then never sent, which saves bandwidth. The syntax depends on the software, for example:

• DX Spider: accept/spots, reject/spots;
• AR-Cluster 6: SET DX FILTER ...;
• CC Cluster and AR-Cluster 4: SET/FILTER ....

See the manual of the cluster (the link on the right of the tab). Some clusters keep your filters from one connection to the next, others do not: then put the filter commands in Commands sent after login. Sending them again to a cluster that keeps them does no harm.

wtDxTelnet has filters of its own as well (see Spot filters), for what the cluster cannot do.

4.2 Login and passwords

When the cluster asks for your call (login:, call:, Callsign :...), wtDxTelnet sends the login, then the password if the cluster asks for one, then the commands.

• No password in the settings: if the cluster still asks for one, wtDxTelnet answers with an empty line when the cluster offers to create an account (DxNet, CLX) or when it accepts accounts without password (CLX). Otherwise it sends nothing, tells you in the log, and you type the password in the command line (it is shown as ********).
• Password in the settings: it is sent when asked, and once more if the cluster asks to confirm it (creation of an account).
• Empty login: manual login. wtDxTelnet sends nothing at the connection, not even the commands: you answer the questions of the cluster yourself. Useful to create an account on a cluster, or to troubleshoot.

4.3 CW Skimmer

Choose the type Local CW Skimmer: the address 127.0.0.1:7300 is proposed (the Telnet port of CW Skimmer on the same computer). In the CW Skimmer group:

• Follow the frequency of a Win-Test radio (QSY): CW Skimmer follows the frequency of a Win-Test radio: choose the radio in Set CW Skimmer freq. from and the Win-Test Station name.

The lines of CW Skimmer about its own state are not shown. The spots of Win-Test are not sent to CW Skimmer. The spots of CW Skimmer can be filtered (see Spot filters).

4.4 DX Summit

Choose the type DX Summit. wtDxTelnet reads the new spots regularly (Reading interval, 15 s by default, the rhythm of the web site itself; longer on a mobile connection) and shows them as cluster lines. The Login is the spotter of the spots you post from Win-Test.

• By default, only the spots entered on the DX Summit web site are taken (the others come from the cluster network, which your Telnet connections already receive). Invalid web spots are shown struck out in grey italic and not sent to Win-Test.
• Accept all spots: also the spots of the cluster network, as they are. Useful when a firewall lets only the web through.
• The spots can be filtered (see Spot filters).

5. Working with the connections

Tabs

• Add: the + tab, or Ctrl+T. Its menu also lists the closed connections (to reopen one) and a Delete submenu.
• Rename: F2. Reorder: drag the tab. Switch: Ctrl+Tab, Ctrl+Shift+Tab.
• Close (cross of the tab, Ctrl+W): the connection is disconnected and kept; reopen it with the + tab. When the connection is failing (for example « Host name not found »), wtDxTelnet shows the error and offers to delete it instead.
• Delete: Connection > Delete..., or the button of the settings dialog. The settings are removed.

Received text

• Colors: received text in black, what you send in blue, events in green, errors in red. Spots not sent to Win-Test are struck out in grey (italic too when refused by a filter); the mouse pointer on the line tells why (see Spots not sent to Win-Test).
• Right-click: Copy, Copy All, Select All, and on a spot line Test in Spot Filters....
• When you scroll up to read, the view stays where it is; a button shows the number of new lines and goes back to the end. Esc in the command line does the same, Page Up / Page Down scroll.
• Select text with the mouse, then Ctrl+C; Ctrl+Shift+A selects all the received text.
• A bullet (•) at the end of the lines: see Tips.

Command line

• Enter sends the line to the cluster; Up / Down recall the previous commands; Ctrl+Backspace deletes a word.
• A line starting with / may be an internal command of wtDxTelnet.
• Drag the bar above it to change its height (shared by all the tabs).

