Hi all,
I’m Lukas, DM6LE, activator and chaser from Bavaria. Like many of you, I spend a lot of time on SOTAwatch – and on the chaser side, the workflow always felt clunky to me: find the frequency, manually dial it in, then copy-paste everything into my log software. I wanted to move quickly between spots.
So I built a Windows Chrome extension called SOTA Chaser that adds Tune and Log buttons directly into the SOTAwatch spots table. Here’s what it does:
- Duplicate filter: only shows the latest spot per activator, so the list stays clean
- Tune: sets frequency and mode on your radio via direct serial CAT commands – one click
- Log: opens a quick RST dialog and sends a complete QSO to HRD Logbook via UDP (same protocol as WSJT-X), including callsign, frequency, band, mode, SOTA reference, summit name and altitude fetched live from the SOTA API
The whole idea is: one click to tune, one click to log, never leave SOTAwatch.
Screenshots, setup instructions, and the source code are all here:
Currently 8 Yaesu models are supported (FTDX10, FT-991A, FT-891, FTDX101MP/D, FT-710, FTX-1, FTDX3000, FTDX1200), plus a custom option for other Yaesu radios with ASCII CAT. I’ve been using it daily with my FTDX10 and it works well for me, but I’d really appreciate feedback from anyone running other supported models – I only have the one radio to test with.
ICOM and Xiegu support is on the roadmap, as is integration with other logging software beyond HRD. If you’re a developer or just want to help test, contributions are very welcome – it’s MIT licensed.
Happy to answer any questions.
73, Lukas – DM6LE