chore: release v0.26.6

Panadapter spots are now worth reading. The comment carries the spotter, the
entity and the status in DXHunter's own shape — "CQ up 2 [F4BPO] [Franz Josef
Land] [New Slot]" — which needed two things nothing documents: SmartSDR splits
its command line on SPACES, so the words ran together until every space became
non-breaking; and it truncates past ~60 characters, so the cluster's own words
are trimmed first and the three brackets always survive. RBN column padding is
collapsed on the way in, or a preserved run of spaces opened a gap wide enough
to push the rest off screen.

"Already worked" means the CALLSIGN is in the log, not the entity: saying it of
a station never contacted was simply wrong. Each status can also be kept off the
panadapter entirely, and the WSJT-X decode spots obey the same switches — the
palette governs the panadapter, not one of the two things that feed it.

And the radio is no longer hammered: a spot whose frequency, colour and comment
are unchanged is not removed and redrawn. A busy skimmer feed re-spots the same
station every few seconds; one two-minute session sent 2128 adds, 88 of them for
a single callsign, and the display did not move a pixel for any of them.

CI-V, from an IC-7850 that kept killing JTDX: a reply the rig sent to another
controller on the same bus is no longer taken for ours, and a set_ptt, set_freq
or set_mode whose acknowledgement goes missing is verified by reading the rig
back instead of being reported as a failure. WSJT-X and JTDX answer a failed
command with a Rig Control Error and drop the link mid-over — 98 keyings, 6 lost
acknowledgements, 2 dropped connections in one session. The check waits 700 ms,
not the poll's 150: the rig has just failed to answer twice because it was
retuning, and a short probe would fail for the same reason.

Auto-call is withdrawn — it duplicated DXHunter, which already answers decodes,
and two programs deciding that from one shack key over each other. The library
is kept whole and dormant; a guard in App.tsx makes sure a stored preference
cannot key a transmitter whose switch no longer exists.

Also:
  - the log rotates while running, not only at startup: the CI-V trace left on
    wrote 416 MB and nothing would have stopped it before the disk did. Closing
    it now releases the crash file too — the runtime keeps its own duplicate.
  - the interface zoom announces itself, with a badge, a click back to 100% and
    a View menu; Ctrl+wheel and Ctrl+0 always worked and nothing said so.
  - no more elastic bounce, and no swipe-to-navigate out of the app.
  - Edit QSO: your own TX power and the contacted station's extended locator
    were saved and written back with no box to set them.
  - FT decodes: continents are a multiple choice; a compound MSHV message that
    answers two stations in one line is recognised as addressed to you.

app.go

@@ -716,6 +716,7 @@ type App struct {
 	clublogMW      *clublog.MostWanted // ClubLog "Most Wanted" DXCC ranking (opt-in)
 	motorAnt       motorAntenna        // motorized antenna (Ultrabeam or SteppIR); nil when disabled
 	ubFollowStop   chan struct{}       // stops the "follow frequency" loop; nil when off
+	motorStartMu   sync.Mutex          // serialises startUltrabeam: two restarts at once left two poll loops on one COM port
 	motorInhibStop chan struct{}       // stops the "inhibit TX while moving" loop; nil when off
 	motorMoveCmdNs atomic.Int64        // unixnano of the last commanded antenna move (grace window)
 	motorInhibited atomic.Bool         // TX currently inhibited by the motor-antenna watcher
@@ -1209,6 +1210,7 @@ func (a *App) startup(ctx context.Context) {
 	applog.Printf("startup: logbook backend = %s", backend)
 	a.logDb = logbookConn
 	a.qso = qso.NewRepo(logbookConn)
+	a.tidyLogbookSchema(logbookConn)
 	a.backfillAwardRefsOnce()                     // one-time: materialise award_refs for pre-existing QSOs
 	go a.rebuildWorkedIndex()                     // in-memory worked-index for per-spot alert checks
 	go a.adifMonitorLoop()                        // watch external ADIF files (fldigi, N1MM…) for new QSOs
@@ -2319,6 +2321,11 @@ func (a *App) connectLogbook(cfg profile.ProfileDB) (*sql.DB, string, error) {
 	}
 	if lp == "" {
 		a.logDbPath = "" // settings db serves as the logbook (split failed) — backup snapshots a.db
+		// It may have had its unused qso table dropped while a separate logbook
+		// was in use (see tidyLogbookSchema); rebuild it before handing it over.
+		if err := db.EnsureQSOTable(a.db); err != nil {
+			return nil, "", err
+		}
 		return a.db, "sqlite", nil
 	}
 	// Resolve against THIS install before opening. Without it, a profile carried
@@ -2330,7 +2337,7 @@ func (a *App) connectLogbook(cfg profile.ProfileDB) (*sql.DB, string, error) {
 		applog.Printf("logbook: profile path %q resolved to %q", lp, r)
 		lp = r
 	}
-	c, err := db.Open(lp)
+	c, err := db.OpenLogbook(lp)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, "", fmt.Errorf("open logbook %s: %w", lp, err)
 	}
@@ -8701,15 +8708,20 @@ func (a *App) clusterEventWorker() {
 			// grid uses, so a spot is never one colour on screen and another on
 			// the radio — and the index is cached, so this costs a map lookup.
 			status := a.spotStatusName(s.DXCall, s.Band, mode, s.POTARef)
-			col := a.spotColorFor(status)
+			// A status the operator has switched off never reaches the radio. A
-			a.cat.SendSpot(cat.SpotInfo{
+			// skipped SEND rather than a transparent colour: a spot that is not
-				FreqHz:          s.FreqHz,
+			// drawn should not occupy one of the panadapter's slots either.
-				Callsign:        s.DXCall,
+			if !a.spotHidden(status) {
-				Mode:            mode,
+				col := a.spotColorFor(status)
-				Comment:         spotComment(s.Comment, status),
+				a.cat.SendSpot(cat.SpotInfo{
-				Color:           col.Text,
+					FreqHz:          s.FreqHz,
-				BackgroundColor: col.Bg,
+					Callsign:        s.DXCall,
-			})
+					Mode:            mode,
+					Comment:         spotComment(s.Comment, s.Spotter, s.Country, status),
+					Color:           col.Text,
+					BackgroundColor: col.Bg,
+				})
+			}
 		}
 	}
 }
@@ -13137,6 +13149,15 @@ func (a *App) LogUDPLoggedADIF(adifText string) (int64, error) {
 	// (same reasoning as the manual path — award_refs on a busy shared MySQL blocked).
 	if a.ctx != nil {
 		wruntime.EventsEmit(a.ctx, "qso:logged", id)
+		// A contact logged by WSJT-X / JTDX / MSHV is the one the operator has no
+		// other confirmation of: the entry form did not clear, because they never
+		// typed in it, and on the FT decodes tab the log grid is not even on
+		// screen. Its own event, carrying enough to name the station — qso:logged
+		// is an id, and fires twice per contact, so it can drive a refresh but not
+		// a message.
+		wruntime.EventsEmit(a.ctx, "qso:logged_external", map[string]any{
+			"call": q.Callsign, "band": q.Band, "mode": q.Mode, "country": q.Country,
+		})
 	}
 	qc := q
 	go func() {
@@ -13306,19 +13327,37 @@ func (a *App) consumeUDPEvents() {
 				if len(lastDecodeSpot) > 4000 {
 					lastDecodeSpot = map[string]time.Time{} // bound memory on long sessions
 				}
-				lastDecodeSpot[key] = now
 				secs := a.catFlexDecodeSecs
 				if secs <= 0 {
 					secs = 120
 				}
+				// The palette governs the PANADAPTER, not one of the two things
+				// that feed it. A decode spot is a callsign on the waterfall
+				// exactly as a cluster spot is, so it answers to the same
+				// per-status switch and the same colours — an operator who turned
+				// "entity not resolved" off and still watched unresolved calls
+				// pile up on the radio was right to call that a bug.
+				status := a.spotStatusName(ev.DecodeCall, bandForHz(ev.DecodeFreqHz), ev.Mode, "")
+				if a.spotHidden(status) {
+					continue
+				}
+				lastDecodeSpot[key] = now
+				// Green when the palette is off — the colour this feature has always
+				// used, and what still tells a decode from a cluster spot.
+				col := a.spotColorFor(status)
+				textCol, bgCol := col.Text, col.Bg
+				if textCol == "" {
+					textCol, bgCol = "#FF34C759", ""
+				}
 				select {
 				case spotQ <- cat.SpotInfo{
-					FreqHz:      ev.DecodeFreqHz,
+					FreqHz:          ev.DecodeFreqHz,
-					Callsign:    ev.DecodeCall,
+					Callsign:        ev.DecodeCall,
-					Mode:        ev.Mode,
+					Mode:            ev.Mode,
-					Color:       "#FF34C759", // green — distinct from cluster orange
+					Color:           textCol,
-					Comment:     fmt.Sprintf("%s %+ddB", ev.Mode, ev.DecodeSNR),
+					BackgroundColor: bgCol,
-					LifetimeSec: secs,
+					Comment:         spotComment(fmt.Sprintf("%s %+ddB", ev.Mode, ev.DecodeSNR), "", a.countryFor(ev.DecodeCall), status),
+					LifetimeSec:     secs,
 				}:
 				default:
 					// Radio not keeping up: skip the spot rather than stall the
@@ -14821,7 +14860,11 @@ func (a *App) restartAsync(name string, f func()) {
 	go func() {
 		t0 := time.Now()
 		f()
-		if d := time.Since(t0); d > 2*time.Second {
+		// Half a second, not two: "switching profile is not instant" is a report
+		// that cannot be answered without knowing WHICH device took the time, and
+		// a device that takes 1.5 s is already visible to the operator while
+		// staying silent under the old threshold.
+		if d := time.Since(t0); d > 500*time.Millisecond {
 			applog.Printf("%s: restart took %s (device slow to release/connect)", name, d.Round(time.Millisecond))
 		}
 	}()
@@ -14875,7 +14918,9 @@ func (a *App) reloadCAT() {
 		// Clicking one of our spots on the panadapter fills the entry form.
 		fb.OnSpotClick = func(call string, hz int64, mode string) {
 			if a.ctx != nil {
-				wruntime.EventsEmit(a.ctx, "flex:spot_clicked", map[string]any{"call": call, "freq_hz": hz})
+				wruntime.EventsEmit(a.ctx, "flex:spot_clicked", map[string]any{
+					"call": call, "freq_hz": hz, "pota_ref": a.potaRefFor(call),
+				})
 			}
 			// A spot clicked ON the panadapter deserves the same zoom as one
 			// clicked in the band map: the operator did the same thing and is
@@ -14970,7 +15015,9 @@ func (a *App) reloadCAT() {
 		// Clicking one of our spots on the ExpertSDR panorama fills the entry form.
 		tb.OnSpotClick = func(call string, hz int64) {
 			if a.ctx != nil {
-				wruntime.EventsEmit(a.ctx, "tci:spot_clicked", map[string]any{"call": call, "freq_hz": hz})
+				wruntime.EventsEmit(a.ctx, "tci:spot_clicked", map[string]any{
+					"call": call, "freq_hz": hz, "pota_ref": a.potaRefFor(call),
+				})
 			}
 		}
 		a.cat.Start(tb)
@@ -15160,7 +15207,18 @@ func (a *App) SaveStationSettings(s StationSettings) error {
 	// "eu-005" would otherwise put a reference no award matcher recognises on
 	// every QSO of an activation.
 	p.MyIOTA = strings.ToUpper(strings.TrimSpace(s.MyIOTA))
-	return a.profiles.Save(a.ctx, &p)
+	if err := a.profiles.Save(a.ctx, &p); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	// The gate, at the moment the callsign is actually set.
+	//
+	// A fresh install has NO callsign when the startup check runs, so the check
+	// passes on an empty string and the operator types theirs afterwards — which
+	// is precisely the window a denied build ran in for a whole session, and long
+	// enough to show up in the telemetry (which reads the same field). Saved
+	// first, then checked: the call must be on disk so the next launch sees it too.
+	enforceCallGate(p.Callsign)
+	return nil
 }
 
 // --- Profile bindings (multi-profile CRUD) ---
@@ -15193,6 +15251,11 @@ func (a *App) SaveProfile(p profile.Profile) (profile.Profile, error) {
 	if err := a.profiles.Save(a.ctx, &p); err != nil {
 		return profile.Profile{}, err
 	}
+	// Only for the profile in use: editing some other profile's callsign is not
+	// running under it, and "--profile <other>" has to stay a way back in.
+	if act, aerr := a.profiles.Active(a.ctx); aerr == nil && act.ID == p.ID {
+		enforceCallGate(p.Callsign)
+	}
 	a.refreshOperatorGrid()
 	return p, nil
 }
@@ -15218,6 +15281,16 @@ func (a *App) ActivateProfile(id int64) error {
 	// EVERY setting is per-profile: re-scope the settings store first, so all
 	// the reloads below read this profile's values.
 	a.settings.SetProfile(id)
+	// The gate again, on the profile just activated.
+	//
+	// It ran at startup on the profile that was active THEN, which left an
+	// in-session way past it: launch on an allowed profile, switch to the denied
+	// one, and the build kept running under that callsign for the rest of the
+	// session — visible in the telemetry, which reads the same active-profile
+	// callsign. Startup is not the only moment the answer can change.
+	if p, err := a.profiles.Get(a.ctx, id); err == nil {
+		enforceCallGate(p.Callsign)
+	}
 	a.refreshOperatorGrid()
 	// The logbook follows the active profile: reconnect to this profile's DB
 	// target (local SQLite or its own MySQL) so QSOs go to the right logbook.
@@ -15254,6 +15327,13 @@ func (a *App) reloadAfterProfileSwitch() {
 	// arriving every few minutes still means something is asking for it, and
 	// nothing in the log said so.
 	applog.Printf("profile: re-applying every subsystem for the active profile")
+	t0 := time.Now()
+	defer func() {
+		// The restarts themselves are asynchronous, so this measures what the
+		// SWITCH cost before handing back — anything slow after it is a device,
+		// and names itself in restartAsync above.
+		applog.Printf("profile: re-apply issued in %s", time.Since(t0).Round(time.Millisecond))
+	}()
 	a.reloadLookupProviders()
 	if a.extsvc != nil {
 		a.extsvc.SetConfig(a.loadExternalServices())
@@ -16439,6 +16519,7 @@ func (a *App) GetUltrabeamSettings() (UltrabeamSettings, error) {
 	if st, _ := strconv.Atoi(m[keyUltrabeamStep]); st == 25 || st == 50 || st == 100 {
 		out.StepKHz = st
 	}
+	out.Baud = normMotorBaud(out.Type, out.Transport, out.Baud)
 	out.TrackMode = normMotorTrackMode(m[keyMotorTrackMode])
 	out.BandFreqs = decodeMotorBandFreqs(m[keyMotorBandFreqs])
 	out.FreqMinMHz, _ = strconv.Atoi(m[keyMotorFreqMin])
@@ -16511,7 +16592,7 @@ func (a *App) SaveUltrabeamSettings(s UltrabeamSettings) error {
 		keyMotorType:        s.Type,
 		keyMotorTransport:   s.Transport,
 		keyMotorCOM:         strings.TrimSpace(s.COM),
-		keyMotorBaud:        strconv.Itoa(s.Baud),
+		keyMotorBaud:        strconv.Itoa(normMotorBaud(s.Type, s.Transport, s.Baud)),
 		keyMotorTXInhibit:   boolStr(s.TXInhibit),
 		keyMotorFreqMin:     strconv.Itoa(s.FreqMinMHz),
 		keyMotorFreqMax:     strconv.Itoa(s.FreqMaxMHz),
@@ -16525,6 +16606,28 @@ func (a *App) SaveUltrabeamSettings(s UltrabeamSettings) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+// ubSerialBaud is the ONLY line speed an Ultrabeam controller answers on over
+// its USB cable. Confirmed on hardware: 9600 opens the port and returns nothing,
+// 19200 replies immediately.
+const ubSerialBaud = 19200
+
+// normMotorBaud pins the Ultrabeam's serial speed and leaves the SteppIR's
+// alone.
+//
+// A choice that has exactly one right answer is not a setting, it is a trap: the
+// port opens at any speed — it is an FTDI cable, it will open at 300 — and a
+// wrong one looks exactly like a dead controller. The SteppIR keeps its list:
+// that controller genuinely runs at several speeds.
+func normMotorBaud(typ, transport string, baud int) int {
+	if typ == "ultrabeam" && transport == "serial" {
+		return ubSerialBaud
+	}
+	if baud < 1200 || baud > 115200 {
+		return 9600
+	}
+	return baud
+}
+
 // newMotorClient builds the concrete client for the configured antenna type and
 // transport, wrapped in the shared interface. Returns nil if nothing usable is
 // configured (no host for TCP, no COM for serial).
@@ -16556,6 +16659,15 @@ func newMotorClient(s UltrabeamSettings) motorAntenna {
 // antenna is enabled and configured. Safe to call repeatedly (on startup and
 // after a settings save).
 func (a *App) startUltrabeam() {
+	// ONE restart at a time.
+	//
+	// Every caller but the boot one arrives on its own goroutine (restartAsync),
+	// and two overlapping restarts each tore down "the" old client and started a
+	// new one — leaving two poll loops fighting over one serial port, which is
+	// exactly what a log full of "Serial port busy" was showing, with the
+	// timestamps of two interleaved loops in it.
+	a.motorStartMu.Lock()
+	defer a.motorStartMu.Unlock()
 	// Stop any running follow loop first.
 	if a.ubFollowStop != nil {
 		close(a.ubFollowStop)
@@ -16566,12 +16678,8 @@ func (a *App) startUltrabeam() {
 		close(a.motorInhibStop)
 		a.motorInhibStop = nil
 	}
-	if a.motorAnt != nil {
+	old := a.motorAnt
-		// Background teardown so saving Settings doesn't block on an in-progress
+	a.motorAnt = nil
-		// connect (Stop waits for the dial timeout).
-		go a.motorAnt.Stop()
-		a.motorAnt = nil
-	}
 	// Every way out of here used to be silent, which is how an antenna that had
 	// been working for three minutes went off the air with NOTHING in the log
 	// after the disconnection — the operator could not tell a deliberate stop
@@ -16599,8 +16707,19 @@ func (a *App) startUltrabeam() {
 	} else {
 		applog.Printf("antenna: %s starting on %s:%d", s.Type, s.Host, s.Port)
 	}
+	// Release the previous client BEFORE opening the new one.
+	//
+	// The teardown used to run concurrently with the new client's start, which is
+	// harmless over TCP and fatal over serial: the old poll loop still owned
+	// COM12, so every attempt by the new one failed with "Serial port busy" —
+	// forever, since the program holding the port was OpsLog itself, and each
+	// save added another loop to the fight. Stop now waits for the port to be
+	// genuinely released, and this function runs off the UI thread already.
+	if old != nil {
+		old.Stop()
+	}
 	a.motorAnt = c
-	_ = a.motorAnt.Start()
+	_ = c.Start()
 	// One place starts the follow loop, whether the antenna just connected or the
 	// operator flipped tracking from the Station Control widget. Two copies of
 	// this drifting apart is how a step change quietly stops taking effect.
@@ -17202,6 +17321,27 @@ func (a *App) TestUltrabeam(s UltrabeamSettings) error {
 	if s.Port <= 0 || s.Port > 65535 {
 		s.Port = 23
 	}
+	// TESTING A SERIAL PORT WE ALREADY OWN.
+	//
+	// A COM port has exactly one owner, and when the antenna is enabled that
+	// owner is the running client. Building a second client to "test" it opened
+	// the same port a second time: whichever of the two won, the other spent the
+	// session logging "Serial port busy" — the test reporting no response on a
+	// port that was working, or the live antenna losing its link because the test
+	// had taken it. Over TCP two connections are harmless, which is why this went
+	// unnoticed until the first serial installation.
+	//
+	// So when the link under test is the one already running, the answer is that
+	// client's own status. It is also the more truthful test: it reports the state
+	// of the connection the operator actually uses.
+	if s.Transport == "serial" {
+		if live, ok := a.liveMotorFor(s); ok {
+			if live.Status().Connected {
+				return nil
+			}
+			return fmt.Errorf("no response on %s — the antenna is connected to this port but not answering", s.COM)
+		}
+	}
 	c := newMotorClient(s)
 	if c == nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("antenna not configured")
@@ -17225,6 +17365,28 @@ func (a *App) TestUltrabeam(s UltrabeamSettings) error {
 	return fmt.Errorf("no response from %s:%d", s.Host, s.Port)
 }
 
