SOTA President John, G3WGV suggested I remind both longtime SOTA operators and the many new operators about the SOTA Cluster.
The SOTA Cluster is a DXcluster look-alike but instead of taking spots from its users like DXcluster, SOTA Cluster is fed entirely from the same spot source as SOTAwatch. What this means is it is a duplicate of the spots on SOTAwatch however as the output format looks liek DXcluster it is easy to integrate this with the many logging programs in use. I know that it integrates with Windows, Mac and Linux logging programs. Those who have set their logging program to control their radios can point and click on the spots from the SOTA Cluster feed and have their station rigs tuned to the spot frequency.
The cluster can be found at the following address & port number âcluster.sota.org.uk 7300â. Put those numbers into your logging program to make use of the feed. The cluster uses a simple raw network protocol so you can connect direct from a console, this is how I use it here and on Linux I use nc like this ânc cluster.sota.org.uk 7300â. You need to provide your callsign but you donât need to provide a password.
The following commands are supported:
sh/dx - this shows the last 25-50 SOTA spots received.
sh/users - this shows the current user list
ping5 - this causes the cluster to send you a prompt every 5 minutes
ping1 - as ping5 but the prompt is sent every minute
ping5 and ping 1 are useful for people with home routers that shutdown connections when there has not been any traffic for a while on the link. i.e. if there are no spots for an hour, your home router my silently close the connection and you would not know. Use a ping5/ping1 in conjunction with your programâs KEEPALIVE connection timer.
Here is a typical login screen:
someone@somebox:~$ nc cluster.sota.org.uk 7300
Welcome to the MM0FMF SOTA Cluster
This is version 8.10 built 14th July 2025
Set your keepalive pings to no less than 15mins
login: gm3pyu
GM3PYU de MM0FMF sota_cluster >
DX de CT2GSN: 14185.0 CT2GSN/P CT/TM-039 1315Z
DX de S57MS: 50153.0 S57MS/P S5/PK-002 1311Z
DX de G4OBK: 10122.0 F/G4OBK/P F/MC-183 1311Z
DX de DL6GCA: 7028.0 DL6GCA/P DM/HE-097 1309Z
DX de DH2ID: 14282.0 DH2ID/P DM/BW-639 1304Z
DX de G4OBK: 14062.0 F/G4OBK/P F/MC-183 1302Z
DX de HB9EVF: 21061.0 HB9EVF/P HB/ZH-017 1302Z
DX de HB9EVF: 10123.0 HB9EVF/P HB/ZH-017 1249Z
DX de S52AU: 7029.3 S52AU/P S5/CP-005 1315Z
DX de G4OBK: 7032.0 F/G4OBK/P F/MC-183 1316Z
DX de S57MS: 28360.0 S57MS/P S5/PK-002 1318Z
DX de S57MS: 14307.0 S57MS/P S5/PK-002 1325Z
DX de CT2GSN: 14185.0 CT2GSN/P CT/TM-039 1327Z
DX de F6HBI: 145500.0 F6HBI/P F/AM-313 1331Z
GM3PYU de MM0FMF sota_cluster >
And here is the current user list.
GM3PYU de MM0FMF sota_cluster >
sh/users
Node Callsigns
MM0FMF ON6ZQ DO1ZL 2M0RVZ HB9HBV IV3DXW-2
ON6ZQ W4GO VE3HYK VE2KVU PA0B
PA7RA W0CP WB6POT OK2PDT HB9HDC
KK1W K5CPR GI4ONL VE3VRW W1WRA
VE3VRW VE3VRW GI0AZA VE3VRW PF2X
CT1DRB CT1DRB AF9W GM3PYU
GM3PYU de MM0FMF sota_cluster >
I have fixed a bug today that allowed QRT or TEST spots through, they used to appear with the frequency 0.0 but they are now suppressed.
If you have any questions or suggestions, then drop them into this thread.