Just in case some of you are not aware… There is a SotaSpot cluster and it works just fine. If you want to know more about how to integrate this cluster into your existing logging program (especially DxLab). I have written up some brief instructions here: https://www.w0cp.com/2019/01/the-sota-cluster-integrating-sota.html
Thanks for making that info available and I’m glad you find it useful. Just one minor correction, SOTAwatch feeds the SOTA cluster rather than the way you have it.
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Thanks for the correction, Andy.
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I have added the cluster server to another dynamic DNS so we now have two different DNS providers to pick from. Always good to have a backup and it’s in Switzerland so it will work properly.
You can use either name elgur.crabdance.com or the new one, elgur.dyndns24.com, the cluster is still on port 7300 as before.
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Well a new record was set today… the SOTA cluster has been running for 80days non-stop. The only reason it was restarted 80 days ago was after I applied a number of security updates to the server.
Guess what. a load more security updates needed installing which is why I had to restart a few minutes ago.
Sorry for the interruption, normal service should have now been restored.
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This is something that has been on the list for a while, that is adding the cluster into the sota domain.
You can now access the SOTA cluster from the following address cluster.sota.org.uk and it still listens on port 7300. It makes sense to be able to access from a *.sota.org.uk address.
This was also made more important as one of the free dynamic DNS I use seems to be blocked by a few companies as some of the customers were spammers/porn merchants.
So the 3 valid addresses you can use (in order of choice)
- cluster.sota.org.uk : 7300
- elgur.dyndns24.ch : 7300
- elgur.crabdance.com : 7300
It’s not a webpage, if you point your browser at this then I think you get a sarcastic message 
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I’ve just spotted that company that hosts the cluster server has some planned network maintenance today from 2000Z 28/apr/2020 to 0230Z 29/apr/2020. The notice says to expect 30mins of downtime. I don’t know if that is just the network which will be down during this period or if the servers will be down as well.
Everything should just come up but it may be this doesn’t happen and I have gone to bed. In this case I’ll look at what is happening tomorrow morning.
Fingers crossed for no real issues.
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Everything seems to be happy this morning. I never noticed any interruptions myself.
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Excellent, Andy. I updated the instructions on the blog with the new address.
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There was short outage on the cluster and SMS spotter this evening from 2201Z to 2205Z whilst I installed a number of security updates.
Some stats gathered before I rebooted the server showed it had been running uninterrupted for 395 days and the cluster app had been running for 237.25 days.
If you notice anything odd about either service, let me know.
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Sorry for the cluster outage today. The issue was the Recyber Project cowboys who are scanning the internet for security issues. Nobody seems to know who they are who who gets the data. Anyway their aggressive port scanning found the cluster and then hammered on the server till it expired.
The last time this happened I updated the server’s firewall rules to DROP all packets from these cybercrims. I think I failed to make the rule permanent so the last security updates that needed a server reboot caused the rule to vanish.
OK the rule is now back in place and I can see it has rejected a number of scans from them.
Two things for me is to figure out what they did to cause the cluster to fail, annoying that it didn’t fail gracefully so I’m not as good a programmer as I would like to think. That and to ensure the firewall rule is sticky.
Anyway the cluster should be OK now.
And for fun, during this EE billing went AWOL and started charging me £1.20 for each text I sent on my unlimited texts package then cancelled my recurring PAYG payment.
Issues with SOTA software, issues with my phone, had to collect the timeshare dog, buy some petrol for Sarah’s car which was on vapours and try and do some work… as that is the only thing that pays me! Now an afternoon of Teams meetings/calls.
I need a drink!
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EE PAYG fixed, they retired some of their PAYG bundles and then failed to upgrade customers on the retired bundle correctly. So I now get 1.25x as many minutes and 2.5x as many GB for the same price. They refunded my £4.80 for 4x SMS as well. Then refunded my PAYG bundle cost. Then cancelled my monthly renewal. Then took the refunded bundle cost back to pay for the new bundle. I had to re-enable the auto pay. And… I can send texts for free again!
Also collected the timeshare dog and could buy some petrol for Mrs. FMF’s motor so I don’t have to chauffeur her about. “I’ll miss the heated seats” was what she said as it’s been a bit parky in the morning the last couple of days.
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My seat is heated, after I’ve sat on it for a while….
Heated car seats, what next? Windscreen wipers?
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I have dual zone climate control (passenger and driver heat/AC can be different), heated seats, heated steering wheel, heated windscreen washer jets. The rear heated seat was an option I don’t have as I bought this car second hand.
Heated steering wheel sounds like complete nonsense till you use it in a country like the UK.
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Using Log4OM2, I’ve setup a connection to the sotacluster, and it seems to work fine, for a while at least. After 15 mins or so, it just seems to stop updating. There are no errors in the log file. The “enable connection keep alive” box is ticked. Is there something else I need to do? My connection to the DX cluster keeps going and has the above box ticked also.
Thanks,
Colm.
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That’s all you should need, keepalive active. There’s nothing on the cluster itself that will timeout on you once you have logged in. If it tries to send you a spot and that doesn’t get through in 30secs then it will drop you.
The cluster used to be a bit flakey so I used to watch the admin console to see if it died but since fixing the last socket bug it takes a licking and keeps on ticking. I’ll keep the console live and check your keepalives are making it through.
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@EI9KY Colm, let me know when you are next able to try the cluster with a PM. I’ll turn on extra logging and I can watch the comms between your Log4OM2 and the cluster. That will confirm you are sending keepalives or not.
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There was an issue at the cluster hosts last night that was resolved quickly, probably 2hrs of intermittency. Anyway when I checked this morning the cluster looked unhappy, lots of people with multiple connections. So I took the chance to do many security updates and reboot the server and restart all the services running (cluster, SMS spotter).
It all looks to be working fine but if you see any issues let me know.
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CQ WW CW contest eat the whole bandwidth ? 
1 SOTA spot for 500 CQWW CW spot
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Is the cluster working OK today - mine doesn’t seem to update thought I get notifications through on my phone by the App ?
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