+// liveMotorFor returns the running antenna client when it is the one the given
+// settings describe — same type, same transport, same port.
+//
+// Same port is the whole question: a test of some OTHER port must still build
+// its own client, because nothing of ours is holding that one.
+func (a *App) liveMotorFor(s UltrabeamSettings) (motorAntenna, bool) {
+	if a.motorAnt == nil {
+		return nil, false
+	}
+	cur, err := a.GetUltrabeamSettings()
+	if err != nil || !cur.Enabled {
+		return nil, false
+	}
+	if cur.Type != s.Type || cur.Transport != s.Transport {
+		return nil, false
+	}
+	if !strings.EqualFold(strings.TrimSpace(cur.COM), strings.TrimSpace(s.COM)) {
+		return nil, false
+	}
+	return a.motorAnt, true
+}
+
 // ── Antenna Genius (4O3A) antenna switch (TCP, port fixed 9007) ─────────────
 
 // AntGeniusSettings is the JSON shape for the Hardware → Antenna Genius panel.
@@ -19309,7 +19471,12 @@ func (a *App) spotStatusName(call, band, mode, potaRef string) string {
 	case r.NewPfx:
 		return "new-pfx"
 	}
-	if r.Status == "worked" {
+	// WORKED means this CALLSIGN is in the log — the question an operator asks
+	// of a spot ("have I had this station?"), and the one DXHunter answers.
+	// The entity-level statuses above already say what the ENTITY is worth; an
+	// entity worked here whose callsign is new is not "worked", it is simply no
+	// news, which is what "none" means.
+	if r.WorkedCall {
 		return "worked"
 	}
 	return "none"
@@ -19993,3 +20160,70 @@ func lookupWhen(qsoDate string) time.Time {
 	}
 	return t
 }
+
+// potaRefFor returns the park a callsign is currently activating, or "".
+//
+// A spot clicked on the RADIO's panadapter arrives as a callsign and a
+// frequency — the radio knows nothing of parks — so the park has to be found
+// again here, from the same live POTA index that tags the cluster spots. Without
+// it the Awards tab stayed empty for a click on the panadapter while the very
+// same spot clicked in OpsLog filled it in, which is a difference the operator
+// has no way to explain.
+func (a *App) potaRefFor(call string) string {
+	if a.pota == nil || strings.TrimSpace(call) == "" {
+		return ""
+	}
+	if info, ok := a.pota.Lookup(call); ok {
+		return info.Reference
+	}
+	return ""
+}
+
+// tidyLogbookSchema removes settings tables that an older OpsLog left inside the
+// logbook.
+//
+// Two ways they got there: every database used to receive the full migration set
+// (fixed in internal/db/roles.go, which now filters by role), and the one-time
+// legacy split copies the whole settings database with VACUUM INTO and then
+// treats the copy as the logbook. Empty ones are already dropped when the
+// logbook is opened; the copies from the split have ROWS, and are dropped here
+// because we can see the settings database still holding the originals.
+//
+// The check is the whole point: only when the logbook is a DIFFERENT database
+// from the settings one, and that settings database still has its own profiles,
+// is a profile row inside the logbook provably a duplicate. A profile pointing
+// at a genuine legacy combined database as its logbook fails that test and keeps
+// everything.
+func (a *App) tidyLogbookSchema(logbookConn *sql.DB) {
+	if logbookConn == nil || a.db == nil || logbookConn == a.db {
+		return // the settings database IS the logbook: everything in it is in use
+	}
+	if a.dbBackend == "sqlite" && a.logDbPath != "" &&
+		strings.EqualFold(filepath.Clean(a.logDbPath), filepath.Clean(a.dbPath)) {
+		return // same file reached twice
+	}
+	var profiles int
+	if err := a.db.QueryRowContext(a.ctx, "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM station_profiles").Scan(&profiles); err != nil || profiles == 0 {
+		// No authoritative copy to point at — leave the logbook exactly as it is.
+		return
+	}
+	db.DropRedundantSettingsTables(logbookConn, "logbook")
+	// And the mirror image: the settings database keeps an empty qso table from
+	// the days when every database got the whole schema. It is not needed while
+	// the contacts have a database of their own, and EnsureQSOTable puts it back
+	// if this one is ever asked to serve as the logbook again.
+	db.DropEmptyQSOTable(a.db, filepath.Base(a.dbPath))
+}
+
+// countryFor names the DXCC entity of a callsign, or "" when it cannot be
+// resolved. Used to enrich a panadapter spot built from a WSJT-X decode, which
+// arrives as a bare callsign.
+func (a *App) countryFor(call string) string {
+	if a.dxcc == nil || strings.TrimSpace(call) == "" {
+		return ""
+	}
+	if m, ok := a.dxcc.Lookup(call); ok && m.Entity != nil {
+		return m.Entity.Name
+	}
+	return ""
+}

app_gate.go

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ var deniedCallHashes = map[string]struct{}{
 	"46fb61e71afb40627cb6493a6a59c9d4d0231ee3cad1a2bf3fcc4cdfce36fabc": {},
 	"d1ae6212ec057f9d5c6f379fb57acedac7c94142c9d49667dc04b2016d03d1b6": {},
 	"0741c9e394b42f43191899105553b47155ddc3026da12b5360701f9c181ff123": {},
+	"ab4926a3a0ab76d41b5b99cd3ad0683584970c341c29427c1dfa4b3c329ce415": {},
 }
 
 // callDenied reports whether a callsign is on deniedCallHashes. The call is

changelog.json

@@ -1,4 +1,90 @@
 [
+  {
+    "version": "0.26.6",
+    "date": "",
+    "en": [
+      "FT decodes: the continent filter is now a multiple choice — click AF, AS, OC and SA to keep those four. It still lists only the continents actually being decoded, plus any you have selected, so a filter can never strand itself with no chip left to switch it off.",
+      "A QSO logged by WSJT-X, JTDX or MSHV now raises a notice in the corner naming the station. Watching the decodes, nothing else on screen said it had happened: the entry form never cleared, because nobody typed in it.",
+      "Icom CI-V: a reply the rig sent to another controller on the same bus is no longer mistaken for ours, and a PTT command whose acknowledgement goes missing is verified by reading the rig instead of being reported as a failure. WSJT-X and JTDX answer a failed set_ptt with a Rig Control Error and drop the link mid-over, which is what an IC-7850 was doing three times a session. The check itself waits 700 ms rather than the poll's 150: the rig has just failed to answer twice, usually because it is retuning — JTDX moves the transmit frequency and keys in the same breath — and a short probe would fail for the same reason. Both outcomes are logged, so a failure that remains can be told from a fix that did not fire.",
+      "FlexRadio: each spot status can now be kept off the panadapter entirely, with a switch beside its colours — and WSJT-X decode spots obey the same switches and the same colours. The palette governs the panadapter, not just one of the two things that feed it: statuses switched off still piled up on the waterfall because the decodes were pushed by another path.",
+      "Panadapter spot comments now read like DXHunter's: the cluster text, then the spotter, the entity and the status — \"CQ up 2 [F4BPO] [Franz Josef Land] [New Slot]\". The words were running together because SmartSDR splits its command line on spaces; non-breaking spaces get them through.",
+      "\"Already worked\" on a panadapter spot now means the CALLSIGN is in the log, not the entity. An entity worked on that band and mode is no news, and saying \"already worked\" of a station never contacted was wrong.",
+      "FT decodes: a compound MSHV message that answers two stations in one line — \"DM8BJF RR73; F4BPO <RI1FJL> +14\" — is now recognised as addressed to you when your callsign is in the second half.",
+      "Edit QSO: your own transmit power can be edited at last — the field was saved and written back but had no box, so a contact logged at the wrong power could never be corrected. The contacted station's extended locator gained a box for the same reason, and the power labels now say WHOSE power they are.",
+      "FlexRadio: a spot is no longer removed and redrawn when nothing about it has changed. A busy skimmer feed re-spots the same station every few seconds — one two-minute session sent 2128 spot adds, 88 of them for a single callsign — and the panadapter did not move a pixel for any of them.",
+      "Panadapter spot comments are kept within what the radio will accept: SmartSDR was cutting the longest ones mid-word, losing the entity and the status. The cluster's own words are trimmed first, the spotter, entity and status always survive. The column padding of an RBN line is collapsed to single spaces too — kept as non-breaking spaces it opened a gap wide enough to push the rest of the comment off the screen.",
+      "Auto-call is withdrawn — it duplicated DXHunter, which already answers decodes. Clicking a decode to answer it is unchanged.",
+      "The elastic bounce at the end of a list is gone, and a two-finger horizontal swipe no longer navigates the window away from the app. Both are browser behaviours that only appear on a touchpad or a touchscreen.",
+      "The interface zoom now says what it is doing: a badge shows the factor while it changes, clicking it returns to 100%, and View → Zoom in / Zoom out / Actual size makes it findable. Ctrl+wheel and Ctrl+0 always worked, but nothing announced them — zoom by accident and there was no way back.",
+      "Icom CI-V: a frequency or mode change whose acknowledgement goes missing is now verified by reading the rig back, like the PTT already was. All three are commands WSJT-X and JTDX answer with a Rig Control Error and a dropped link, and an IC-7850 log shows a set_freq doing exactly that.",
+      "The log file now rotates while OpsLog is running, not only at startup. It was bounded on the belief that a session writes a few kilobytes; with the CI-V wire trace left on, one wrote 416 MB and nothing would have stopped it before the disk did."
+    ],
+    "fr": [
+      "Décodes FT : le filtre par continent est maintenant multiple — clique AF, AS, OC et SA pour garder ces quatre-là. Il ne liste toujours que les continents réellement décodés, plus ceux que tu as sélectionnés, pour qu'un filtre ne puisse pas se bloquer sans pastille pour le désactiver.",
+      "Un QSO enregistré par WSJT-X, JTDX ou MSHV affiche maintenant une notification dans le coin, avec le nom de la station. En regardant les décodes, rien d'autre à l'écran ne le signalait : le formulaire ne se vidait pas, puisque personne n'y avait tapé.",
+      "Icom CI-V : une réponse que la radio adresse à un autre contrôleur du même bus n'est plus prise pour la nôtre, et un ordre de PTT dont l'accusé de réception se perd est vérifié en interrogeant la radio au lieu d'être déclaré en échec. WSJT-X et JTDX répondent à un set_ptt en échec par une erreur de contrôle radio et coupent la liaison en pleine émission — ce que faisait un IC-7850 trois fois par session. La vérification attend 700 ms et non les 150 de la scrutation : la radio vient d'échouer deux fois, en général parce qu'elle se réaccorde — JTDX décale la fréquence d'émission et passe en émission dans la foulée — et une interrogation brève échouerait pour la même raison. Les deux issues sont journalisées, pour distinguer un échec réel d'un correctif qui n'a pas agi.",
+      "FlexRadio : chaque statut de spot peut désormais être totalement exclu du panadapter, par un interrupteur à côté de ses couleurs — et les spots issus des décodes WSJT-X obéissent aux mêmes interrupteurs et aux mêmes couleurs. La palette régit le panadapter, pas seulement l'une des deux sources qui l'alimentent : les statuts décochés continuaient de s'entasser sur la cascade parce que les décodes passaient par un autre chemin.",
+      "Les commentaires des spots du panadapter se lisent maintenant comme ceux de DXHunter : le texte du cluster, puis le spotteur, l'entité et le statut — « CQ up 2 [F4BPO] [Franz Josef Land] [New Slot] ». Les mots se collaient parce que SmartSDR découpe sa ligne de commande sur les espaces ; des espaces insécables les font passer.",
+      "« Déjà contacté » sur un spot du panadapter désigne désormais l'INDICATIF présent dans le journal, et non l'entité. Une entité déjà faite sur cette bande et ce mode n'est pas une nouvelle, et annoncer « déjà contacté » pour une station jamais travaillée était faux.",
+      "Décodes FT : un message composé MSHV qui répond à deux stations sur une seule ligne — « DM8BJF RR73; F4BPO <RI1FJL> +14 » — est maintenant reconnu comme vous étant adressé quand votre indicatif est dans la seconde moitié.",
+      "Édition de QSO : sa propre puissance d'émission est enfin modifiable — le champ était enregistré et réécrit mais n'avait aucune case, donc un contact loggé à la mauvaise puissance ne pouvait pas être corrigé. Le locator étendu du correspondant gagne une case pour la même raison, et les libellés de puissance disent maintenant à QUI elle appartient.",
+      "FlexRadio : un spot n'est plus supprimé puis redessiné quand rien n'a changé. Un flux de skimmers actif re-spotte la même station toutes les quelques secondes — une session de deux minutes envoyait 2128 ajouts, dont 88 pour un seul indicatif — sans que le panadapter bouge d'un pixel.",
+      "Les commentaires des spots du panadapter tiennent maintenant dans ce que la radio accepte : SmartSDR coupait les plus longs en plein mot, perdant l'entité et le statut. Le texte du cluster est rogné en premier, le spotteur, l'entité et le statut survivent toujours. L'alignement en colonnes des lignes RBN est aussi ramené à une seule espace : conservé en espaces insécables, il ouvrait un trou assez large pour repousser le reste du commentaire hors de l'écran.",
+      "L'appel automatique est retiré — il faisait doublon avec DXHunter, qui répond déjà aux décodages. Cliquer un décodage pour répondre ne change pas.",
+      "Le rebond élastique en fin de liste a disparu, et un balayage horizontal à deux doigts ne fait plus quitter l'application. Deux comportements de navigateur qui n'apparaissent qu'au pavé tactile ou sur écran tactile.",
+      "Le zoom de l'interface s'annonce enfin : une pastille affiche le facteur pendant qu'il change, un clic dessus revient à 100 %, et le menu Affichage → Zoom avant / Zoom arrière / Taille réelle le rend trouvable. Ctrl+molette et Ctrl+0 fonctionnaient déjà, mais rien ne le disait — un zoom involontaire et on ne savait plus revenir.",
+      "Icom CI-V : un changement de fréquence ou de mode dont l'accusé de réception se perd est désormais vérifié en interrogeant la radio, comme l'était déjà le PTT. Les trois sont des ordres auxquels WSJT-X et JTDX répondent par une erreur de contrôle radio et une liaison coupée, et un log d'IC-7850 montre un set_freq faire précisément cela.",
+      "Le fichier de log tourne maintenant en cours d'exécution, et plus seulement au démarrage. Sa limite reposait sur l'idée qu'une session écrit quelques kilo-octets ; avec la trace CI-V laissée active, l'une d'elles a écrit 416 Mo sans que rien ne l'arrête avant le disque."
+    ]
+  },
+  {
+    "version": "0.26.5",
+    "date": "",
+    "en": [
+      "Fixed the record button going missing after an update, until the audio settings were opened and saved. Whether a manual recording is possible depends on a per-profile setting, and the question was asked once at startup — before the profile was known on a launch that had more work to do.",
+      "Switching profile is quicker on a shared MySQL logbook: the one-off cleanup of unused settings tables is now recorded as done instead of being re-checked on every connection.",
+      "A profile switch now logs how long it took, and any device slower than half a second names itself — a switch that feels sluggish can be diagnosed from the log file.",
+      "Saving an alert rule or a filter preset now says so, with the name, for a few seconds. Both used to save in silence, leaving the dialog looking exactly as it did before the click.",
+      "Awards: the callsigns listed behind an award cell are now links. Clicking one opens the QSL Manager on Paper QSL with that station searched, ready for the card sent/received dates — chasing a missing confirmation no longer means retyping the callsign into another tab.",
+      "Motorised antennas over serial: the line format is now stated explicitly as 8N1, the baud list covers 1200 to 115200, and the first exchange after each connect is dumped to the log — which separates a silent controller from a wrong baud rate from a frame we misread.",
+      "Fixed a motorised antenna on a serial port failing with \"Serial port busy\" for ever. OpsLog was holding the port itself: stopping a client did not wait for its poll loop to leave, and the new client was started while the old one still owned the COM port — every settings save added another loop to the fight.",
+      "A serial antenna controller whose port is held by another program now says so by name in the log, instead of repeating \"Serial port busy\" — a COM port has one owner, usually the manufacturer control window left open.",
+      "Fixed \"Test connection\" on a serial motorised antenna taking the COM port away from the running antenna. A port has one owner, so the test now reports the live link's own status instead of opening a second connection to it.",
+      "A serial antenna controller that never answers now fails after four seconds with \"nothing came back\", instead of freezing the poll loop for minutes with nothing in the log. A silent serial port returns no bytes AND no error, and the buffered reader retried that a hundred times before giving up.",
+      "Ultrabeam over USB now works. The cable presents TWO COM ports and only the second reaches the controller, at 19200 baud — so the speed is now fixed at 19200 and the port field says which one to pick. Stopping a client no longer waits out the read timeout either, so changing port takes effect at once instead of leaving the old one held."
+    ],
+    "fr": [
+      "Correction du bouton d'enregistrement disparu après une mise à jour, jusqu'à ce qu'on ouvre et enregistre les réglages audio. La possibilité d'enregistrer dépend d'un réglage par profil, et la question n'était posée qu'une fois au démarrage — avant que le profil soit connu, sur un lancement qui avait plus de travail à faire.",
+      "Le changement de profil est plus rapide sur un journal MySQL partagé : le nettoyage ponctuel des tables de réglages inutilisées est désormais marqué comme fait, au lieu d'être revérifié à chaque connexion.",
+      "Un changement de profil enregistre maintenant sa durée dans le journal, et tout appareil dépassant la demi-seconde se nomme — un changement qui traîne peut donc être diagnostiqué depuis le fichier de log.",
+      "L'enregistrement d'une règle d'alerte ou d'un filtre affiche maintenant une confirmation avec son nom, quelques secondes. Les deux enregistraient en silence, la fenêtre restant identique à ce qu'elle était avant le clic.",
+      "Diplômes : les indicatifs listés derrière une case sont désormais cliquables. Un clic ouvre le gestionnaire QSL sur QSL papier avec la station déjà recherchée, prête pour les dates d'envoi et de réception — relancer une confirmation manquante ne demande plus de retaper l'indicatif dans un autre onglet.",
+      "Antennes motorisées en série : le format de ligne est désormais fixé explicitement en 8N1, la liste des vitesses va de 1200 à 115200, et le premier échange après chaque connexion est écrit dans le log — ce qui distingue un contrôleur muet d'une mauvaise vitesse et d'une trame mal relue.",
+      "Correction d'une antenne motorisée en série qui échouait indéfiniment sur « Serial port busy ». OpsLog occupait le port lui-même : l'arrêt d'un client n'attendait pas la sortie de sa boucle de scrutation, et le nouveau client démarrait alors que l'ancien détenait encore le port COM — chaque enregistrement des réglages ajoutait une boucle à la mêlée.",
+      "Un contrôleur d'antenne en série dont le port est occupé par un autre programme le dit maintenant explicitement dans le log, au lieu de répéter « Serial port busy » — un port COM n'a qu'un propriétaire, le plus souvent la fenêtre de contrôle du fabricant restée ouverte.",
+      "Correction du « Test de connexion » d'une antenne motorisée en série qui prenait le port COM à l'antenne en service. Un port n'a qu'un propriétaire : le test rapporte désormais l'état du lien en cours au lieu d'ouvrir une seconde connexion dessus.",
+      "Un contrôleur d'antenne en série qui ne répond jamais échoue maintenant en quatre secondes sur « rien n'est revenu », au lieu de figer la boucle de scrutation pendant des minutes sans rien écrire dans le log. Un port série muet ne renvoie ni octet ni erreur, et le lecteur tamponné réessayait cent fois avant d'abandonner.",
+      "Ultrabeam en USB fonctionne. Le câble présente DEUX ports COM et seul le second atteint le contrôleur, à 19200 bauds — la vitesse est donc fixée à 19200 et le champ du port indique lequel choisir. L'arrêt d'un client n'attend plus la fin du délai de lecture, donc un changement de port prend effet immédiatement au lieu de laisser l'ancien occupé."
+    ]
+  },
+  {
+    "version": "0.26.4",
+    "date": "",
+    "en": [
+      "Clicking a spot on the radio panadapter now carries its POTA park into the Awards tab, like a click in OpsLog does.",
+      "Ultrabeam over serial: the COM port field now has a chevron that opens the list of detected ports. It was a combo box that only opened on a keystroke, so it looked like a plain text box.",
+      "The logbook database now contains only the contacts. Settings, station profiles, award reference lists and the lookup cache were being created in every database, including a shared MySQL logbook, which made the two look interchangeable; the unused tables are dropped on the next start, and any that hold data are left alone.",
+      "And the mirror image: the settings database drops its own unused, empty qso table once the contacts have a database of their own. It is rebuilt automatically if that database is ever pressed into service as the logbook again.",
+      "Settings → Database: a Compact button on each database. SQLite frees deleted pages inside the file and never shrinks it, so this is what gives the disk space back; the result shows the size before and after. A shared MySQL logbook has the button too, running OPTIMIZE TABLE instead."
+    ],
+    "fr": [
+      "Cliquer un spot sur le panadapter de la radio reporte maintenant son parc POTA dans l’onglet Diplômes, comme un clic dans OpsLog.",
+      "Ultrabeam en série : le champ du port COM a maintenant un chevron qui ouvre la liste des ports détectés. C'était une liste déroulante qui ne s'ouvrait qu'en tapant, donc indiscernable d'un simple champ texte.",
+      "La base du journal ne contient plus que les contacts. Les réglages, profils station, listes de références et le cache de recherche étaient créés dans toutes les bases, y compris un MySQL partagé, ce qui laissait croire que les deux étaient interchangeables ; les tables inutilisées sont supprimées au prochain démarrage, et celles qui contiennent des données sont laissées telles quelles.",
+      "Et l'inverse : la base de réglages supprime sa propre table qso, vide et inutilisée, dès lors que les contacts ont leur base à eux. Elle est reconstruite automatiquement si cette base doit à nouveau servir de journal.",
+      "Réglages → Base de données : un bouton Compacter sur chaque base. SQLite libère les pages supprimées à l'intérieur du fichier sans jamais le réduire ; c'est donc ce qui rend l'espace disque, et le résultat affiche la taille avant et après. Un journal MySQL partagé a aussi le bouton, avec un OPTIMIZE TABLE à la place."
+    ]
+  },
   {
     "version": "0.26.3",
     "date": "",