Automatic reconnection

When an established connection is lost, wtDxTelnet reconnects after 5 s, then every 30 s, until it succeeds (option of the general settings). Connect tries at once, Disconnect stops. A host name that does not exist is not retried, unless the computer has no Internet access at that time.

Lost connection delay

wtDxTelnet can only know that a Telnet connection is cut by probing the cluster when it is silent. Detect a lost connection after (general settings) is the delay after which a connection that no longer answers is declared lost. A shorter outage has no consequence: the pending spots arrive when the link is back. A longer one causes a reconnection. Short on a reliable link (wired or fibre: 30-60 s), longer on a mobile link (good 4G or Wi-Fi: 60-90 s, weak 4G: 120-180 s).

6. Spot filters

Spot filters keep chosen spots away from Win-Test: a band, a mode, a country, a continent, a spotter... They work for every connection type and on every spot line: the spots received as they come (DX de lines) and the answers to a SH/DX command, also when Win-Test asked for it. The other lines are never filtered.

Three levels, then the amateur bands

A spot goes through the filters of its connection, then those of its type (all the Telnet, CW Skimmer or DX Summit connections), then those of all connections, and at last the built-in filter of the amateur bands. It is refused as soon as one of them refuses it. So the kept lists (/, see below) add up: /HF for all connections and /20m for one connection leave only 20 m on that connection.

The Spot filters dialog

One dialog for every level, opened by:

• Tools > Spot Filters... (on All connections);
• Connection > Spot Filters... (on the active connection);
• Spot filters... in the connection settings (on that connection, also a new one: its filters are then saved with the OK of the connection settings);
• a right-click on a spot line of a tab, Test in Spot Filters... (on that connection, the line in the test: see Testing a spot).

• Filters of: chooses what is edited: all connections, a type, or one of the open connections. A dot (•) marks those that have filters, (disabled) those that are disabled. Below the list, the other levels that also apply.
• Disable these filters: the filters are kept but not applied (to test, or to find a wrong filter).
• The groups follow the order of a spot line: Spotter, Frequency, DX, Comment.
• The mouse pointer on a box shows a reminder of its rules. A wrong entry is shown, and selected, when you choose another entry or click OK. Everything is saved with OK and applies at once.
• Below the button of the connection settings: the groups set for the connection, and the other levels that apply to it (« Active: DX; also: All connections »), as a reminder.

Writing the filters

In every box, entries are separated by spaces or commas, upper or lower case, and:

• an entry alone refuses what it matches (F DL);
• with / (or !) before it, an entry tells what is kept: when a box has at least one, everything outside all of them is refused (/F /ON: only France and Belgium). Both kinds can be mixed.

Spotter

The spotter is compared without the end added by the clusters: -@ (DX Summit), -# (skimmers), -2 (SSID). W3LPL also rejects W3LPL-# and W3LPL-2. For a local CW Skimmer the spotter is always yourself: the Spotter group is greyed out.

Frequencies

Entries separated by spaces or commas, in kHz, limits included, decimals allowed, no space inside an entry:

With / (or !) before them, entries tell what is kept: when there is at least one, everything outside all of them is rejected. Both kinds can be mixed, in any order:

• /WARC /80m: only the WARC bands and 80 m;
• /HF 14074 7074: only HF, without the two FT8 frequencies;
• /14000-14100: only from 14000 to 14100 kHz.

A wrong entry (14073 - 14076 with spaces, reversed limits, an unknown band...) is shown when you click OK. The mouse pointer on the box shows a reminder of these rules.

The bands, with the widest limits of the IARU regions and a few national allocations (8 m, 5 m, 1.25 m). LF and HF are taken as radio amateurs use them: HF starts with the 160 m band.

