Thanks Dave.
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What started this is I was looking for a feature that the gateway did not provide so I discussed it with Dave and he asked if I wanted to take a look again at taking over maintenance. We had talked about in the past but other time commitments got in the way. The benefit is I could add the feature I wanted myself--which had already been implemented.
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That feature--and I realize this is really an edge use case--is to allow SDR-Control, a Mac application from Marcus DL8MRE, which can control the Flex products as well as various radios from Icom, Yaesu and Kenwood. Additionally, there is also the latest app that controls the Elecraft K4 remotely.
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When running with the SDR-Control applications, these apps can log to a central iCloud-hosted log. Then one has to occasionally do an ADIF export to import those QSOs into DXKeeper. That process works fine but was too manual for me :) I like to automate things where I can. SDR-Control has the ability to send a log record over UDP but it sends it in the WSJT-X standard format where it is an ADIF record wrapped in a <command> record. The change I made to the Gateway is to allow receiving this UDP message as well as the standard "N1MM UDP" messages. If SDR-Control sends that record, I will also log the record into DXKeeper.
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The net of all of this is I can leave DXKeeper running on my shack's Windows computer, then using SDR-Control from a laptop elsewhere in the house QSOs made are automatically placed in the DXKeeper log. No ADIF export necessary. It still has all of the drawbacks of UDP of course where delivery is not guaranteed but it serves my purpose.
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One point on the Gateway itself. It is historically named the N1MM-DXKeeper Gateway but that does not mean it can only be used by N1MM. I work on the team (along with N4AF) that maintains the TR4W contest logger. ?Many years ago after N1MM released its UDP standard for sharing contacts data, I implemented similar messages from TR4W so in my case, I use the N1MM-DXKeeper Gateway to send messages in real-time from TR4W to DXKeeper (I have since implemented a full TCP/IP interface in TR4W to send to DXKeeper without UDP but that is a different topic). Other programs also support this standard too. So if you want to send real-time QSOs from a logger to DXKeeper, check if it supports the N1MM UDP-style broadcasts and you can use the Gateway.
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As many of you will no doubt ask, why not just export the log at the end of the contest? The main use-case for the Gateway is for the DX'er that wants to use a contest as a way to collect DX. In my case, I can rarely do a full-time competitive effort but I have time to make a few hundred contacts. I participate in the DX Marathon every year and this gives me a way to use SpotCollector to see what I need when there is a DX Contest on the air. As I work the stations in TR4W, the UDP message for the contact goes through the Gateway to DXKeeper and it updated SpotCollector's display so it no longer shows that country as needed.
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All feature requests are welcome. I did setup an Issue tracker in the GitHub repository for the web page (the code is not in a public repository though). The issue tracker is accessible here:
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73,
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Tom NY4I
Tom Schaefer - NY4I