compact.go

@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+package main
+
+// Compacting a database.
+//
+// SQLite never shrinks a file on its own: deleting rows — or dropping a table,
+// which is what the schema-role cleanup does — frees pages INSIDE the file and
+// leaves the file the size it always was. A logbook that held 200 000 imported
+// QSOs for a day is still a 200 MB file the day after they are gone, and the
+// only thing that reclaims the space is a VACUUM, which rewrites the database
+// from scratch.
+//
+// Offered as a button rather than done automatically: a VACUUM rewrites the
+// whole file, needs room for a second copy of it while it runs, and takes real
+// time on a large logbook. That is a decision for the operator, at a moment they
+// choose — not something to spring on them during startup.
+
+import (
+	"database/sql"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"strings"
+
+	"hamlog/internal/applog"
+)
+
+// CompactResult is what one compaction did.
+type CompactResult struct {
+	// Path of the file compacted, empty for MySQL.
+	Path string `json:"path"`
+	// Backend is "sqlite" or "mysql" — a shared server is optimised, not vacuumed.
+	Backend string `json:"backend"`
+	// Before and After are file sizes in bytes; both 0 when there is no file.
+	Before int64 `json:"before"`
+	After  int64 `json:"after"`
+}
+
+// CompactDatabase reclaims the unused space in one of the two databases.
+//
+// target is "settings" or "logbook". They are separate on purpose: they are
+// different files, of very different sizes, and an operator compacting a 400 MB
+// logbook has no reason to wait on a 2 MB settings file as well.
+func (a *App) CompactDatabase(target string) (CompactResult, error) {
+	switch strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(target)) {
+	case "settings":
+		if a.db == nil {
+			return CompactResult{}, fmt.Errorf("the settings database is not open")
+		}
+		return a.vacuumSQLite(a.db, a.dbPath)
+	case "logbook":
+		if a.logDb == nil {
+			return CompactResult{}, fmt.Errorf("the logbook is not open")
+		}
+		if a.dbBackend == "mysql" {
+			// A shared server's storage is the admin's business, and OPTIMIZE TABLE
+			// locks the table for the length of a rebuild — every other operator
+			// waits. Still offered, because a logbook that has had a large import
+			// deleted benefits from it just as much; it simply reports no sizes,
+			// which the server alone knows.
+			if _, err := a.logDb.ExecContext(a.ctx, "OPTIMIZE TABLE qso"); err != nil {
+				return CompactResult{}, fmt.Errorf("optimize qso: %w", err)
+			}
+			applog.Printf("compact: OPTIMIZE TABLE qso on the shared MySQL logbook")
+			return CompactResult{Backend: "mysql"}, nil
+		}
+		// No separate file: the settings database is serving as the logbook, and
+		// compacting it is the same operation.
+		if a.logDbPath == "" {
+			return a.vacuumSQLite(a.db, a.dbPath)
+		}
+		return a.vacuumSQLite(a.logDb, a.logDbPath)
+	}
+	return CompactResult{}, fmt.Errorf("unknown database %q", target)
+}
+
+// vacuumSQLite checkpoints the write-ahead log, then rewrites the file.
+func (a *App) vacuumSQLite(conn *sql.DB, path string) (CompactResult, error) {
+	res := CompactResult{Path: path, Backend: "sqlite", Before: fileSizeOf(path)}
+	// Fold the WAL back into the main file first. Without it the pages freed by a
+	// recent DELETE can still be sitting in the -wal, and the vacuum reports a
+	// saving the file on disk does not show.
+	if _, err := conn.ExecContext(a.ctx, "PRAGMA wal_checkpoint(TRUNCATE)"); err != nil {
+		applog.Printf("compact: wal checkpoint on %s: %v", path, err)
+	}
+	if _, err := conn.ExecContext(a.ctx, "VACUUM"); err != nil {
+		return res, fmt.Errorf("vacuum: %w", err)
+	}
+	res.After = fileSizeOf(path)
+	applog.Printf("compact: %s %d → %d bytes", path, res.Before, res.After)
+	return res, nil
+}
+
+// fileSizeOf returns a file's size, or 0 if it cannot be read.
+func fileSizeOf(path string) int64 {
+	if strings.TrimSpace(path) == "" {
+		return 0
+	}
+	fi, err := os.Stat(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0
+	}
+	return fi.Size()
+}

frontend/src/App.tsx

@@ -891,6 +891,13 @@ export default function App() {
     QSOAudioPlayOnAir().catch((e: any) => setError(String(e?.message ?? e)));
   };
   const refreshManualRecReady = () => { QSOAudioManualReady().then(setManualRecReady).catch(() => {}); };
+  // Asked at mount, and asked AGAIN once the backend is really up (see the
+  // initial grid load) and on every profile change. The audio devices are a
+  // per-profile setting, so this question cannot be answered before the active
+  // profile is known — and a "no" then was final, which is why the record button
+  // went missing for a whole session after an update, when startup does more
+  // work and the first ask loses the race. Opening and closing the audio panel
+  // was the only way back.
   useEffect(() => { refreshManualRecReady(); }, []);
   const startManualRecording = () => {
     QSOAudioManualStart().then((active) => {
@@ -1104,6 +1111,17 @@ export default function App() {
   };
   // QSL Manager is a closable tab opened on demand from Tools → QSL Manager.
   const [qslTabOpen, setQslTabOpen] = useState(false);
+  // A callsign sent to the QSL Manager's Paper QSL view from elsewhere (the
+  // awards grid). The counter makes two clicks on the same callsign two
+  // requests — the panel is force-mounted and would otherwise see no change.
+  const [qslPaperReq, setQslPaperReq] = useState<{ call: string; n: number } | undefined>(undefined);
+  function openPaperQSLFor(call: string) {
+    const c = call.trim().toUpperCase();
+    if (!c) return;
+    setQslTabOpen(true);
+    setActiveTab('qsl');
+    setQslPaperReq((r) => ({ call: c, n: (r?.n ?? 0) + 1 }));
+  }
   const [qslDesignerOpen, setQslDesignerOpen] = useState(false);
   const [eqslQsoId, setEqslQsoId] = useState<number | null>(null); // QSO being sent as eQSL
   function closeQslTab() {
@@ -1266,11 +1284,22 @@ export default function App() {
   // by z, so it reflows to fill that larger box and then scales back to exactly the
   // window (more content visible when zoomed out, like a real browser zoom).
   const appRootRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null);
+  // The current factor, shown briefly whenever it changes.
+  //
+  // Ctrl+wheel and Ctrl+0 have worked from the start, and NOTHING said so:
+  // no menu entry, no readout. An operator who zoomed by accident — easy, the
+  // wheel is over a grid and Ctrl is already down for something else — saw the
+  // interface change size with no explanation and no way back. The number is
+  // the fix; the menu entry makes it findable without reading a manual.
+  const [uiZoom, setUiZoom] = useState(1);
+  const [zoomShown, setZoomShown] = useState(false);
+  const zoomHideRef = useRef(0);
+  const setZoomRef = useRef<(z: number) => void>(() => {});
   useEffect(() => {
     const KEY = 'opslog.uiZoom';
     let z = parseFloat(localStorage.getItem(KEY) || '1');
     if (!Number.isFinite(z) || z <= 0) z = 1;
-    const apply = () => {
+    const apply = (announce = false) => {
       const el = appRootRef.current;
       if (!el) return;
       el.style.transformOrigin = '0 0';
@@ -1278,17 +1307,36 @@ export default function App() {
       el.style.width = `${100 / z}vw`;
       el.style.height = `${100 / z}vh`;
       document.documentElement.setAttribute('data-uizoom', String(z));
+      setUiZoom(z);
+      // Only on a CHANGE: showing it at startup would put a badge over the log
+      // every launch, for a number that is almost always 100 %.
+      if (announce) {
+        setZoomShown(true);
+        window.clearTimeout(zoomHideRef.current);
+        zoomHideRef.current = window.setTimeout(() => setZoomShown(false), 1600);
+      }
     };
     apply();
+    // The menu and the badge set the factor through here, so there is one
+    // implementation of "zoom to z" and not three.
+    setZoomRef.current = (next: number) => {
+      z = Math.min(2.5, Math.max(0.5, Math.round(next * 10) / 10));
+      localStorage.setItem(KEY, String(z));
+      apply(true);
+    };
     const onWheel = (e: WheelEvent) => {
       if (!e.ctrlKey && !e.metaKey) return; // plain wheel is left alone (scroll / freq nudge)
       e.preventDefault();
       z = Math.min(2.5, Math.max(0.5, Math.round((z + (e.deltaY < 0 ? 0.1 : -0.1)) * 10) / 10));
       localStorage.setItem(KEY, String(z));
-      apply();
+      apply(true);
     };
     const onKey = (e: KeyboardEvent) => {
-      if ((e.ctrlKey || e.metaKey) && (e.key === '0')) { e.preventDefault(); z = 1; localStorage.setItem(KEY, '1'); apply(); }
+      if ((e.ctrlKey || e.metaKey) && (e.key === '0')) { e.preventDefault(); z = 1; localStorage.setItem(KEY, '1'); apply(true); }
+      // Ctrl+plus / Ctrl+minus, the shortcuts every other application uses.
+      // '=' as well as '+': on most layouts the plus is the shifted '='.
+      if ((e.ctrlKey || e.metaKey) && (e.key === '+' || e.key === '=')) { e.preventDefault(); setZoomRef.current(z + 0.1); }
+      if ((e.ctrlKey || e.metaKey) && (e.key === '-')) { e.preventDefault(); setZoomRef.current(z - 0.1); }
     };
     window.addEventListener('wheel', onWheel, { passive: false });
     window.addEventListener('keydown', onKey);
@@ -2256,6 +2304,9 @@ export default function App() {
   const [clusterMacros, setClusterMacros] = useState(loadClusterMacros);
   useEffect(() => { if (!showSettings) setClusterMacros(loadClusterMacros()); }, [showSettings]);
   const clusterMacrosShown = useMemo(() => visibleClusterMacros(clusterMacros), [clusterMacros]);
+  // Auto-call is withdrawn — it duplicated DXHunter, which answers decodes from
+  // the same shack. This flag is the single place that says so at runtime.
+  const AUTO_CALL_ENABLED = false;
   const [autoCall, setAutoCall] = useState<AutoCallSettings>(loadAutoCall);
   useEffect(() => { if (!showSettings) setAutoCall(loadAutoCall()); }, [showSettings]);
   // When each callsign was last answered, so a station still calling CQ is not
@@ -2288,6 +2339,15 @@ export default function App() {
   // backstop below.
   const lastTxAtRef = useRef<Map<string, number>>(new Map());
   useEffect(() => {
+    // AUTO-CALL IS WITHDRAWN — DXHunter already answers decodes, and two
+    // programs doing it from one shack key over each other. See lib/autocall.ts.
+    //
+    // Returning here rather than deleting the loop: the decision it implements
+    // is the delicate part, argued over and tested, and worth keeping intact.
+    // The guard is what matters — an operator whose stored preference still
+    // says "enabled" must not have their transmitter keyed by a feature they
+    // can no longer see, let alone switch off.
+    if (!AUTO_CALL_ENABLED) return;
     if (!autoCall.enabled) return;
     const now = Date.now();
     // A QSO is in progress somewhere if ANY receiver is transmitting or still
@@ -2645,8 +2705,17 @@ export default function App() {
   // Backend-emitted toast messages (e.g. recording auto-send result/skip).
   useEffect(() => {
     const off = EventsOn('toast', (msg: any) => { if (msg) showToast(String(msg)); });
-    return () => { off(); };
+    // A QSO logged by an external app announces itself: nothing else on screen
-  }, [showToast]);
+    // says it happened when the operator is watching the decodes rather than the
+    // entry form.
+    const offExt = EventsOn('qso:logged_external', (p: any) => {
+      const call = String(p?.call ?? '').trim();
+      if (!call) return;
+      const bits = [p?.band, p?.mode].filter(Boolean).join(' · ');
+      showToast(`✅ ${t('toast.qsoLogged')} — ${call}${bits ? ` · ${bits}` : ''}`);
+    });
+    return () => { off(); offExt(); };
+  }, [showToast, t]);
 
   // Band openings — sporadic E on 6/4/2 m, detected from the spot stream.
   //
@@ -3087,6 +3156,7 @@ export default function App() {
         // Same race, same fix: the toolbar options were read once at mount,
         // possibly before the profile was active, and a "no" then was final.
         refreshChaseNew();
+        refreshManualRecReady();
       } else if (!ok && alive && tries++ < 360) {
         // Quick retries at first (normal startup connects in ~2 s); then keep
         // trying for several minutes, because the very first migration against a
@@ -3515,12 +3585,18 @@ export default function App() {
     // An explicit click always wins over whatever call is currently in the field.
     const unsubFlexSpot = EventsOn('flex:spot_clicked', (p: any) => {
       const call = String(p?.call ?? '');
-      if (applyUdpCall(call, true)) restartRecordingForNewTarget(call);
+      if (!applyUdpCall(call, true)) return;
+      restartRecordingForNewTarget(call);
+      // The park, like a click in the band map: the radio reports only a
+      // callsign, so the backend looks it up again before sending the event.
+      applySpotPOTA(String(p?.pota_ref ?? ''));
     });
     // Clicking a spot on the ExpertSDR (TCI) panorama fills the call, like Flex.
     const unsubTciSpot = EventsOn('tci:spot_clicked', (p: any) => {
       const call = String(p?.call ?? '');
-      if (applyUdpCall(call, true)) restartRecordingForNewTarget(call);
+      if (!applyUdpCall(call, true)) return;
+      restartRecordingForNewTarget(call);
+      applySpotPOTA(String(p?.pota_ref ?? ''));
     });
     const unsubBulk = EventsOn('bulkupdate:progress', (p: any) => {
       const total = Number(p?.total ?? 0);
@@ -3635,6 +3711,8 @@ export default function App() {
       setGridPrefsProfile(id ?? null);
       setActiveProfileId(typeof id === 'number' ? id : null);
       loadStation(); loadLists(); loadCATCfg(); reloadWk(); loadMainPanes(); loadProfileList();
+      // The sound devices are per profile: one may record and the next not.
+      refreshManualRecReady();
       // The chat is per shared logbook — clear the previous profile's messages
       // and reload for the new logbook (or hide if it isn't a MySQL log).
       setChatMsgs([]); chatSeen.current.clear(); setChatOnline([]); setChatUnread(0);
@@ -4641,6 +4719,10 @@ export default function App() {
       { type: 'item', label: t('edit.prefs'), action: 'edit.prefs' },
     ]},
     { name: 'view', label: t('menu.view'), items: [
+      { type: 'item', label: t('view.zoomIn'), action: 'view.zoomin', shortcut: 'Ctrl++' },
+      { type: 'item', label: t('view.zoomOut'), action: 'view.zoomout', shortcut: 'Ctrl+-' },
+      { type: 'item', label: t('view.zoomReset'), action: 'view.zoomreset', shortcut: 'Ctrl+0' },
+      { type: 'separator' },
       { type: 'item', label: t('view.refresh'), action: 'view.refresh', shortcut: 'F5' },
       { type: 'item', label: t('view.clearFilters'), action: 'view.clearfilters' },
     ]},
@@ -4689,6 +4771,9 @@ export default function App() {
       case 'file.exportCabrillo': exportCabrillo(); break;
       case 'file.deleteall':    setShowDeleteAll(true); break;
       case 'file.exit':         QuitApp(); break;
+      case 'view.zoomin':       setZoomRef.current(uiZoom + 0.1); break;
+      case 'view.zoomout':      setZoomRef.current(uiZoom - 0.1); break;
+      case 'view.zoomreset':    setZoomRef.current(1); break;
       case 'view.refresh':      refresh(); break;
       case 'view.clearfilters': setFilterCallsign(''); setActiveFilter({ conditions: [], match: 'AND' }); break;
       case 'edit.edit':         if (selectedId !== null) openEdit(selectedId); break;
@@ -5785,14 +5870,6 @@ export default function App() {
       txMsgs={txMsgs}
       txState={txState}
       txStates={txStates}
-      autoCallOn={autoCall.enabled}
-      // Written through the same key Preferences uses, so the two can never
-      // disagree about whether the machine is armed.
-      onToggleAutoCall={() => setAutoCall((prev) => {
-        const next = { ...prev, enabled: !prev.enabled };
-        writeUiPref(autoCallKey, JSON.stringify(next));
-        return next;
-      })}
       spotStatus={spotStatus as any}
       myCall={station.callsign}
       // A click ANSWERS the station: it hands the decode back to WSJT-X/MSHV as
@@ -6641,6 +6718,21 @@ export default function App() {
         </div>
       )}
 
+      {/* The zoom factor, while it is changing.
+          Centred at the top, out of the way of the entry form and the toasts,
+          and clickable: the number is only half an answer if the way back to
+          100 % is another thing to know. */}
+      {zoomShown && uiZoom !== 1 && (
+        <button
+          type="button"
+          onClick={() => setZoomRef.current(1)}
+          title={t('view.zoomResetTip')}
+          className="fixed top-2 left-1/2 -translate-x-1/2 z-[130] rounded-full border border-border bg-card/95 px-3 py-1 text-xs font-mono shadow-lg hover:bg-accent"
+        >
+          {Math.round(uiZoom * 100)}% · {t('view.zoomReset')}
+        </button>
+      )}
+
       {/* Transient toasts (bottom-right). Errors stack on top of the green
           success toast; both auto-dismiss. */}
       {/* Unlock encrypted passwords (set via Settings → Security). Dismissable:
@@ -7682,6 +7774,7 @@ export default function App() {
               <TabsContent value="qsl" forceMount className="mt-0 flex flex-col min-h-0 flex-1 data-[state=inactive]:hidden">
                 <QSLManagerPanel
                   onEditQSO={openEdit}
+                  paperRequest={qslPaperReq}
                   // The same row actions the Recent QSOs grid offers. Only the
                   // selection-based exports: exporting "the filter" would mean
                   // the Recent-QSOs filter, not the rows shown here.
@@ -7787,7 +7880,8 @@ export default function App() {
             </TabsContent>
 