DXCC entities and continents

The entities are given by their main prefix in the country file of Win-Test (F, DL, VP2E, 3D2/c...). The entity and the continent of a call are found as Win-Test does it (portable calls such as EA8/DL2DXA/P, exceptions of the country file: some UA9 prefixes are in Europe...). A call of no known entity (/MM, /AM, invalid call) is kept, unless the box has kept entries (/).

The country file is the one of Win-Test, in C:\ProgramData\Win-Test\countryFiles: CTY_WT_MOD.DAT, or else CTY_WT.DAT, or else CTY.DAT. It is read at startup and again when Win-Test updates it (checked every hour); the dialog shows which one is used. Without any of these files, the log says so in red and every call is of unknown entity. The WAE entities of the DARC (IG9, GM/s, TA1...) are not DXCC entities: their calls belong to their DXCC entity (I, GM, TA...).

Words

Spots whose comment contains one of these words. Words separated by spaces or commas, or "a phrase" between quotes; whole words, case and accents ignored (test rejects « TEST! » but not « contest »).

Outside the amateur bands

A built-in filter refuses the spots outside the amateur bands (broadcast, utilities, CB, typing errors), for every connection, after all the other filters. It is on by default; to turn it off, choose All connections in the dialog and uncheck Reject spots outside the amateur bands. The bands are those of the table above (not the groups such as HF).

Testing a spot

The right part of the dialog shows what happens to a spot: type or paste a whole line (a DX de line or a line of a SH/DX answer) in Line, or type the spotter, the frequency, the DX call and the comment. The result follows each change: Spot accepted (green) or Spot rejected (red) with the filter that refused it, and the DXCC entity, the continent and the zones of the DX and of the spotter.

The test uses the filters as they are in the dialog, saved or not, from the entry chosen upwards: a connection, then its type, then all connections; a type, then all connections; all connections alone. The line above the fields tells it.

A right-click on a spot line of a tab, then Test in Spot Filters..., opens the dialog on that connection with the line already in the test: the quickest way to know why a spot was, or was not, sent.

Spots not sent to Win-Test

In the tabs, a spot not sent to Win-Test is struck out, in grey; the mouse pointer on the line tells why:

Disabling the filters

• One level: Disable these filters in the dialog.
• Everything, the amateur bands included: Tools > Disable All Spot Filters. A red line in the log says so (also at startup while it is on).

7. The DX cluster list

Choose... in the settings of a Telnet connection opens the list of the DX clusters, taken from DXCLUSTER_NODES.CSV, the list kept by Jim Reisert AD1C (dxcluster.info).

• Filters: Country (the DXCC entity of the node; type its prefix letters to find it) and RBN nodes only. The icons show the nodes with Reverse Beacon spots: human + RBN, or RBN only.
• Search: just type (no box to click): the list keeps the nodes whose name or address contains the text. Backspace erases a character, Esc clears the search.
• Details of the selected node: place, sysop (unless the sysop does not want it published), web site, software.
• Test: checks that the selected node answers, and shows its answer time and the software named in its welcome text. Nothing is sent, not even your call. Only one node at a time.
• OK (or a double click) fills the name, address and port of the connection.

Updates

wtDxTelnet keeps a copy of the list in C:\ProgramData\Win-Test\cfg and checks for a newer version at startup and once a day: only a few hundred bytes are exchanged when the list has not changed. Check for updates does the same check at once.

If DXCLUSTER_NODES.CSV is missing, the former cluster.dat file of Win-Test is used instead (fewer details, no country filter); Check for updates then fetches the full list.

8. Working with Win-Test

Network settings

In the general settings, Win-Test network group: the broadcast address and port must match those of Win-Test (port 9871 by default; Default proposes the same address as Win-Test). The Application ID (TELNET by default) identifies wtDxTelnet on the network.

What Win-Test receives

• Everything received by the connections (unless Don't send the received text to Win-Test), line by line, never mixing two clusters.
• Send each spot only once: a spot relayed by several clusters is sent once; the tabs still show everything, the spots already sent struck out in grey.
• Not the spots refused by the spot filters.