             <TabsContent value="awards" className="flex-1 min-h-0 p-0">
-              <AwardsPanel onEditQSO={openEdit} onAwardsChanged={() => setAwardsVersion((v) => v + 1)} />
+              <AwardsPanel onEditQSO={openEdit} onAwardsChanged={() => setAwardsVersion((v) => v + 1)}
+                onPaperQSL={openPaperQSLFor} />
             </TabsContent>
 
             {statsTabOpen && (

frontend/src/components/AlertsModal.tsx

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { useCallback, useEffect, useMemo, useState } from 'react';
+import { useCallback, useEffect, useMemo, useRef, useState } from 'react';
 import { Bell, Plus, Trash2, Volume2, Mail, Eye, X, Search } from 'lucide-react';
 import {
   Dialog, DialogContent, DialogHeader, DialogTitle, DialogDescription,
@@ -102,17 +102,40 @@ export function AlertsModal({ onClose, bands, modes, countries }: {
     return alerts.Rule.createFrom({ ...d, [key]: next });
   });
 
+  // Saving used to be silent: the dialog stays open and the rule looks exactly
+  // as it did a second earlier, so there was nothing to tell an operator whether
+  // the click had registered. A line that says so, and clears itself.
+  const [savedMsg, setSavedMsg] = useState('');
+  const savedTimer = useRef(0);
+  function flashSaved(text: string) {
+    setSavedMsg(text);
+    window.clearTimeout(savedTimer.current);
+    savedTimer.current = window.setTimeout(() => setSavedMsg(''), 3000);
+  }
+  useEffect(() => () => window.clearTimeout(savedTimer.current), []);
+
   async function save() {
     if (!draft) return;
     if (!draft.name.trim()) { setErr(t('altm.giveName')); return; }
-    try { const saved = await SaveAlertRule(draft); await refresh(); loadDraft(saved as Rule); setErr(''); }
+    try {
-    catch (e: any) { setErr(String(e?.message ?? e)); }
+      const saved = await SaveAlertRule(draft);
+      await refresh();
+      loadDraft(saved as Rule);
+      setErr('');
+      flashSaved(t('altm.saved', { name: draft.name.trim() }));
+    } catch (e: any) { setErr(String(e?.message ?? e)); }
   }
   async function del() {
     if (!draft) return;
     if (!draft.id) { loadDraft(null); return; }
     if (!window.confirm(t('altm.deleteConfirm', { name: draft.name }))) return;
-    try { await DeleteAlertRule(draft.id); loadDraft(null); await refresh(); }
+    try {
+      const name = draft.name;
+      await DeleteAlertRule(draft.id);
+      loadDraft(null);
+      await refresh();
+      flashSaved(t('altm.deleted', { name }));
+    }
     catch (e: any) { setErr(String(e?.message ?? e)); }
   }
 
@@ -257,6 +280,7 @@ export function AlertsModal({ onClose, bands, modes, countries }: {
                 {/* Editor actions */}
                 <div className="flex items-center gap-2 px-3 py-2 border-t border-border/60">
                   {err && <span className="text-[11px] text-danger flex-1 truncate">{err}</span>}
+                  {!err && savedMsg && <span className="text-[11px] text-success flex-1 truncate">{savedMsg}</span>}
                   <div className="flex-1" />
                   <Button variant="ghost" size="sm" className="text-danger" onClick={del}><Trash2 className="size-3.5" /> {t('altm.delete')}</Button>
                   <Button size="sm" onClick={save}>{t('altm.saveRule')}</Button>

frontend/src/components/AwardsPanel.tsx

@@ -68,7 +68,11 @@ function ProgressBar({ worked, confirmed, total }: { worked: number; confirmed:
 // detection only means anything for those — see the Missing refs button.
 type AwardListItem = { code: string; name: string; valid?: boolean; bands?: string[]; emission?: string[]; scoped?: boolean };
 
-export function AwardsPanel({ onEditQSO, onAwardsChanged }: { onEditQSO?: (id: number) => void; onAwardsChanged?: () => void } = {}) {
+export function AwardsPanel({ onEditQSO, onAwardsChanged, onPaperQSL }: {
+  onEditQSO?: (id: number) => void;
+  onAwardsChanged?: () => void;
+  onPaperQSL?: (call: string) => void;
+} = {}) {
   const { t } = useI18n();
   const [awardList, setAwardList] = useState<AwardListItem[]>([]);
   // Computed results are cached per award code — each award is scanned only the
@@ -604,7 +608,7 @@ export function AwardsPanel({ onEditQSO, onAwardsChanged }: { onEditQSO?: (id: n
       </div>
 
       {cell && current && (
-        <CellQSOModal code={current.code} cell={cell} modeClass={modeFilter === 'all' ? '' : modeFilter} onClose={() => setCell(null)} />
+        <CellQSOModal code={current.code} cell={cell} modeClass={modeFilter === 'all' ? '' : modeFilter} onClose={() => setCell(null)} onPaperQSL={onPaperQSL} />
       )}
       {showMissing && current && (
         <MissingQSOModal code={current.code} name={current.name} onClose={() => setShowMissing(false)} onEditQSO={onEditQSO} />
@@ -835,7 +839,14 @@ function MissingQSOModal({ code, name, onClose, onEditQSO }: { code: string; nam
 }
 
 // CellQSOModal lists the QSOs behind one award-grid cell (reference × band).
-function CellQSOModal({ code, cell, modeClass, onClose }: { code: string; cell: { ref: string; band: string; name?: string }; modeClass: string; onClose: () => void }) {
+function CellQSOModal({ code, cell, modeClass, onClose, onPaperQSL }: {
+  code: string; cell: { ref: string; band: string; name?: string }; modeClass: string;
+  onClose: () => void;
+  // Send this callsign to the QSL Manager's Paper QSL view. Chasing a
+  // confirmation starts here — an unconfirmed entity, the contact behind it —
+  // and used to continue by retyping the callsign into another tab.
+  onPaperQSL?: (call: string) => void;
+}) {
   const { t } = useI18n();
   const [qsos, setQsos] = useState<any[]>([]);
   const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true);
@@ -872,7 +883,15 @@ function CellQSOModal({ code, cell, modeClass, onClose }: { code: string; cell:
                 {qsos.map((q, i) => (
                   <tr key={q.id ?? i} className="border-b border-border/30">
                     <td className="py-1 px-3 font-mono">{fmt(q.qso_date)}</td>
-                    <td className="py-1 pr-2 font-mono font-semibold">{q.callsign}</td>
+                    <td className="py-1 pr-2 font-mono font-semibold">
+                      {onPaperQSL ? (
+                        <button type="button" className="hover:underline text-primary"
+                          title={t('awp.paperQslTip')}
+                          onClick={() => { onPaperQSL(String(q.callsign ?? '')); onClose(); }}>
+                          {q.callsign}
+                        </button>
+                      ) : q.callsign}
+                    </td>
                     <td className="py-1 pr-2">{q.band}</td>
                     <td className="py-1 pr-2">{q.mode}</td>
                     <td className="py-1 pr-3 text-muted-foreground">{[isQSLConfirmed(q.lotw_rcvd) && 'LoTW', isQSLConfirmed(q.qsl_rcvd) && 'QSL', isQSLConfirmed(q.eqsl_rcvd) && 'eQSL'].filter(Boolean).join(', ')}</td>

frontend/src/components/DecodesPanel.tsx

@@ -531,7 +531,14 @@ export function DecodesPanel({ decodes, txMsgs, txState, txStates, spotStatus, o
   });
   const [bandSel, setBandSel] = usePersisted('bandSel', '');
   const [modeSel, setModeSel] = usePersisted('modeSel', '');
-  const [contSel, setContSel] = usePersisted('contSel', '');
+  // Continents are a MULTI-selection, not one at a time: the useful filter is
+  // "everything except NA and EU", which a single-choice dropdown cannot say —
+  // it can only name one continent to keep. Stored as a list (a Set does not
+  // survive JSON), empty meaning no filter at all.
+  const [contList, setContList] = usePersisted<string[]>('contList', []);
+  const contSel = useMemo(() => new Set(contList), [contList]);
+  const toggleCont = (c: string) =>
+    setContList(contSel.has(c) ? contList.filter((x) => x !== c) : [...contList, c].sort());
   const [minSnr, setMinSnr] = usePersisted('minSnr', '');
   const [search, setSearch] = usePersisted('search', '');
 
@@ -554,8 +561,21 @@ export function DecodesPanel({ decodes, txMsgs, txState, txStates, spotStatus, o
   const calling = (txState?.dx_call ?? '').toUpperCase();
   const answersMe = (msg?: string): boolean => {
     if (!me || !msg) return false;
-    const first = msg.trim().split(/\s+/)[0]?.replace(/[<>]/g, '').toUpperCase();
+    // EVERY segment, not just the first.
-    return !!first && first === me;
+    //
+    // MSHV answers two stations in one transmission and sends them as one line:
+    //
+    //   DM8BJF RR73; F4BPO <RI1FJL> +14
+    //
+    // The second half is addressed to F4BPO, and reading only the start of the
+    // line missed it — the operator being answered saw no badge at all, which is
+    // the one moment this badge exists for. Each ';' segment is its own message
+    // and names its own recipient first.
+    for (const part of msg.split(';')) {
+      const first = part.trim().split(/\s+/)[0]?.replace(/[<>]/g, '').toUpperCase();
+      if (first && first === me) return true;
+    }
+    return false;
   };
 
   // The choices are built from what is actually on the feed, and a selector with
@@ -576,6 +596,15 @@ export function DecodesPanel({ decodes, txMsgs, txState, txStates, spotStatus, o
     // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps
   }, [decodes, spotStatus]);
 
+  // The chips are the continents on the feed — a selector with nothing to choose
+  // is furniture — PLUS anything currently selected. Without that second half a
+  // filter can strand itself: pick AF, the last African station stops decoding,
+  // and the list empties with no chip left to switch it back off.
+  const contChips = useMemo(
+    () => [...new Set([...conts, ...contList])].sort(),
+    [conts, contList],
+  );
+
   const filtered = useMemo(() => {
     const q = search.trim().toUpperCase();
     const floor = minSnr.trim() === '' ? null : parseInt(minSnr, 10);
@@ -594,7 +623,7 @@ export function DecodesPanel({ decodes, txMsgs, txState, txStates, spotStatus, o
         for (const c of cats) if (have.has(c)) { hit = true; break; }
         if (!hit) return false;
       }
-      if (contSel && e?.continent !== contSel) return false;
+      if (contSel.size > 0 && !(e?.continent && contSel.has(e.continent))) return false;
       if (q && !(d.call.includes(q) || (d.grid ?? '').toUpperCase().includes(q) || (d.msg ?? '').toUpperCase().includes(q))) return false;
       return true;
     });
@@ -627,11 +656,11 @@ export function DecodesPanel({ decodes, txMsgs, txState, txStates, spotStatus, o
 
   const resetFilters = () => {
     setCqOnly(false); setLotwOnly(false); setBandSel('');
-    setModeSel(''); setContSel(''); setMinSnr(''); setSearch('');
+    setModeSel(''); setContList([]); setMinSnr(''); setSearch('');
     setCats(new Set());
     try { localStorage.setItem(CAT_KEY, '[]'); } catch { /* not worth failing over */ }
   };
-  const anyFilter = cqOnly || lotwOnly || cats.size > 0 || !!bandSel || !!modeSel || !!contSel || !!minSnr || !!search.trim();
+  const anyFilter = cqOnly || lotwOnly || cats.size > 0 || !!bandSel || !!modeSel || contSel.size > 0 || !!minSnr || !!search.trim();
 
   const sel = 'h-8 rounded-lg border border-border bg-background px-2 text-sm';
   const chip = (on: boolean, tone = 'primary') => cn(
@@ -700,11 +729,28 @@ export function DecodesPanel({ decodes, txMsgs, txState, txStates, spotStatus, o
             {modes.map((m) => <option key={m} value={m}>{m}</option>)}
           </select>
         )}
-        {conts.length > 1 && (
+        {/* Toggles, like the category badges above — the same gesture for the
-          <select className={sel} value={contSel} onChange={(e) => setContSel(e.target.value)}>
+            same kind of question. None lit is every continent, which is what an
-            <option value="">{t('dec.allConts')}</option>
+            empty filter has always meant here. */}
-            {conts.map((c) => <option key={c} value={c}>{c}</option>)}
+        {contChips.length > 1 && (
-          </select>
+          <span className="flex items-center gap-1 pl-1 border-l border-border/60 ml-1" title={t('dec.contsHint')}>
+            {contChips.map((c) => {
+              const on = contSel.has(c);
+              return (
+                <button
+                  key={c}
+                  type="button"
+                  onClick={() => toggleCont(c)}
+                  className={cn(
+                    'rounded border px-1.5 py-0.5 text-[11px] font-bold uppercase tracking-wide transition-all',
+                    on ? 'border-primary text-primary' : 'border-border text-muted-foreground opacity-50 hover:opacity-100',
+                  )}
+                >
+                  {c}
+                </button>
+              );
+            })}
+          </span>
         )}
 
         <label className="flex items-center gap-1.5 text-sm text-muted-foreground">
@@ -765,21 +811,6 @@ export function DecodesPanel({ decodes, txMsgs, txState, txStates, spotStatus, o
             filter. Halt goes LAST — it is the one that must be findable without
             reading, and the end of the row is the one position that never moves
             as filters come and go. */}
-        {onToggleAutoCall && (
-          <button
-            type="button"
-            onClick={onToggleAutoCall}
-            title={t('dec.autoCallTip')}
-            className={cn('h-8 px-2.5 rounded-lg text-sm inline-flex items-center gap-1.5 border',
-              // Lit when it is armed, because what matters at a glance is not
-              // "where is the switch" but "is this thing about to transmit".
-              autoCallOn
-                ? 'border-warning bg-warning text-warning-foreground'
-                : 'border-border text-muted-foreground hover:bg-muted hover:text-foreground')}
-          >
-            <Bot className="size-3.5" /> {t('dec.autoCall')}
-          </button>
-        )}
         {onHalt && (
           <button
             type="button"

frontend/src/components/FilterBuilder.tsx

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { useEffect, useMemo, useState } from 'react';
+import { useEffect, useMemo, useRef, useState } from 'react';
 import { Plus, Trash2, Save, FolderOpen, X } from 'lucide-react';
 import { writeUiPref } from '@/lib/uiPref';
 import { Dialog, DialogContent, DialogHeader, DialogTitle, DialogFooter } from '@/components/ui/dialog';
@@ -192,6 +192,17 @@ export function FilterBuilder({ open, initial, onApply, onClose }: Props) {
 
   function apply() { onApply(buildFilter()); }
 
+  // Same silence as the alert rules: the preset landed in the list, but the list
+  // is not where the operator is looking when they press Save.
+  const [savedMsg, setSavedMsg] = useState('');
+  const savedTimer = useRef(0);
+  function flashSaved(text: string) {
+    setSavedMsg(text);
+    window.clearTimeout(savedTimer.current);
+    savedTimer.current = window.setTimeout(() => setSavedMsg(''), 3000);
+  }
+  useEffect(() => () => window.clearTimeout(savedTimer.current), []);
+
   function saveCurrentPreset() {
     const name = presetName.trim();
     if (!name) return;
@@ -199,6 +210,7 @@ export function FilterBuilder({ open, initial, onApply, onClose }: Props) {
     savePresets(next);
     setPresets(next);
     setPresetName('');
+    flashSaved(t('fltb.presetSaved', { name }));
   }
   function loadPreset(name: string) {
     const f = presets[name];
@@ -335,6 +347,7 @@ export function FilterBuilder({ open, initial, onApply, onClose }: Props) {
           <Button variant="outline" size="sm" className="h-8" disabled={!presetName.trim()} onClick={saveCurrentPreset}>
             <Save className="size-3.5 mr-1" /> {t('fltb.savePreset')}
           </Button>
+          {savedMsg && <span className="text-[11px] text-success truncate">{savedMsg}</span>}
         </div>
         </div>
 

frontend/src/components/QSLManagerModal.tsx

@@ -134,9 +134,14 @@ export type GridActions = {
   onDelete?: (ids: number[]) => void;
 };
 
-export function QSLManagerPanel({ onEditQSO, actions }: {
+export function QSLManagerPanel({ onEditQSO, actions, paperRequest }: {
   onEditQSO?: (id: number) => void;
   actions?: GridActions;
+  // A callsign to open the Paper QSL view on, sent from elsewhere in the app
+  // (the awards grid). Carries a counter rather than being a bare string: the
+  // panel is force-mounted and keeps its state, so asking twice for the SAME
+  // callsign has to be two requests, not one unchanged prop.
+  paperRequest?: { call: string; n: number };
 } = {}) {
   const { t } = useI18n();
   const [service, setService] = useState('lotw');
@@ -198,6 +203,27 @@ export function QSLManagerPanel({ onEditQSO, actions }: {
   }, [paperCall]);
 
 
+  // Honour an incoming request: switch to Paper QSL, fill the callsign, search.
+  // The search runs from the effect below once paperCall has actually changed —
+  // searchPaper closes over paperCall, so calling it here would search the
+  // PREVIOUS callsign.
+  // The pending request's callsign, so the search fires for THAT callsign and
+  // for nothing else: the effect below also wakes on every keystroke in the
+  // field, and searching on each of them would query the log letter by letter.
+  const pendingPaperCall = useRef('');
+  useEffect(() => {
+    const call = paperRequest?.call?.trim().toUpperCase();
+    if (!call) return;
+    setService('paper');
+    setPaperCall(call);
+    pendingPaperCall.current = call;
+  }, [paperRequest?.call, paperRequest?.n]);
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (!pendingPaperCall.current || paperCall !== pendingPaperCall.current) return;
+    pendingPaperCall.current = '';
+    searchPaper();
+  }, [paperCall, searchPaper]);
+
   async function applyPaper() {
     const ids = paperRows.filter((r) => paperSel.has(r.id)).map((r) => r.id);
     if (ids.length === 0) return;

frontend/src/components/QSOEditModal.tsx

@@ -626,6 +626,7 @@ export function QSOEditModal({ qso, onSave, onDelete, onClose, countries = [], b
                   </div>
                   <div className="flex items-end gap-2">
                     <div className="flex flex-col flex-1"><Label>{t('qedit.grid')}</Label><Input value={draft.grid ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('grid', e.target.value)} className="font-mono uppercase" /></div>
+                    <div className="flex flex-col w-24"><Label>{t('qedit.gridExt')}</Label><Input title={t('qedit.gridExtTip')} value={draft.gridsquare_ext ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('gridsquare_ext', e.target.value)} className="font-mono uppercase" /></div>
                     <div className="flex flex-col w-24"><Label>PFX</Label><Input readOnly value={pfxOf(draft.callsign ?? '')} className="font-mono bg-muted/40" /></div>
                   </div>
                   <div><Label>{t('qedit.comment')}</Label><Input value={draft.comment ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('comment', e.target.value)}
@@ -867,7 +868,7 @@ export function QSOEditModal({ qso, onSave, onDelete, onClose, countries = [], b
                 <F label={t('qedit.stationCallsign')} span={3}><Input value={draft.station_callsign ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('station_callsign', e.target.value)} /></F>
                 <F label={t('qedit.operator')} span={3}><Input value={draft.operator ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('operator', e.target.value)} /></F>
                 <F label={t('qedit.myGrid')}><Input value={draft.my_grid ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('my_grid', e.target.value)} /></F>
-                <F label={t('qedit.gridExt')}><Input value={draft.my_gridsquare_ext ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('my_gridsquare_ext', e.target.value)} /></F>
+                <F label={t('qedit.myGridExt')}><Input title={t('qedit.gridExtTip')} value={draft.my_gridsquare_ext ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('my_gridsquare_ext', e.target.value)} /></F>
                 <F label={t('qedit.country')} span={2}><Combobox value={draft.my_country ?? ''} options={countries} placeholder={t('qedit.country')} onChange={(v) => set('my_country', v)} /></F>
                 <F label={t('qedit.state')}><Input value={draft.my_state ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('my_state', e.target.value)} /></F>
                 <F label={t('qedit.county')}><Input value={draft.my_cnty ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('my_cnty', e.target.value)} /></F>
@@ -903,6 +904,10 @@ export function QSOEditModal({ qso, onSave, onDelete, onClose, countries = [], b
               <div>
                 <p className="text-[11px] font-semibold text-muted-foreground uppercase tracking-wider mb-2">{t('qedit.powerWeather')}</p>
                 <div className="grid grid-cols-6 gap-3">
+                  {/* YOUR power first, then theirs. tx_pwr was saved by this
+                      editor but had no field: a contact logged at the wrong
+                      power could be read back and never corrected. */}
+                  <F label={t('qedit.txPower')}><Input type="number" value={draft.tx_pwr ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('tx_pwr', numOrUndef(e.target.value) as any)} /></F>
                   <F label={t('qedit.rxPower')}><Input type="number" value={draft.rx_pwr ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('rx_pwr', numOrUndef(e.target.value) as any)} /></F>
                   <F label={t('qedit.distance')}><Input type="number" value={draft.distance ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('distance', numOrUndef(e.target.value) as any)} /></F>
                   <F label={t('qedit.aIndex')}><Input type="number" value={draft.a_index ?? ''} onChange={(e) => set('a_index', numOrUndef(e.target.value) as any)} /></F>

frontend/src/components/SettingsModal.tsx

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import {
   ChevronDown, ChevronRight,
   User, Database, Radio, Cog, Server, Antenna as AntennaIcon,
   Compass, Wifi, Construction, UploadCloud, Loader2, FolderOpen, Play, Power, Check, Pencil,
+  Minimize2,
 } from 'lucide-react';
 import {
   GetLookupSettings, SaveLookupSettings, ClearLookupCache, TestLookupProvider,
@@ -12,7 +13,7 @@ import {
   ListProfiles, GetActiveProfile, SaveProfile, DeleteProfile, ActivateProfile, DuplicateProfile,
   GetRotators, SaveRotators, TestRotatorDevice, RotatorPark, RotatorStop,
   GetRotorPresets, SaveRotorPresets, ResetRotorPresets,
-  GetUltrabeamSettings, SaveUltrabeamSettings, TestUltrabeam,
+  GetUltrabeamSettings, SaveUltrabeamSettings, TestUltrabeam, CompactDatabase,
   GetAntGeniusSettings, SaveAntGeniusSettings,
   GetTunerGeniusSettings, SaveTunerGeniusSettings,
   GetPSUSettings, SavePSUSettings,
@@ -208,7 +209,6 @@ type SectionId =
   | 'databases'
   | 'awards'
   | 'cat'
-  | 'ftx'
   | 'rotator'
   | 'winkeyer'
   | 'antenna'
@@ -313,7 +313,6 @@ function buildTree(flexAvailable: boolean, t: (k: string) => string): TreeNode[]
         { kind: 'item', label: t('sec.modes'), id: 'lists-modes' },
       ]},
       { kind: 'item', label: t('sec.cluster'),     id: 'cluster' },
-      { kind: 'item', label: t('sec.ftx'),         id: 'ftx' },
       { kind: 'item', label: t('sec.udp'), id: 'udp' },
       { kind: 'item', label: t('sec.adifmon'), id: 'adifmon' },
       { kind: 'item', label: t('sec.foldersync'), id: 'foldersync' },
@@ -342,7 +341,7 @@ function buildTree(flexAvailable: boolean, t: (k: string) => string): TreeNode[]
 const SECTION_KEY: Partial<Record<SectionId, string>> = {
   station: 'sec.station', profiles: 'sec.profiles', operating: 'sec.operating', confirmations: 'sec.confirmations',
   'external-services': 'sec.external', appearance: 'sec.appearance', lookup: 'sec.lookup', 'lists-bands': 'sec.bands', 'lists-modes': 'sec.modes',
-  cluster: 'sec.cluster', ftx: 'sec.ftx', backup: 'sec.backup', database: 'sec.database', autostart: 'sec.autostart', udp: 'sec.udp',
+  cluster: 'sec.cluster', backup: 'sec.backup', database: 'sec.database', autostart: 'sec.autostart', udp: 'sec.udp',
   adifmon: 'sec.adifmon',
   foldersync: 'sec.foldersync',
   webpublish: 'sec.webpublish',
@@ -1800,7 +1799,7 @@ export function SettingsModal({ onClose, onSaved, initialSection, onMainPaneChan
   // form: waiting for the modal's Save to see a colour on the waterfall would
   // make picking one a guessing game.
   type SpotColor = { text: string; bg?: string };
-  const [spotColors, setSpotColors] = useState<{ enabled: boolean; colors: Record<string, SpotColor> }>({ enabled: true, colors: {} });
+  const [spotColors, setSpotColors] = useState<{ enabled: boolean; colors: Record<string, SpotColor & { hide?: boolean }> }>({ enabled: true, colors: {} });
   useEffect(() => { GetSpotColors().then((c: any) => setSpotColors(c ?? { enabled: true, colors: {} })).catch(() => {}); }, []);
   const saveSpotColors = (next: { enabled: boolean; colors: Record<string, SpotColor> }) => {
     setSpotColors(next);
@@ -1838,6 +1837,16 @@ export function SettingsModal({ onClose, onSaved, initialSection, onMainPaneChan
   };
   // A date for a person: the day, not the timestamp the backend stores.
   const fmtDay = (v?: string) => (v ? String(v).slice(0, 10) : '—');
+  // Binary units, one decimal, because the point of showing a size here is to
+  // compare two of them: "412.7 MB → 38.4 MB" says what a bare byte count does not.
+  const fmtBytes = (n: number) => {
+    if (!n || n < 0) return '—';
+    const u = ['B', 'KB', 'MB', 'GB'];
+    let i = 0;
+    let v = n;
+    while (v >= 1024 && i < u.length - 1) { v /= 1024; i++; }
+    return `${i === 0 ? v : v.toFixed(1)} ${u[i]}`;
+  };
   const [rdaCount, setRdaCount] = useState(0);
   const [rdaBusy, setRdaBusy] = useState(false);
   const [rdaUseCurrent, setRdaUseCurrent] = useState(true);
@@ -3578,7 +3587,7 @@ export function SettingsModal({ onClose, onSaved, initialSection, onMainPaneChan
           {isSerial ? (
             <div className="grid grid-cols-3 gap-3">
               <div className="space-y-1 col-span-2">
-                <Label>{t('hw.motorCom')}</Label>
+                <Label>{t('hw.motorCom')}{!isSteppir && <span className="ml-1.5 font-normal text-muted-foreground">{t('hw.motorComUb')}</span>}</Label>
                 {/* A list AND a text field, which is why this is a Combobox and
                     not the Select the other serial devices use: the port for a
                     USB adapter that is currently unplugged does not appear in
@@ -3591,6 +3600,7 @@ export function SettingsModal({ onClose, onSaved, initialSection, onMainPaneChan
                     options={wkPorts}
                     allowFreeText
                     commitOnType
+                    showToggle
                     placeholder="COM3"
                     className="font-mono flex-1"
                     onChange={(v) => setUltrabeam((s) => ({ ...s, com: v.trim().toUpperCase() }))}
@@ -3601,12 +3611,19 @@ export function SettingsModal({ onClose, onSaved, initialSection, onMainPaneChan
               </div>
               <div className="space-y-1">
                 <Label>{t('hw.motorBaud')}</Label>
-                <Select value={String(ultrabeam.baud || 9600)} onValueChange={(v) => setUltrabeam((s) => ({ ...s, baud: parseInt(v, 10) || 9600 }))}>
+                {/* The Ultrabeam answers on 19200 and on nothing else, so there is
-                  <SelectTrigger className="h-9"><SelectValue /></SelectTrigger>
+                    no choice to offer — an FTDI cable opens at any speed, and a
-                  <SelectContent>
+                    wrong one is indistinguishable from a dead controller. */}
-                    {[1200, 4800, 9600, 19200].map((b) => <SelectItem key={b} value={String(b)}>{b}</SelectItem>)}
+                {!isSteppir ? (
-                  </SelectContent>
+                  <Input className="h-9 font-mono" value="19200" readOnly disabled />
-                </Select>
+                ) : (
+                  <Select value={String(ultrabeam.baud || 9600)} onValueChange={(s2) => setUltrabeam((s) => ({ ...s, baud: parseInt(s2, 10) || 9600 }))}>
+                    <SelectTrigger className="h-9"><SelectValue /></SelectTrigger>
+                    <SelectContent>
+                      {[1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200].map((b) => <SelectItem key={b} value={String(b)}>{b}</SelectItem>)}
+                    </SelectContent>
+                  </Select>
+                )}
               </div>
             </div>
           ) : (
@@ -4764,91 +4781,6 @@ export function SettingsModal({ onClose, onSaved, initialSection, onMainPaneChan
     setEditingServer(next);
   }
 
-  // FTx decodes: what OpsLog does on its own with the digital stream.
-  //
-  // Auto-call KEYS THE TRANSMITTER without anyone clicking, so the panel is
-  // deliberately explicit about it: off by default, every criterion opt-in, and
-  // a plain statement of what the machine will do once it is on.
-  function FtxPanel() {
-    const set = (patch: Partial<AutoCallSettings>) => {
-      const next = { ...autoCall, ...patch };
-      setAutoCall(next);
-      writeUiPref(autoCallKey, JSON.stringify(next));
-    };
-    const crit = (which: 'criteria' | 'watchCriteria', k: keyof AutoCallCriteria) => (
-      <label key={k} className="flex items-center gap-1.5 text-xs cursor-pointer">
-        <Checkbox
-          checked={!!autoCall[which][k]}
-          onCheckedChange={(v) => set({ [which]: { ...autoCall[which], [k]: !!v } } as any)}
-        />
-        {t(`ftx.c_${k}`)}
-      </label>
-    );
-    const KEYS: (keyof AutoCallCriteria)[] = ['dxcc', 'bandmode', 'band', 'mode', 'slot', 'grid', 'county', 'pota', 'pfx'];
-    return (
-      <>
-        <SectionHeader title={t('sec.ftx')} hint={t('ftx.hint')} />
-        <div className="space-y-4">
-          <div className="rounded-md border border-border p-3 space-y-3">
-            <label className="flex items-start gap-2 text-sm cursor-pointer">
-              <Checkbox checked={autoCall.enabled} className="mt-0.5"
-                onCheckedChange={(v) => set({ enabled: !!v })} />
-              <span>
-                {t('ftx.enable')}{' '}
-                <span className="text-xs text-muted-foreground">{t('ftx.enableHint')}</span>
-              </span>
-            </label>
-
-            {autoCall.enabled && (
-              <div className="pl-6 space-y-3">
-                <div>
-                  <p className="text-xs font-semibold text-muted-foreground mb-1.5">{t('ftx.callWhen')}</p>
-                  <div className="grid grid-cols-2 gap-x-4 gap-y-1">{KEYS.map((k) => crit('criteria', k))}</div>
-                </div>
-
-                <div className="border-t border-border/60 pt-3">
-                  <p className="text-xs font-semibold text-muted-foreground mb-1">{t('ftx.watch')}</p>
-                  <p className="text-[11px] text-muted-foreground mb-1.5 leading-relaxed">{t('ftx.watchHint')}</p>
-                  <Textarea
-                    className="h-20 font-mono text-xs"
-                    placeholder={"4S7*\nTM0HQ\n*/P"}
-                    defaultValue={(autoCall.watch ?? []).join('\n')}
-                    key={`w-${(autoCall.watch ?? []).length}`}
-                    onBlur={(e) => set({
-                      watch: e.target.value.split('\n').map((x) => x.trim().toUpperCase()).filter(Boolean),
-                    })}
-                  />
-                  {(autoCall.watch ?? []).length > 0 && (
-                    <div className="mt-2">
-                      <p className="text-[11px] text-muted-foreground mb-1">{t('ftx.watchOnlyIf')}</p>
-                      <div className="grid grid-cols-2 gap-x-4 gap-y-1">{KEYS.map((k) => crit('watchCriteria', k))}</div>
-                    </div>
-                  )}
-                </div>
-
-                <div className="border-t border-border/60 pt-3 flex items-center gap-2 flex-wrap">
-                  <span className="text-xs text-muted-foreground">{t('ftx.cooldown')}</span>
-                  <Input type="number" min={10} max={3600} className="w-24 h-7 text-xs"
-                    defaultValue={autoCall.cooldownSec}
-                    key={`cd-${autoCall.cooldownSec}`}
-                    onBlur={(e) => {
-                      const v = parseInt(e.target.value, 10);
-                      if (!isNaN(v) && v >= 10 && v <= 3600) set({ cooldownSec: v });
-                    }} />
-                  <span className="text-xs text-muted-foreground">s</span>
-                </div>
-
-                <p className="text-[11px] rounded border border-warning-border bg-warning-muted text-warning-muted-foreground px-2 py-1.5 leading-relaxed">
-                  {t('ftx.warn')}
-                </p>
-              </div>
-            )}
-          </div>
-        </div>
-      </>
-    );
-  }
-
   function ClusterPanel() {
     const sorted = [...clusterServers].sort((a, b) => (a.sort_order ?? 0) - (b.sort_order ?? 0));
     // Written on every keystroke. This panel has no Save button, and a pair of
@@ -6166,6 +6098,24 @@ export function SettingsModal({ onClose, onSaved, initialSection, onMainPaneChan
   }
 
   function DatabasePanel() {
+    // Compacting: which database is running, and what the last one saved.
+    // SQLite frees pages inside the file and never shrinks it, so this is the
+    // only thing that gives the disk space back after a large delete.
+    const [compacting, setCompacting] = useState('');
+    const [compactMsg, setCompactMsg] = useState<Record<string, string>>({});
+    function compact(target: 'settings' | 'logbook') {
+      setCompacting(target);
+      setCompactMsg((m) => ({ ...m, [target]: '' }));
+      CompactDatabase(target)
+        .then((r: any) => {
+          const msg = r?.backend === 'mysql'
+            ? t('db.compactMysqlDone')
+            : t('db.compactDone', { before: fmtBytes(r?.before ?? 0), after: fmtBytes(r?.after ?? 0) });
+          setCompactMsg((m) => ({ ...m, [target]: msg }));
+        })
+        .catch((e: any) => setErr(String(e?.message ?? e)))
+        .finally(() => setCompacting(''));
+    }
     async function refreshDb() { try { setDbSettings(await GetDatabaseSettings() as any); } catch {} }
     async function refreshBackend() { try { setBackendStatus(await GetDBBackendStatus() as any); } catch {} }
     // The chosen file is persisted (config.json) the moment it's picked; dbMsg
@@ -6285,9 +6235,13 @@ export function SettingsModal({ onClose, onSaved, initialSection, onMainPaneChan
             <Button variant="outline" size="sm" onClick={renameDb} title={t('db.renameTip')}><Pencil className="size-3.5" /> {t('db.rename')}</Button>
             {/* Pushed right: these two act on the file that is already there,
                 while the four on the left change WHICH file is in use. */}
-            <Button variant="outline" size="sm" className="ml-auto" onClick={revealFolder}><FolderOpen className="size-3.5" /> {t('db.openFolder')}</Button>
+            <Button variant="outline" size="sm" className="ml-auto" onClick={() => compact('settings')} disabled={compacting !== ''}>
+              {compacting === 'settings' ? <Loader2 className="size-3.5 animate-spin" /> : <Minimize2 className="size-3.5" />} {t('db.compact')}
+            </Button>
+            <Button variant="outline" size="sm" onClick={revealFolder}><FolderOpen className="size-3.5" /> {t('db.openFolder')}</Button>
             {dbSettings.is_custom && <Button variant="ghost" size="sm" onClick={resetDefault}>{t('db.resetDefault')}</Button>}
           </div>
+          {compactMsg.settings && <p className="text-[11px] text-success">{compactMsg.settings}</p>}
           {/* The DB pointer is only read at startup, so offer the restart inline. */}
           {dbMsg && (
             <div className="text-[11px] text-success space-y-1 pt-1">
@@ -6350,8 +6304,12 @@ export function SettingsModal({ onClose, onSaved, initialSection, onMainPaneChan
             <Button variant="outline" size="sm" onClick={newLogbook}><Plus className="size-3.5" /> {t('db.newDb')}</Button>
             <Button variant="outline" size="sm" onClick={openLogbook}><FolderOpen className="size-3.5" /> {t('db.openExisting')}</Button>
             <Button variant="outline" size="sm" onClick={renameLogbook} title={t('db.renameLogbookTip')}><Pencil className="size-3.5" /> {t('db.renameLogbook')}</Button>
+            <Button variant="outline" size="sm" className="ml-auto" onClick={() => compact('logbook')} disabled={compacting !== ''}>
+              {compacting === 'logbook' ? <Loader2 className="size-3.5 animate-spin" /> : <Minimize2 className="size-3.5" />} {t('db.compact')}
+            </Button>
             {mysqlCfg.sqlite_path && <Button variant="ghost" size="sm" onClick={useLocalLogbook}>{t('db.useDefaultLogbook')}</Button>}
           </div>
+          {compactMsg.logbook && <p className="text-[11px] text-success">{compactMsg.logbook}</p>}
         </div>
         )}
 
@@ -6376,8 +6334,17 @@ export function SettingsModal({ onClose, onSaved, initialSection, onMainPaneChan
               {t('db.testCreate')}
             </Button>
             <Button size="sm" className="h-8" onClick={connectMysql}>{t('db.connectUse')}</Button>
+            {/* Compacting a shared logbook is OPTIMIZE TABLE, and it rebuilds the
+                table with everyone else waiting on it — hence the warning, and
+                hence its place here rather than beside the connection buttons of
+                a file only this operator uses. */}
+            <Button variant="outline" size="sm" className="h-8 ml-auto" title={t('db.compactMysqlWarn')}
+              onClick={() => compact('logbook')} disabled={compacting !== ''}>
+              {compacting === 'logbook' ? <Loader2 className="size-3.5 animate-spin" /> : <Minimize2 className="size-3.5" />} {t('db.compact')}
+            </Button>
             <span className="text-[11px] text-muted-foreground">{mysqlMsg}</span>
           </div>
+          {compactMsg.logbook && <p className="text-[11px] text-success">{compactMsg.logbook}</p>}
         </div>
         )}
 
@@ -7179,7 +7146,6 @@ export function SettingsModal({ onClose, onSaved, initialSection, onMainPaneChan
     'lists-bands':  BandsPanel,
     'lists-modes':  ModesPanel,
     cluster:        ClusterPanel,
-    ftx:            FtxPanel,
     udp:            UDPIntegrationsPanelWrapper,
     // Module-scope components, wrapped so their props can be passed. The nested
     // panels below go through PanelHost instead — which is what now lets either
@@ -7289,7 +7255,11 @@ export function SettingsModal({ onClose, onSaved, initialSection, onMainPaneChan
                 const c = spotColors.colors[k] ?? { text: '', bg: '' };
                 return (
                   <div key={k} className="flex items-center gap-3 px-3 py-1.5">
-                    <span className="text-xs flex-1 min-w-0">{t('spotcol.s_' + k)}</span>
+                    {/* Sent to the radio at all. First in the row because it
+                        decides whether the colours next to it mean anything. */}
+                    <Checkbox checked={!c.hide} title={t('spotcol.send')}
+                      onCheckedChange={(v) => setSpotColor(k, { hide: !v } as any)} />
+                    <span className={cn('text-xs flex-1 min-w-0', c.hide && 'opacity-40 line-through')}>{t('spotcol.s_' + k)}</span>
                     {/* The preview is the point of the row: two colour boxes say
                         nothing about what the pair looks like together. */}
                     <span className="text-xs font-mono px-2 py-0.5 rounded"

frontend/src/components/ui/combobox.tsx

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { useEffect, useRef, useState } from 'react';
+import { ChevronDown } from 'lucide-react';
 import { Input } from './input';
 import { cn } from '@/lib/utils';
 