What wtDxTelnet receives from Win-Test

• Spots (DX 14025 F5ABC ...): sent to every connected cluster, except those with Don't send the spots from Win-Test to this cluster. DX Summit posts them on the web site.
• Commands: sent to every connected cluster (not DX Summit), and shown in blue in their tabs.
• Internal commands (/con, /status...): executed by wtDxTelnet, which answers by a gab to your station (see Internal commands).
• Nobody to send it to: wtDxTelnet answers by a gab.

Command translation

The clusters do not all understand the same SH/DX: on some, SH/DX 30 means « the 30 last spots », on others « the 30 m band ». With Adapt SH/DX, SH/WWV and SH/WCY to each cluster (on by default), the commands sent by Win-Test are rewritten for the software of each cluster:

Each cluster receives its own form (for example SH/DX/30 for CC Cluster, SH DX 30 for GoCluster); the tab shows what was sent and the original: SH/DX/30 (from Win-Test: SH/DX 30). When a cluster has no equivalent (for example no WCY), the command is sent as it is. Commands typed in wtDxTelnet itself are never changed.

Connection alerts

With Gab connection losses to these Win-Test stations (on by default), the stations of the list, and every station that sent a command, receive a gab when an established connection is lost, when it is restored, and when a connection started at startup is still not connected after 2 minutes. Nothing is sent for what you do yourself (Connect, Disconnect).

Starting and stopping from Win-Test

The Options menu of Win-Test starts wtDxTelnet (minimized) and stops it. When stopped that way, wtDxTelnet closes normally: the connections and the window layout are saved.

9. Internal commands

Typed in the command line of a tab, or in the cluster window of Win-Test. The « current » connection is the tab where it is typed, or the active tab for Win-Test. Case is ignored; commands may be shortened (/con, /disc, /sta...).

name may be the beginning of a single connection name. Any other text, with or without /, is sent to the cluster.

10. General settings

11. Command line and several instances

Paths with spaces go between quotes. The DX cluster lists always stay in C:\ProgramData\Win-Test\cfg.

Example, a second wtDxTelnet with its own connections:

wtDxTelnet.exe -i contest.ini

Only one wtDxTelnet runs per settings file: starting it again (also by mistake) brings the running one to the front. With another settings file, its name is shown in the title (« wtDxTelnet - contest ») and in the log.

12. Tips and troubleshooting

A cluster refuses my second connection

Most clusters refuse a call already logged in on another node of the same network, beyond a number of sessions. Use a different SSID for each connection (F6ABC-1, F6ABC-2...) when the nodes accept it.

A bullet (•) at the end of the lines

The cluster sends a « beep » character. It can usually be turned off on the cluster: UNSET/BEEP (DX Spider), SET/NOBEEP (AR-Cluster 4, CC Cluster, DxNet); see the manual of the cluster. Win-Test handles it anyway.

Long SH/DX answers stop on DxNet

DxNet pages its answers. wtDxTelnet sends SET/NOPAGE to DxNet at each connection: nothing to do.

What the errors mean

The Test button of the DX cluster list tells whether a node answers before you use it.

A spot does not reach Win-Test

A struck-out line was not sent: the mouse pointer on it tells why (already sent by another cluster, or refused by a filter). Right-click it, then Test in Spot Filters... to see which filter refuses it, or turn all the filters off for a moment with Tools > Disable All Spot Filters. A spot outside the amateur bands is refused by default (see Outside the amateur bands).

Only the web gets through (firewall)

Use a DX Summit connection with Accept all spots.

13. Files

Web addresses

The web addresses used by wtDxTelnet can be replaced, for example if a site moves before a new version is out. They are in the [Links] section of C:\ProgramData\Win-Test\cfg\wtDxTelnet.ini, for all the instances (even those started with -a or -i). The keys are created empty: an empty key means the default address below. A change applies at the next start.