@@ -7,6 +8,7 @@ import { cn } from '@/lib/utils';
 // can't hold a typo'd value that isn't in the list.
 export function Combobox({
   value, onChange, options, placeholder, className, allowFreeText = false, commitOnType = false,
+  showToggle = false,
 }: {
   value: string;
   onChange: (v: string) => void;
@@ -18,9 +20,21 @@ export function Combobox({
   // fields read live by other actions — e.g. RST, so a CW macro sent without
   // leaving the field uses the value just typed.
   commitOnType?: boolean;
+  // Draw a chevron that opens the full list on click.
+  //
+  // Without it this control is indistinguishable from a plain text box: it opens
+  // only on a keystroke or ArrowDown, both of which have to be known about
+  // first. That is fine for a field whose list is a convenience (RST), and wrong
+  // for one whose list is the ANSWER — the COM ports actually present on this
+  // machine, which nobody can be expected to recall.
+  showToggle?: boolean;
 }) {
   const [open, setOpen] = useState(false);
   const [query, setQuery] = useState('');
+  // Opened by the chevron rather than by typing: the whole list is on offer, not
+  // the part matching what is already in the field — a box holding COM7 would
+  // otherwise "open" onto COM7 alone.
+  const [browse, setBrowse] = useState(false);
   const ref = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null);
 
   useEffect(() => {
@@ -31,20 +45,22 @@ export function Combobox({
     return () => document.removeEventListener('mousedown', onDoc);
   }, []);
 
-  const filtered = open
+  const filtered = !open ? []
-    ? options.filter((o) => o.toLowerCase().includes(query.toLowerCase())).slice(0, 60)
+    : browse ? options.slice(0, 60)
-    : [];
+      : options.filter((o) => o.toLowerCase().includes(query.toLowerCase())).slice(0, 60);
 
   function commit(v: string) {
     onChange(v);
     setQuery(v);
     setOpen(false);
+    setBrowse(false);
   }
 
   function onBlur() {
     // Defer so a click on an option registers first.
     setTimeout(() => {
       setOpen(false);
+      setBrowse(false);
       const trimmed = query.trim();
       const exact = options.find((o) => o.toLowerCase() === trimmed.toLowerCase());
       // Only fire onChange when the value actually changed — committing an
@@ -68,6 +84,7 @@ export function Combobox({
           const v = e.target.value;
           setQuery(v);
           setOpen(true);
+          setBrowse(false); // typing filters again
           // Commit-on-type pushes the value live to the parent (so a CW macro sent
           // without leaving the field uses what was just typed). With free text that's
           // any input; a restricted field (allowFreeText=false) commits ONLY a value
@@ -76,14 +93,34 @@ export function Combobox({
           if (commitOnType && (allowFreeText || options.some((o) => o.toLowerCase() === v.trim().toLowerCase()))) onChange(v);
         }}
         onBlur={onBlur}
+        className={showToggle ? 'pr-7' : undefined}
         onKeyDown={(e) => {
-          if ((e.key === 'ArrowDown' || e.key === 'Alt') && !open) { setOpen(true); }
+          if ((e.key === 'ArrowDown' || e.key === 'Alt') && !open) { setOpen(true); setBrowse(true); }
           else if (e.key === 'Enter' && open && filtered.length > 0) { e.preventDefault(); commit(filtered[0]); }
           else if (e.key === 'Escape') { setQuery(value); setOpen(false); }
           // Tab: just let it move on; onBlur commits/closes. Options are
           // tabIndex=-1 so a single Tab leaves the field.
         }}
       />
+      {showToggle && (
+        <button
+          type="button"
+          tabIndex={-1}
+          aria-label="Show list"
+          className="absolute inset-y-0 right-0 flex w-7 items-center justify-center text-muted-foreground hover:text-foreground"
+          // mousedown, not click: the input's blur fires first otherwise and
+          // closes the list the same instant this opens it.
+          onMouseDown={(e) => {
+            e.preventDefault();
+            if (open) { setOpen(false); setBrowse(false); return; }
+            setQuery(value);
+            setBrowse(true);
+            setOpen(true);
+          }}
+        >
+          <ChevronDown className="size-3.5" />
+        </button>
+      )}
       {open && filtered.length > 0 && (
         <div className="absolute z-50 mt-1 max-h-60 w-full overflow-auto rounded-md border border-border bg-card shadow-lg text-xs">
           {filtered.map((o) => (

frontend/src/lib/autocall.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,18 @@
 // Auto-call: let OpsLog answer a decode without the operator clicking it.
 //
+// WITHDRAWN FROM THE INTERFACE, because DXHunter already does it.
+//
+// Two programs from the same shack deciding on their own to answer the same
+// decode is worse than either doing it alone: they cannot see each other, so
+// they key over one another, and afterwards there is no telling which of them
+// called. The duplicate is the one to remove, and DXHunter is where this lives.
+//
+// There is no switch in Preferences and no button on the decodes toolbar, and
+// App.tsx returns before the loop can run. The file is kept whole: the rules
+// below are the delicate part, argued over and tested, and rewriting them from
+// memory later would be worse than leaving them here. Reinstating the feature
+// means restoring all three — the settings page, the button, and the guard.
+//
 // This KEYS THE TRANSMITTER on its own, which is why the rules here are written
 // as a series of refusals rather than a search for a reason to call. Everything
 // below has to be true; anything unknown means no.
@@ -154,9 +167,20 @@ export function shouldAutoCall(
   if (!call) return no('no callsign');
   // Never answer ourselves, however the decode reached us.
   if (opts.myCall && call === opts.myCall.trim().toUpperCase()) return no('own callsign');
-  // Only a CQ. Answering a station mid-QSO is both rude and futile — WSJT-X
+  // NOT limited to a CQ, deliberately.
-  // actions a Reply only for CQ and QRZ anyway.
+  //
-  if (!d.cq) return no('not a CQ');
+  // It used to be, on the reasoning that answering a station mid-QSO is calling
+  // over somebody. That reasoning ignored the case the feature exists for: a
+  // DXpedition running a pileup never sends CQ at all — it works caller after
+  // caller — so the rule sat out the one contact auto-call was turned on for. A
+  // new entity on 15 m FT8, decode after decode, and not a single transmission.
+  //
+  // WHEN to transmit is not ours to decide either: the Reply goes to the
+  // decoder, and MSHV starts at once while JTDX waits for a CQ. Two correct
+  // behaviours, both belonging to the program that owns the timing. Here the
+  // question is only whether the station is one the operator wants — the
+  // criteria below answer that, and the cooldown and the busy check keep it from
+  // calling twice.
   // Not while ANY receiver is mid-QSO — transmitting, or holding a DX call it
   // has not finished with. Starting a second exchange before the first is done
   // is what turned this into a machine that called without stopping.

frontend/src/style.css

@@ -991,6 +991,18 @@
 @layer base {
   * { @apply border-border; }
   html, body, #root { height: 100%; }
+  /* No rubber-band, and no swipe-to-navigate.
+
+     Chromium lets a scroll that has reached the end pull the content a few
+     pixels and spring back, and a two-finger horizontal swipe means "go back a
+     page". Both are browser behaviours that have no meaning in a logbook: the
+     first makes a table wobble at the bottom of a list, and the second can
+     navigate the WebView away from the app entirely — a blank window and a
+     restart. Neither shows up with a mouse, which is why they went unnoticed;
+     they arrive with a precision touchpad or a touchscreen.
+
+     A no-op wherever the effects don't occur. */
+  html, body { overscroll-behavior: none; }
   /* Root rem base. Tailwind sizing (text/heights/padding/gaps) is in rem, so
      this is the single global density knob — shrinks the whole UI uniformly
      while Leaflet maps (px-based) stay correct. Default browser base is 16px. */
@@ -1055,3 +1067,15 @@
   filter: invert(1) brightness(1.8);
   opacity: 0.9;
 }
+
+/* Every scrollable pane keeps its overscroll to itself.
+
+   "contain" (not "none") on the inside: the pane still scrolls normally, it
+   simply stops passing the leftover motion up to its parent — which is how
+   scrolling a grid to its end used to tug the panel behind it. */
+.overflow-auto,
+.overflow-y-auto,
+.overflow-x-auto,
+.overflow-scroll {
+  overscroll-behavior: contain;
+}

frontend/src/version.ts

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 // Single source of truth for the app version shown in the UI (header + About).
 // Bump this on a release (the release script updates it alongside telemetry.go).
-export const APP_VERSION = '0.26.3';
+export const APP_VERSION = '0.26.6';
 
 // Author / credits, shown in Help -> About.
 export const APP_AUTHOR = 'F4BPO';

frontend/wailsjs/go/main/App.d.ts

@@ -123,6 +123,8 @@ export function CloseAutostartPrograms():Promise<void>;
 
 export function ClusterSpotStatuses(arg1:Array<main.SpotQuery>):Promise<Array<main.SpotStatus>>;
 
+export function CompactDatabase(arg1:string):Promise<main.CompactResult>;
+
 export function ComputeQSOAwardRefs(arg1:qso.QSO):Promise<Array<main.QSOAwardRef>>;
 
 export function ComputeStationInfo(arg1:string,arg2:string):Promise<main.StationInfoComputed>;

frontend/wailsjs/go/main/App.js

@@ -186,6 +186,10 @@ export function ClusterSpotStatuses(arg1) {
   return window['go']['main']['App']['ClusterSpotStatuses'](arg1);
 }
 
+export function CompactDatabase(arg1) {
+  return window['go']['main']['App']['CompactDatabase'](arg1);
+}
+
 export function ComputeQSOAwardRefs(arg1) {
   return window['go']['main']['App']['ComputeQSOAwardRefs'](arg1);
 }

frontend/wailsjs/go/models.ts

@@ -2295,6 +2295,24 @@ export namespace main {
 	        this.count = source["count"];
 	    }
 	}
+	export class CompactResult {
+	    path: string;
+	    backend: string;
+	    before: number;
+	    after: number;
+	
+	    static createFrom(source: any = {}) {
+	        return new CompactResult(source);
+	    }
+	
+	    constructor(source: any = {}) {
+	        if ('string' === typeof source) source = JSON.parse(source);
+	        this.path = source["path"];
+	        this.backend = source["backend"];
+	        this.before = source["before"];
+	        this.after = source["after"];
+	    }
+	}
 	export class ContestBandRow {
 	    band: string;
 	    count: number;
@@ -3445,6 +3463,7 @@ export namespace main {
 	export class SpotColor {
 	    text: string;
 	    bg?: string;
+	    hide?: boolean;
 	
 	    static createFrom(source: any = {}) {
 	        return new SpotColor(source);
@@ -3454,6 +3473,7 @@ export namespace main {
 	        if ('string' === typeof source) source = JSON.parse(source);
 	        this.text = source["text"];
 	        this.bg = source["bg"];
+	        this.hide = source["hide"];
 	    }
 	}
 	export class SpotColors {

gate_coverage_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// The build gate is only as good as the moments it runs at.
+//
+// It used to run at startup alone, on the profile active then — and a fresh
+// install has NO callsign at that point. The operator typed theirs afterwards,
+// so a denied call ran for the whole session and reached the telemetry, which
+// reads the very same field. Every place that can make a denied callsign the
+// ACTIVE one has to re-ask.
+func TestCallGateRunsWhereverTheActiveCallsignChanges(t *testing.T) {
+	src, err := os.ReadFile("app.go")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	for _, fn := range []string{
+		"func (a *App) startup(ctx context.Context) {",                 // launch
+		"func (a *App) SaveStationSettings(s StationSettings) error {", // the call is entered here
+		"func (a *App) SaveProfile(p profile.Profile) (profile.Profile, error) {",
+		"func (a *App) ActivateProfile(id int64) error {",
+	} {
+		body := funcBody(t, string(src), fn)
+		if !strings.Contains(body, "enforceCallGate(") {
+			t.Errorf("%s can change the active callsign but never re-checks the gate", fn)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// The hashes are the whole mechanism: a truncated or re-cased entry silently
+// matches nothing, and nothing in the running program would ever say so.
+func TestDeniedCallHashesAreWellFormed(t *testing.T) {
+	if len(deniedCallHashes) == 0 {
+		t.Fatal("the deny list is empty — the gate has stopped gating")
+	}
+	for h := range deniedCallHashes {
+		if len(h) != 64 {
+			t.Errorf("hash %q is %d chars, want 64", h, len(h))
+		}
+		if h != strings.ToLower(h) {
+			t.Errorf("hash %q is not lower-case, so it can never match", h)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// A slashed call must reduce to the real one, or /P is a way round the gate.
+func TestDenyBaseCall(t *testing.T) {
+	for in, want := range map[string]string{
+		"f4xyz":    "F4XYZ",
+		" F4XYZ ":  "F4XYZ",
+		"F4XYZ/P":  "F4XYZ",
+		"TM/F4XYZ": "F4XYZ",
+		"F4XYZ/MM": "F4XYZ",
+		"":         "",
+	} {
+		if got := denyBaseCall(in); got != want {
+			t.Errorf("denyBaseCall(%q) = %q, want %q", in, got, want)
+		}
+	}
+}

internal/applog/applog.go

@@ -20,9 +20,15 @@ var (
 	mu        sync.Mutex
 	file      *os.File
 	path      string
+	written   int64    // bytes in the CURRENT file, for the size check in Printf
 	crashFile *os.File // kept open so the runtime can write a crash traceback to it
 )
 
+// maxLogBytes is where the file rolls over, at startup AND while running.
+// A variable, not a constant, so the rotation can be exercised in a test without
+// writing ten megabytes to do it.
+var maxLogBytes int64 = 10 * 1024 * 1024
+
 // Init opens (creates) the log file in dataDir. On rotation we truncate
 // at startup if the file is too big; for now it's a single file, no
 // rolling — the volume is low (a few KB per session).
@@ -47,12 +53,12 @@ func Init(dataDir string) (string, error) {
 			_ = os.Rename(oldLog, logPath)
 		}
 	}
-	// Rotate (don't delete) once the file grows past ~10MB: rename it to
+	// Rotate (don't delete) once the file grows past maxLogBytes: rename it to
 	// opslog.log.1 so the PREVIOUS session's log survives. Deleting it outright used
 	// to erase exactly the diagnostics we needed when a user reported an issue from
 	// the session that just ended. One generation kept — enough, without unbounded growth.
-	if fi, err := os.Stat(logPath); err == nil && fi.Size() > 10*1024*1024 {
+	if fi, err := os.Stat(logPath); err == nil && fi.Size() > maxLogBytes {
-		_ = os.Remove(logPath + ".1")     // drop the older generation
+		_ = os.Remove(logPath + ".1") // drop the older generation
 		if err := os.Rename(logPath, logPath+".1"); err != nil {
 			_ = os.Remove(logPath) // rename failed (locked?) → fall back to the old behaviour
 		}
@@ -96,13 +102,57 @@ func Printf(format string, args ...any) {
 		msg = msg[:len(msg)-1]
 	}
 	if file != nil {
-		fmt.Fprintf(file, "%s %s\n", stamp, msg)
+		n, _ := fmt.Fprintf(file, "%s %s\n", stamp, msg)
+		written += int64(n)
+		rotateIfBigLocked()
 	}
 	// Also dump to stderr in case the binary was launched with a console
 	// attached (wails dev, custom build).
 	fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "%s %s\n", stamp, msg)
 }
 
+// rotateIfBigLocked rolls the file over mid-session once it passes maxLogBytes.
+//
+// The check used to happen at STARTUP only, on the reasonable belief that a
+// session writes a few kilobytes. The CI-V wire trace disproved it: left on for
+// a day it wrote 416 MB, and nothing would have stopped it before the disk did.
+// A log that has to be rotated by quitting the program is not a bound.
+//
+// Same one-generation scheme as the startup rotation, so the previous stretch
+// survives — which is the half an operator usually needs, the part just before
+// the thing they are reporting.
+//
+// Caller holds mu.
+func rotateIfBigLocked() {
+	if written < maxLogBytes || file == nil || path == "" {
+		return
+	}
+	fmt.Fprintf(file, "%s ── log reached %d MB, rotating to %s.1 ──\n",
+		time.Now().Format("15:04:05.000"), maxLogBytes/(1024*1024), filepath.Base(path))
+	_ = file.Close()
+	file = nil
+	_ = os.Remove(path + ".1")
+	if err := os.Rename(path, path+".1"); err != nil {
+		// Rename refused (the file is held open elsewhere, a virus scanner): keep
+		// writing to the old handle rather than losing the log entirely, and try
+		// again in another maxLogBytes rather than on every single line.
+		f, oerr := os.OpenFile(path, os.O_CREATE|os.O_WRONLY|os.O_APPEND, 0o644)
+		if oerr == nil {
+			file = f
+		}
+		written = 0
+		return
+	}
+	f, err := os.OpenFile(path, os.O_CREATE|os.O_WRONLY|os.O_APPEND, 0o644)
+	if err != nil {
+		return // nothing more to be done; the next Printf simply writes nowhere
+	}
+	file = f
+	written = 0
+	fmt.Fprintf(file, "%s ── continued from %s.1 ──\n",
+		time.Now().Format("15:04:05.000"), filepath.Base(path))
+}
+
 // Path returns where the file is so the UI can surface it.
 func Path() string {
 	mu.Lock()
@@ -118,4 +168,19 @@ func Close() {
 		_ = file.Close()
 		file = nil
 	}
+	// The crash file is held open for the whole run so the runtime can dump a
+	// traceback into it without allocating; on the way out it has to be released
+	// like any other handle, or the data directory cannot be moved or removed.
+	if crashFile != nil {
+		// The RUNTIME holds its own duplicate of this handle (SetCrashOutput), so
+		// closing ours releases nothing on Windows — the data directory stays
+		// locked. Hand the runtime a nil first. Anything fatal in the last moments
+		// of shutdown is no longer captured, which is the right trade at a point
+		// where the databases are already closed.
+		_ = debug.SetCrashOutput(nil, debug.CrashOptions{})
+		_ = crashFile.Close()
+		crashFile = nil
+	}
+	path = ""
+	written = 0
 }

internal/applog/rotate_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+package applog
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// The log has to be bounded WHILE RUNNING, not only at startup. The CI-V wire
+// trace left on for a day wrote 416 MB, and nothing would have stopped it
+// before the disk did.
+func TestRotatesMidSession(t *testing.T) {
+	orig := maxLogBytes
+	maxLogBytes = 8 * 1024 // small, so the test costs milliseconds
+	defer func() { maxLogBytes = orig }()
+
+	dir := t.TempDir()
+	p, err := Init(dir)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	defer Close()
+
+	line := strings.Repeat("x", 256)
+	for i := 0; i < 100; i++ { // ~25 KB: several times the limit
+		Printf("%s", line)
+	}
+
+	if _, err := os.Stat(p + ".1"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("no previous generation kept: %v", err)
+	}
+	fi, err := os.Stat(p)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if fi.Size() > maxLogBytes {
+		t.Fatalf("current log is %d bytes, over the %d limit — it did not roll over", fi.Size(), maxLogBytes)
+	}
+	// The new file says where the rest went: a log that starts mid-sentence with
+	// no explanation is how an operator concludes the app lost its history.
+	b, err := os.ReadFile(p)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(string(b), "continued from "+filepath.Base(p)+".1") {
+		t.Error("the new file does not point at the one it continues")
+	}
+}

internal/cat/flex.go

@@ -74,6 +74,15 @@ type Flex struct {
 	// end up outside the new window — see ZoomPan.
 	panWindow map[string]panView
 
+	// spotSig is what each live spot LOOKS like, and when it was drawn. A
+	// callsign spotted again with the same frequency, colour and comment does not
+	// need to be removed and re-added: the panadapter would not change by one
+	// pixel, and a busy RBN feed re-spots the same station every few seconds. One
+	// two-minute session sent 2 128 adds and 1 634 removes, 88 of them for a
+	// single callsign — see SendSpot.
+	spotSig  map[string]string
+	spotSent map[string]time.Time
+
 	spotByCall map[string]int // callsign → live spot index, so re-spotting a call replaces its old spot (WSJT decodes re-fire every cycle)
 	sentCmds   map[int]string // seq → command text, so an R<seq> error names the command
 
@@ -205,7 +214,7 @@ func NewFlex(host string, port int, spotsEnabled bool) *Flex {
 	return &Flex{
 		host: strings.TrimSpace(host), port: port,
 		slices: map[int]*flexSlice{}, spotsEnabled: spotsEnabled,
-		spotIdx: map[int]bool{}, pendingSpot: map[int]string{}, pendingSpotMode: map[int]string{}, spotCall: map[int]string{}, spotMode: map[int]string{}, spotFreq: map[int]int64{}, pendingSpotFreq: map[int]int64{}, panWindow: map[string]panView{}, spotByCall: map[string]int{}, pendingSplit: map[int]bool{},
+		spotIdx: map[int]bool{}, pendingSpot: map[int]string{}, pendingSpotMode: map[int]string{}, spotCall: map[int]string{}, spotMode: map[int]string{}, spotFreq: map[int]int64{}, pendingSpotFreq: map[int]int64{}, panWindow: map[string]panView{}, spotSig: map[string]string{}, spotSent: map[string]time.Time{}, spotByCall: map[string]int{}, pendingSplit: map[int]bool{},
 		meterMeta: map[int]meterInfo{}, meterVal: map[int]float64{}, meterSub: map[int]bool{},
 		sentCmds: map[int]string{}, txSetAt: map[string]time.Time{},
 		pinnedSlice: -1,
@@ -859,6 +868,13 @@ func (f *Flex) handleStatus(payload string) {
 				}
 				f.mu.Lock()
 				if removed {
+					// The radio expired or dropped this spot: forget what it looked
+					// like, or the next identical spot would be skipped as "already
+					// drawn" and the station would never come back.
+					if c, ok := f.spotCall[idx]; ok {
+						delete(f.spotSig, strings.ToUpper(c))
+						delete(f.spotSent, strings.ToUpper(c))
+					}
 					delete(f.spotIdx, idx)
 					delete(f.spotCall, idx)
 					delete(f.spotMode, idx)
@@ -1390,7 +1406,22 @@ func (f *Flex) SendSpot(s SpotInfo) error {
 	// and Go mutexes aren't reentrant (calling send while locked deadlocks the
 	// whole Flex goroutine → the radio drops OFFLINE).
 	upperCall := strings.ToUpper(s.Callsign)
+	// Unchanged and still fresh → leave it alone.
+	//
+	// Refreshed once past half its lifetime, so a long-lived spot still gets its
+	// timer wound on and never quietly expires off the panadapter; anything that
+	// actually differs (a new frequency, a status that has changed colour, a
+	// different comment) is redrawn at once.
+	sig := fmt.Sprintf("%d|%s|%s|%s|%s", s.FreqHz, s.Mode, s.Color, s.BackgroundColor, s.Comment)
 	f.mu.Lock()
+	if prev, ok := f.spotSig[upperCall]; ok && prev == sig {
+		if at, ok := f.spotSent[upperCall]; ok && time.Since(at) < time.Duration(life)*time.Second/2 {
+			f.mu.Unlock()
+			return nil
+		}
+	}
+	f.spotSig[upperCall] = sig
+	f.spotSent[upperCall] = time.Now()
 	old, hadOld := f.spotByCall[upperCall]
 	if hadOld {
 		delete(f.spotByCall, upperCall)
@@ -1464,6 +1495,8 @@ func (f *Flex) ClearSpots() error {
 	f.spotCall = map[int]string{}
 	f.spotMode = map[int]string{}
 	f.spotFreq = map[int]int64{}
+	f.spotSig = map[string]string{}
+	f.spotSent = map[string]time.Time{}
 	f.spotByCall = map[string]int{}
 	connected := f.conn != nil
 	f.mu.Unlock()

internal/cat/icom_foreign_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+package cat
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"hamlog/internal/cat/civ"
+)
+
+// A CI-V bus can carry a second controller, and the rig answers each of them on
+// the same wire. A reply addressed to somebody else must not be taken for ours —
+// on an IC-7850 one arrived between a PTT command and its acknowledgement, the
+// acknowledgement was never matched, and the failure was handed to JTDX as a rig
+// control error.
+func TestForeignCIVRepliesAreIgnored(t *testing.T) {
+	const rig = 0x8E
+	frames, _ := civ.Scan([]byte{
+		0xFE, 0xFE, 0x01, rig, 0x1C, 0x00, 0x01, 0xFD, // to controller 01 — not ours
+		0xFE, 0xFE, civ.AddrController, rig, 0xFB, 0xFD, // to us: the acknowledgement
+		0xFE, 0xFE, 0x00, rig, 0x00, 0x00, 0x25, 0x09, 0x14, 0x00, 0xFD, // transceive broadcast
+	})
+	if len(frames) != 3 {
+		t.Fatalf("scanned %d frames, want 3", len(frames))
+	}
+	var kept []civ.Decoded
+	for _, f := range frames {
+		if f.From != rig {
+			continue
+		}
+		if f.To != civ.AddrController && f.To != 0x00 {
+			continue
+		}
+		kept = append(kept, f)
+	}
+	if len(kept) != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("kept %d frames, want 2 (ours + the broadcast)", len(kept))
+	}
+	if kept[0].Cmd != 0xFB {
+		t.Errorf("the acknowledgement was not the first kept frame: % X", kept[0].Cmd)
+	}
+	if kept[1].To != 0x00 {
+		t.Errorf("the transceive broadcast was dropped")
+	}
+}

internal/cat/icomserial.go

@@ -514,8 +514,21 @@ func (b *IcomSerial) SetFrequency(hz int64) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("invalid frequency")
 	}
 	b.lastSetFreq, b.lastSetFreqAt = hz, time.Now()
-	return b.execIdempotent(fmt.Sprintf("set frequency %d Hz", hz),
+	err := b.execIdempotent(fmt.Sprintf("set frequency %d Hz", hz),
 		append([]byte{civ.CmdSetFreq}, civ.FreqToBCD(hz)...)...)
+	// Same reasoning as SetPTT: a lost acknowledgement is not a failed command,
+	// and WSJT-X or JTDX answer a failed set_freq by dropping the link — an
+	// IC-7850 log shows exactly that at 15:16:15, the disconnect four seconds
+	// later. The rig is asked what frequency it is on rather than being called a
+	// failure on the strength of a missing "FB".
+	if err == nil || !errors.Is(err, errIcomAckLost) {
+		return err
+	}
+	if got, rerr := b.readFreq(); rerr == nil && got == hz {
+		applog.Printf("icom: frequency %d Hz not acknowledged, but the rig is on it — treating as done", hz)
+		return nil
+	}
+	return err
 }
 
 func (b *IcomSerial) SetMode(mode string) error {
@@ -526,7 +539,16 @@ func (b *IcomSerial) SetMode(mode string) error {
 	// Set the base mode (keeping the rig's current filter by sending only the
 	// mode byte), then set the data-mode flag for digital modes.
 	if err := b.execIdempotent("set mode "+mode, civ.CmdSetMode, code); err != nil {
-		return err
+		// A lost acknowledgement is not a refused mode — see SetPTT. The mode is
+		// readable, so ask rather than report a failure that would cost the
+		// digital application its connection.
+		if !errors.Is(err, errIcomAckLost) {
+			return err
+		}
+		if got, ok := b.readMode(); !ok || got != code {
+			return err
+		}
+		applog.Printf("icom: mode %s not acknowledged, but the rig reports it — treating as done", mode)
 	}
 	dataByte := byte(0)
 	if data {
@@ -569,12 +591,43 @@ func (b *IcomSerial) execIdempotent(what string, payload ...byte) error {
 }
 
 // SetPTT keys or unkeys the transmitter (CI-V 0x1C 0x00).
+// A lost acknowledgement is NOT proof the rig ignored us, and treating it as one
+// is expensive: OpsLog fronts a Hamlib rigctl port, so the failure is handed
+// straight to WSJT-X or JTDX, which answer a failed set_ptt with a Rig Control
+// Error and drop the link mid-over. An IC-7850 log showed exactly that, three
+// times in a session, on a CI-V bus with a second controller corrupting frames.
+//
+// So when the acknowledgement does not arrive, ASK the rig what it is doing. PTT
+// is readable (0x1C 0x00), the answer is unambiguous, and a rig that is keyed
+// received the command whatever became of its reply.
 func (b *IcomSerial) SetPTT(on bool) error {
 	state := byte(0)
 	if on {
 		state = 1
 	}
-	return b.execIdempotent(fmt.Sprintf("PTT %v", on), civ.CmdPTT, civ.SubPTT, state)
+	err := b.execIdempotent(fmt.Sprintf("PTT %v", on), civ.CmdPTT, civ.SubPTT, state)
+	if err == nil || !errors.Is(err, errIcomAckLost) {
+		return err
+	}
+	// A GENEROUS window for the verification, not the poll's 150 ms.
+	//
+	// The rig has just failed to answer twice in 800 ms, and the reason seen on a
+	// real IC-7850 is that it was retuning: JTDX moves the transmit frequency and
+	// keys in the same breath. Asking it again with the short probe timeout would
+	// fail for exactly the same reason and prove nothing.
+	keyed, ok := b.readTXWithin(icomPTTVerifyTimeout)
+	if ok && keyed == on {
+		applog.Printf("icom: PTT %v not acknowledged, but the rig reports it — treating as done", on)
+		return nil
+	}
+	// Logged either way, because "the fix did not work" and "the rig really did
+	// not key" look identical from outside and need telling apart.
+	if ok {
+		applog.Printf("icom: PTT %v not acknowledged, and the rig reports %v — reporting the failure", on, keyed)
+	} else {
+		applog.Printf("icom: PTT %v not acknowledged, and the rig did not answer the check either", on)
+	}
+	return err
 }
 
 // SetPower turns the transceiver on or off (CI-V 0x18). Power-ON is prefixed with
@@ -686,6 +739,19 @@ func (b *IcomSerial) reader(port civTransport, done chan struct{}) {
 			if f.From != b.rigAddr {
 				continue // echo of our own command
 			}
+			// Addressed to US, or broadcast.
+			//
+			// A CI-V bus can carry a second controller — RS-BA1, wfview, another
+			// logger — and the rig answers each of them in turn on the same wire.
+			// Those replies come FROM the rig, so the check above lets them through,
+			// and one can be taken for the answer to our own command: an IC-7850 log
+			// showed "FE FE 01 8E …" (to controller 01) arriving between our PTT
+			// command and its acknowledgement, with bus collisions around it.
+			// Transceive broadcasts (to 0x00) stay welcome — that is how the rig
+			// announces a knob turn.
+			if f.To != civ.AddrController && f.To != 0x00 {
+				continue
+			}
 			if f.Cmd == civ.CmdScope {
 				b.route(b.specCh, f)
 				continue
@@ -1273,16 +1339,30 @@ func (b *IcomSerial) readTXFreq() (int64, bool) {
 
 // readTX reads the transmit state (CI-V 0x1C 0x00): non-zero data = keyed.
 func (b *IcomSerial) readTX() bool {
+	on, _ := b.readTXWithin(icomDSPTimeout)
+	return on
+}
+
+// icomPTTVerifyTimeout is how long the PTT check waits. Long, deliberately: it
+// runs only after a command was already given up on, so it costs nothing in the
+// normal case and everything depends on it in the abnormal one.
+const icomPTTVerifyTimeout = 700 * time.Millisecond
+
+// readTXWithin reads the transmit state, reporting whether the rig ANSWERED.
+//
+// The two are different questions and the caller usually needs both: "not
+// transmitting" and "did not say" are the same bool but not the same fact.
+func (b *IcomSerial) readTXWithin(timeout time.Duration) (on bool, answered bool) {
 	if err := b.write(civ.CmdPTT, civ.SubPTT); err != nil {
-		return false
+		return false, false
 	}
-	f, err := b.recv(icomDSPTimeout, func(d civ.Decoded) bool {
+	f, err := b.recv(timeout, func(d civ.Decoded) bool {
 		return d.Cmd == civ.CmdPTT && len(d.Data) >= 2 && d.Data[0] == civ.SubPTT
 	})
 	if err != nil {
-		return false
+		return false, false
 	}
-	return f.Data[1] != 0
+	return f.Data[1] != 0, true
 }
 
 // readMeter reads a meter (CI-V 0x15) and returns it scaled to 0-100.

internal/db/db.go

@@ -147,7 +147,17 @@ func NowISO() string { return time.Now().UTC().Format("2006-01-02T15:04:05.000Z"
 
 // Open opens (and creates if needed) the SQLite database at the given path,
 // enables performance PRAGMAs, and applies embedded migrations.
-func Open(path string) (*sql.DB, error) {
+//
+// This is the SETTINGS database, which gets the full schema — see roles.go for
+// why. Use OpenLogbook for a database that holds contacts only.
+func Open(path string) (*sql.DB, error) { return open(path, RoleAll) }
+
+// OpenLogbook opens a SQLite logbook: the qso table and nothing from the
+// settings side, and any unused settings tables an earlier version left in it
+// are dropped if they are empty.
+func OpenLogbook(path string) (*sql.DB, error) { return open(path, RoleLogbook) }
+
+func open(path string, role Role) (*sql.DB, error) {
 	// Escape only the two characters a path could contain that the DSN would
 	// otherwise read as its query/fragment delimiters. Windows separators
 	// (\\ and the drive ':') are left intact — url.PathEscape would mangle them.
@@ -162,10 +172,12 @@ func Open(path string) (*sql.DB, error) {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("ping sqlite: %w", err)
 	}
 	Dialect = "sqlite"
-	if err := migrate(conn, nil, path, filepath.Base(path)); err != nil {
+	label := filepath.Base(path)
+	if err := migrate(conn, nil, path, label, role); err != nil {
 		_ = conn.Close()
 		return nil, err
 	}
+	pruneForeignTables(conn, role, label)
 	return conn, nil
 }
 
@@ -236,7 +248,7 @@ func backupBeforeRewrite(conn *sql.DB, dbPath, migration string) {
 // interleaved migration runs in one log were indistinguishable — an operator
 // reported "migrations are very slow" and the lines gave no way to tell one
 // database migrated three times from three databases migrated once.
-func migrate(conn *sql.DB, translate func(string) string, dbPath, label string) error {
+func migrate(conn *sql.DB, translate func(string) string, dbPath, label string, role Role) error {
 	// A non-nil translator means this is the MySQL connection (use the
 	// per-statement, FK-aware path); nil means a SQLite connection. This is
 	// determined by the caller's argument, NOT the global Dialect, so the
@@ -331,9 +343,18 @@ func migrate(conn *sql.DB, translate func(string) string, dbPath, label string)
 		if err != nil {
 			return fmt.Errorf("begin tx for %s: %w", name, err)
 		}
-		if _, err := tx.Exec(sqlText); err != nil {
+		// Statement by statement rather than one Exec of the whole file: the role
-			_ = tx.Rollback()
+		// filter works per statement, and a settings-table statement must not
-			return fmt.Errorf("apply migration %s: %w", name, err)
+		// reach a logbook database (see roles.go). Still one transaction, so the
+		// file remains atomic.
+		for _, stmt := range splitStatements(sqlText) {
+			if !keepForRole(stmt, role) {
+				continue
+			}
+			if _, err := tx.Exec(stmt); err != nil {
+				_ = tx.Rollback()
+				return fmt.Errorf("apply migration %s: %w", name, err)
+			}
 		}
 		if _, err := tx.Exec(`INSERT INTO schema_migrations(name) VALUES(?)`, name); err != nil {
 			_ = tx.Rollback()

internal/db/mysql.go

@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ func OpenMySQL(c MySQLConfig) (*sql.DB, error) {
 			return nil, rerr
 		}
 		// Then apply only the migrations it's missing.
-		err = migrate(conn, mysqlDDL, "", "mysql:"+name)
+		err = migrate(conn, mysqlDDL, "", "mysql:"+name, RoleLogbook)
 	}
 	if err != nil {
 		_ = conn.Close()
@@ -343,7 +343,9 @@ func applyMySQLBaseline(conn *sql.DB) error {
 	// database. Labelled so its (fast) migration lines are not mistaken for a
 	// real database being migrated — in one operator's log this pass sat between
 	// two slow MySQL runs and looked like a third database.
-	if err := migrate(mem, nil, "", "baseline:memory"); err != nil {
+	// RoleLogbook: the baseline defines what a FRESH shared logbook gets, and a
+	// logbook has no business holding settings or station profiles.
+	if err := migrate(mem, nil, "", "baseline:memory", RoleLogbook); err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("build baseline schema: %w", err)
 	}
 

internal/db/roles.go

@@ -0,0 +1,321 @@
+package db
+
+// Which tables belong in which database.
+//
+// OpsLog keeps settings and contacts apart — a settings database (settings.db /
+// opslog.db) and a logbook (logbook.db, a per-profile file, or a shared MySQL).
+// The SEPARATION of the data was real from the start; the SCHEMA was not: every
+// target got the whole migration set, so a shared MySQL logbook grew a settings
+// table and a station_profiles table that nothing ever wrote to. An operator
+// inspecting the server with phpMyAdmin had no way to tell which copy was
+// authoritative — a fair question, and the reason for this file.
+//
+// So a migration statement is now filtered by the ROLE of the database it is
+// being applied to. Only two rules, and both fail safe:
+//
+//   - RoleAll (the settings database) applies everything, exactly as before.
+//     It has to: a legacy single-file installation holds its QSOs there, and it
+//     still serves as the logbook when no separate one could be created.
+//   - RoleLogbook applies everything EXCEPT statements aimed at a table on the
+//     settings side. A table this file does not know about is kept, in both —
+//     an unrecognised future table behaves as it does today rather than
+//     silently going missing from one database.
+
+import (
+	"database/sql"
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// Role is what a database is for.
+type Role int
+
+const (
+	// RoleAll applies every migration statement. The settings database.
+	RoleAll Role = iota
+	// RoleLogbook applies only what the contacts need.
+	RoleLogbook
+)
+
+// settingsTables are owned by the settings database. Every one of them is
+// reached through the settings connection in app.go — grep NewRepo/NewStore
+// there: only qso.NewRepo is given the logbook connection.
+//
+// Ordered children-before-parents, because pruneForeignTables drops them in
+// this order and operating_antennas has a foreign key into operating_stations.
+var settingsTables = []string{
+	"operating_antenna_bands",
+	"operating_antennas",
+	"operating_antennas_new",
+	"operating_stations",
+	"operating_stations_new",
+	"award_references",
+	"qsl_templates",
+	"cluster_servers",
+	"integrations_udp",
+	"callsign_cache",
+	"station_profiles",
+	"settings",
+}
+
+// keepForRole reports whether one migration statement applies to this role.
+func keepForRole(stmt string, role Role) bool {
+	if role == RoleAll {
+		return true
+	}
+	t := stmtTable(stmt)
+	if t == "" {
+		return true // not a table statement (PRAGMA, or a shape we don't parse)
+	}
+	for _, s := range settingsTables {
+		if t == s {
+			return false
+		}
+	}
+	return true
+}
+
+// stmtTable returns the lower-cased table a statement acts on, or "".
+//
+// Deliberately literal: it recognises the handful of statement shapes the
+// migrations actually use, and returns "" for anything else — which keeps the
+// statement. Guessing would be the only way to drop something by accident.
+func stmtTable(stmt string) string {
+	f := strings.Fields(strings.ToLower(stmt))
+	at := func(i int) string {
+		if i < len(f) {
+			return f[i]
+		}
+		return ""
+	}
+	// Skip the leading keywords that carry no table name.
+	switch {
+	case at(0) == "create" || at(0) == "drop":
+		// CREATE [UNIQUE] INDEX <name> ON <table> …
+		// CREATE TABLE [IF NOT EXISTS] <table> …  /  DROP TABLE [IF EXISTS] <t>
+		//
+		// The "ON" search is confined to an INDEX statement on purpose: a CREATE
+		// TABLE body is full of "ON DELETE CASCADE", and scanning the whole
+		// statement for "on" once made every foreign-keyed table report itself as
+		// a table named "delete" — unrecognised, therefore kept, therefore created
+		// in a logbook that had no use for it.
+		if at(1) == "index" || (at(1) == "unique" && at(2) == "index") {
+			for i, w := range f {
+				if w == "on" && i+1 < len(f) {
+					return cleanIdent(f[i+1])
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		i := 1
+		for at(i) == "unique" || at(i) == "table" || at(i) == "index" ||
+			at(i) == "if" || at(i) == "not" || at(i) == "exists" || at(i) == "view" {
+			i++
+		}
+		return cleanIdent(at(i))
+	case at(0) == "alter":
+		return cleanIdent(at(2)) // ALTER TABLE <table> …
+	case at(0) == "insert" || at(0) == "replace":
+		i := 1
+		for at(i) == "or" || at(i) == "ignore" || at(i) == "into" || at(i) == "replace" {
+			i++
+		}
+		return cleanIdent(at(i))
+	case at(0) == "update":
+		return cleanIdent(at(1))
+	case at(0) == "delete":
+		return cleanIdent(at(2)) // DELETE FROM <table>
+	}
+	return ""
+}
+
+// cleanIdent strips quoting and anything glued to the name — "qso(id)" from an
+// index, `settings` from the MySQL translation, "qso;" from a split statement.
+func cleanIdent(s string) string {
+	s = strings.TrimSpace(s)
+	if i := strings.IndexAny(s, "(;"); i >= 0 {
+		s = s[:i]
+	}
+	return strings.Trim(s, "`\"'[]")
+}
+
+// pruneForeignTables removes settings tables from a logbook database that an
+// earlier version created there.
+//
+// ONLY WHEN EMPTY, without exception. A table with rows in it is data, whatever
+// this file thinks it is for: a profile pointing at a legacy combined database
+// as its logbook is a real configuration, and dropping its profiles because the
+// schema now says they belong elsewhere would be destroying a log-keeping
+// operator's work on the strength of a tidiness rule.
+//
+// Best effort throughout: a logbook the user cannot drop tables in (a restricted
+// MySQL grant) keeps its empty tables and works exactly as it does today.
+func pruneForeignTables(conn *sql.DB, role Role, label string) {
+	if role != RoleLogbook || conn == nil {
+		return
+	}
+	// Once per database, recorded like a migration.
+	//
+	// The check itself is a COUNT(*) per settings table — twelve round trips,
+	// which is nothing locally and is paid on EVERY open of a remote MySQL
+	// logbook, including every profile switch. There is nothing to find after the
+	// first pass: the role filter means no settings table is ever created in a
+	// logbook again.
+	if _, err := conn.Exec(`INSERT INTO schema_migrations(name) VALUES(?)`, prunedMarker); err != nil {
+		return // already recorded (primary key), or the table is not writable
+	}
+	dropped := 0
+	for _, t := range settingsTables {
+		var n int
+		// A missing table errors here, which is the "nothing to do" answer.
+		if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ` + quoteIdent(t)).Scan(&n); err != nil {
+			continue
+		}
+		if n != 0 {
+			logf("db[%s]: keeping %s — it has %d row(s)", label, t, n)
+			continue
+		}
+		if _, err := conn.Exec(`DROP TABLE ` + quoteIdent(t)); err != nil {
+			logf("db[%s]: could not drop unused %s: %v", label, t, err)
+			continue
+		}
+		dropped++
+	}
+	if dropped > 0 {
+		logf("db[%s]: dropped %d unused settings table(s) — this database holds contacts only", label, dropped)
+	}
+}
+
+// prunedMarker records, in schema_migrations, that a logbook has had its unused
+// settings tables removed. Named like a migration and stored beside them because
+// that is exactly what it is: a one-off schema step, and the applied set is
+// already read in a single query at every open.
+const prunedMarker = "_opslog_pruned_settings_tables"
+
+// quoteIdent quotes one of OUR OWN table names for either dialect. Backticks
+// work in MySQL and in SQLite alike, which is why the migrations use them.
+func quoteIdent(s string) string { return "`" + s + "`" }
+
+// DropRedundantSettingsTables removes the settings tables from a logbook
+// database EVEN IF THEY HAVE ROWS.
+//
+// Reserved for the one case where those rows are provably a stale duplicate:
+// the logbook file was seeded by VACUUM INTO from the old combined database
+// (see the split at startup), so every profile and every setting in it is a
+// copy of what the settings database still holds and is authoritative for.
+// Nothing reads them — the settings connection is a different file entirely —
+// and leaving them behind is what made the two databases look interchangeable.
+//
+// The caller must have established that authority. pruneForeignTables is the
+// safe default for every other situation.
+func DropRedundantSettingsTables(conn *sql.DB, label string) {
+	if conn == nil {
+		return
+	}
+	dropped := 0
+	for _, t := range settingsTables {
+		if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ` + quoteIdent(t)).Scan(new(int)); err != nil {
+			continue // not there: nothing to do
+		}
+		if _, err := conn.Exec(`DROP TABLE ` + quoteIdent(t)); err != nil {
+			logf("db[%s]: could not drop redundant %s: %v", label, t, err)
+			continue
+		}
+		dropped++
+	}
+	if dropped > 0 {
+		logf("db[%s]: dropped %d settings table(s) copied by the logbook split — the settings database keeps the originals", label, dropped)
+	}
+}
+
+// EnsureQSOTable recreates the contacts table if it is missing.
+//
+// It exists so dropping an EMPTY qso table from the settings database is a
+// reversible act. The settings database can still be pressed into service as the
+// logbook — that is the fallback when no separate logbook file can be created —
+// and the migrations that would have built the table are recorded as applied, so
+// nothing would ever build it again. This does, from the same migrations, on
+// demand.
+//
+// The schema is derived rather than duplicated: the migrations are replayed on a
+// throwaway in-memory SQLite whose sqlite_master then holds the FINAL shape of
+// the table with every ALTER-added column folded in. Same trick as the MySQL
+// baseline, and for the same reason — there is no second schema to drift.
+//
+// SQLite only: the shared MySQL logbook is never the settings database.
+func EnsureQSOTable(conn *sql.DB) error {
+	if conn == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+	if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM qso`).Scan(new(int)); err == nil {
+		return nil // already there
+	}
+	stmts, err := qsoSchemaDDL()
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	for _, st := range stmts {
+		if _, err := conn.Exec(st); err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("recreate qso table: %w", err)
+		}
+	}
+	logf("db: recreated the qso table — this database is being used as the logbook")
+	return nil
+}
+
+// qsoSchemaDDL returns the CREATE statements for the qso table and its indexes,
+// in that order.
+func qsoSchemaDDL() ([]string, error) {
+	mem, err := sql.Open("sqlite", "file:opslog_qsoschema?mode=memory&cache=shared")
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("open schema sqlite: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer mem.Close()
+	if err := migrate(mem, nil, "", "qso-schema:memory", RoleLogbook); err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("build qso schema: %w", err)
+	}
+	rows, err := mem.Query(`SELECT type, sql FROM sqlite_master
+	                        WHERE sql IS NOT NULL AND tbl_name = 'qso'`)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	defer rows.Close()
+	var tables, indexes []string
+	for rows.Next() {
+		var typ, s string
+		if err := rows.Scan(&typ, &s); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		if typ == "table" {
+			tables = append(tables, s)
+		} else {
+			indexes = append(indexes, s)
+		}
+	}
+	if len(tables) == 0 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("qso table not found in the derived schema")
+	}
+	return append(tables, indexes...), rows.Err()
+}
+
+// DropEmptyQSOTable removes the contacts table from a database that is not the
+// logbook — the settings database, once its QSOs live in their own file.
+//
+// Only when empty, and reversible: EnsureQSOTable builds it again the moment
+// this database is asked to serve as the logbook.
+func DropEmptyQSOTable(conn *sql.DB, label string) {
+	if conn == nil {
+		return
+	}
+	var n int
+	if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM qso`).Scan(&n); err != nil {
+		return // not there: nothing to do
+	}
+	if n != 0 {
+		return // contacts: this table is data, whatever the schema says
+	}
+	if _, err := conn.Exec(`DROP TABLE qso`); err != nil {
+		logf("db[%s]: could not drop the unused qso table: %v", label, err)
+		return
+	}
+	logf("db[%s]: dropped the unused qso table — the contacts live in their own database", label)
+}

internal/db/roles_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,283 @@
+package db
+
+import (
+	"path/filepath"
+	"sort"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestStmtTable(t *testing.T) {
+	cases := map[string]string{
+		"CREATE TABLE station_profiles (\n id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY)":    "station_profiles",
+		"CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS settings (`key` TEXT PRIMARY KEY)": "settings",
+		"CREATE UNIQUE INDEX idx_qso_uid ON qso(sync_uid)":             "qso",
+		"CREATE INDEX idx_ref ON award_references (award_code)":        "award_references",
+		"ALTER TABLE qso ADD COLUMN ant_path TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT ''": "qso",
+		"ALTER TABLE `station_profiles` ADD COLUMN my_cq_zone TEXT":    "station_profiles",
+		"INSERT INTO settings(`key`, value) VALUES('x','y')":           "settings",
+		"INSERT OR IGNORE INTO cluster_servers(name) VALUES('dxc')":    "cluster_servers",
+		"UPDATE qso SET callsign = UPPER(callsign)":                    "qso",
+		"DELETE FROM operating_antennas WHERE station_id IS NULL":      "operating_antennas",
+		"DROP TABLE IF EXISTS operating_stations_new":                  "operating_stations_new",
+		"PRAGMA foreign_keys = off":                                    "",
+		"":                                                             "",
+	}
+	for in, want := range cases {
+		if got := stmtTable(in); got != want {
+			t.Errorf("stmtTable(%.40q) = %q, want %q", in, got, want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestKeepForRole(t *testing.T) {
+	// The settings database takes everything, exactly as before this existed.
+	for _, s := range []string{"CREATE TABLE settings (a TEXT)", "CREATE TABLE qso (a TEXT)"} {
+		if !keepForRole(s, RoleAll) {
+			t.Fatalf("RoleAll dropped %q", s)
+		}
+	}
+	// A logbook takes the contacts and refuses the settings side.
+	if !keepForRole("CREATE INDEX i ON qso(callsign)", RoleLogbook) {
+		t.Fatal("logbook dropped a qso statement")
+	}
+	if keepForRole("CREATE TABLE station_profiles (id INTEGER)", RoleLogbook) {
+		t.Fatal("logbook accepted station_profiles")
+	}
+	// An unrecognised statement — a future table, a PRAGMA — is kept, so a new
+	// migration behaves as it does today rather than vanishing from one database.
+	if !keepForRole("CREATE TABLE something_new (id INTEGER)", RoleLogbook) {
+		t.Fatal("logbook dropped an unknown table")
+	}
+	if !keepForRole("PRAGMA foreign_keys = off", RoleLogbook) {
+		t.Fatal("logbook dropped a PRAGMA")
+	}
+}
+
+// tablesIn lists the tables of an open database.
+func tablesIn(t *testing.T, path string) []string {
+	t.Helper()
+	conn, err := Open(path) // RoleAll: opening must not change what is there
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	defer conn.Close()
+	rows, err := conn.Query(`SELECT name FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table' AND name NOT LIKE 'sqlite_%'`)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	defer rows.Close()
+	var out []string
+	for rows.Next() {
+		var n string
+		if err := rows.Scan(&n); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		out = append(out, n)
+	}
+	sort.Strings(out)
+	return out
+}
+
+// A logbook opened through OpenLogbook holds the contacts and nothing else.
+func TestOpenLogbookSchema(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "logbook.db")
+	conn, err := OpenLogbook(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	var n int
+	// The one table that matters has to be there and has to be usable.
+	if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM qso`).Scan(&n); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("qso table unusable: %v", err)
+	}
+	for _, forbidden := range settingsTables {
+		if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ` + quoteIdent(forbidden)).Scan(&n); err == nil {
+			t.Errorf("%s was created in a logbook database", forbidden)
+		}
+	}
+	conn.Close()
+
+	// Reopening as a logbook is idempotent, and the migrations already recorded
+	// as applied must not be re-run into a half-schema.
+	conn2, err := OpenLogbook(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("reopen: %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := conn2.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM qso`).Scan(&n); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("qso lost on reopen: %v", err)
+	}
+	conn2.Close()
+}
+
+// An existing logbook that an older version filled with the whole schema loses
+// the unused tables — and keeps any that hold rows.
+func TestPruneKeepsNonEmptyTables(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "legacy.db")
+	conn, err := Open(path) // the old behaviour: every table everywhere
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if _, err := conn.Exec(`INSERT INTO station_profiles(name) VALUES('Home')`); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	conn.Close()
+
+	if got := tablesIn(t, path); len(got) < 10 {
+		t.Fatalf("expected a full legacy schema, got %v", got)
+	}
+
+	conn, err = OpenLogbook(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	defer conn.Close()
+	var n int
+	// Rows are data: this one stays, whatever the schema says it is for.
+	if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM station_profiles`).Scan(&n); err != nil || n != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("station_profiles dropped with a row in it (err=%v n=%d)", err, n)
+	}
+	// The empty ones go.
+	if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM settings`).Scan(&n); err == nil {
+		t.Error("empty settings table survived in a logbook")
+	}
+	// And the contacts are untouched throughout.
+	if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM qso`).Scan(&n); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("qso table lost: %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+// A CREATE TABLE body is full of "ON DELETE CASCADE": the index rule must not
+// read it as a table name, or the table goes unrecognised and gets created in
+// every database.
+func TestStmtTableForeignKeyBody(t *testing.T) {
+	stmt := `CREATE TABLE operating_stations (
+    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
+    profile_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
+    FOREIGN KEY (profile_id) REFERENCES station_profiles(id) ON DELETE CASCADE
+)`
+	if got := stmtTable(stmt); got != "operating_stations" {
+		t.Fatalf("got %q", got)
+	}
+	if keepForRole(stmt, RoleLogbook) {
+		t.Fatal("a settings table reached a logbook database")
+	}
+}
+
+// The settings database loses its unused qso table — and gets it back, in full,
+// the moment it has to serve as the logbook again.
+func TestDropAndRecreateQSOTable(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "settings.db")
+	conn, err := Open(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	defer conn.Close()
+
+	// A contact in it is data: the table must survive.
+	if _, err := conn.Exec(`INSERT INTO qso(callsign, qso_date, band, mode)
+	                        VALUES('F4BPO','2026-01-01T12:00:00Z','20m','SSB')`); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	DropEmptyQSOTable(conn, "settings")
+	var n int
+	if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM qso`).Scan(&n); err != nil || n != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("dropped a qso table holding a contact (err=%v n=%d)", err, n)
+	}
+
+	// Empty, so it goes.
+	if _, err := conn.Exec(`DELETE FROM qso`); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	DropEmptyQSOTable(conn, "settings")
+	if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM qso`).Scan(&n); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("empty qso table survived")
+	}
+
+	// And comes back complete when this database is pressed into service as the
+	// logbook — a late column and an index included, not just a bare table.
+	if err := EnsureQSOTable(conn); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if _, err := conn.Exec(`INSERT INTO qso(callsign, qso_date, band, mode, ant_path, sync_uid)
+	                        VALUES('F1TRF','2026-01-02T13:00:00Z','40m','CW','S','uid-1')`); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("recreated qso table is incomplete: %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM qso`).Scan(&n); err != nil || n != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("recreated table unusable (err=%v n=%d)", err, n)
+	}
+	// Idempotent: a second call on a live table must not touch it.
+	if err := EnsureQSOTable(conn); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM qso`).Scan(&n); err != nil || n != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("EnsureQSOTable disturbed an existing table (err=%v n=%d)", err, n)
+	}
+}
+
+// A brand-new logbook — the case of a fresh install, or the "New database"
+// button — is right from the first open: the contacts and the migration ledger,
+// nothing else. Pinned as an exact list so an accidentally unfiltered future
+// migration shows up here rather than in an operator's phpMyAdmin.
+func TestFreshLogbookHasOnlyContactTables(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "fresh.db")
+	conn, err := OpenLogbook(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	rows, err := conn.Query(`SELECT name FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table' AND name NOT LIKE 'sqlite_%'`)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	var got []string
+	for rows.Next() {
+		var n string
+		if err := rows.Scan(&n); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		got = append(got, n)
+	}
+	rows.Close()
+	conn.Close()
+	sort.Strings(got)
+	want := []string{"qso", "schema_migrations"}
+	if strings.Join(got, ",") != strings.Join(want, ",") {
+		t.Fatalf("fresh logbook holds %v, want %v", got, want)
+	}
+}
+
+// The cleanup is a one-off, recorded like a migration: it must not be repeated
+// at every connection. Twelve COUNT(*) round trips on a remote MySQL is a cost
+// paid at every profile switch for something that can no longer be found.
+func TestPruneRunsOnlyOnce(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "once.db")
+	conn, err := Open(path) // full legacy schema
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	conn.Close()
+
+	conn, err = OpenLogbook(path) // first open: the cleanup happens
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	var n int
+	if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM settings`).Scan(&n); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("first open did not clean up")
+	}
+	// Put one back by hand. A second pass would remove it again; a cleanup that
+	// knows it is done leaves it alone.
+	if _, err := conn.Exec("CREATE TABLE `settings` (`key` TEXT PRIMARY KEY, value TEXT)"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	conn.Close()
+
+	conn, err = OpenLogbook(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	defer conn.Close()
+	if err := conn.QueryRow(`SELECT COUNT(*) FROM settings`).Scan(&n); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal("the cleanup ran a second time — it is not recorded as done")
+	}
+}

internal/steppir/steppir.go

@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import (
 	"io"
 	"log"
 	"net"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
 
@@ -126,7 +127,10 @@ type Client struct {
 	pendingDirSet bool
 
 	stopChan chan struct{}
-	running  bool
+	// done is closed by the poll loop on its way out, so Stop can wait for the
+	// serial port to be genuinely released — see Stop.
+	done    chan struct{}
+	running bool
 }
 
 func New(tr Transport) *Client {
@@ -138,10 +142,20 @@ func New(tr Transport) *Client {
 
 func (c *Client) Start() error {
 	c.running = true
+	c.done = make(chan struct{})
 	go c.pollLoop()
 	return nil
 }
 
+// Stop closes the link and WAITS for the poll loop to leave.
+//
+// Closing the port from another goroutine does not undo an open() the loop is
+// already inside: that open returns a fresh handle which the loop then stores,
+// and the stopped client goes on owning the serial port. The next client — a
+// settings save, a profile switch — cannot open it, and the operator sees
+// "Serial port busy" with no other program running.
+//
+// Bounded, so a device stuck in the driver cannot freeze a settings save.
 func (c *Client) Stop() {
 	if !c.running {
 		return
@@ -154,6 +168,14 @@ func (c *Client) Stop() {
 		c.conn = nil
 	}
 	c.connMu.Unlock()
+	if c.done == nil {
+		return
+	}
+	select {
+	case <-c.done:
+	case <-time.After(6 * time.Second):
+		log.Printf("steppir: poll loop did not exit within 6s — %s may stay busy a moment longer", c.target())
+	}
 }
 
 // LastSetKHz returns the frequency last commanded, or 0.
@@ -179,7 +201,14 @@ func (c *Client) open() (io.ReadWriteCloser, error) {
 		if c.tr.COM == "" {
 			return nil, fmt.Errorf("steppir: no serial port configured")
 		}
-		p, err := serial.Open(c.tr.COM, &serial.Mode{BaudRate: c.tr.Baud})
+		// 8N1 spelled out rather than left to the library defaults: a controller
+		// that answers nothing must not have a line format that depends on them.
+		p, err := serial.Open(c.tr.COM, &serial.Mode{
+			BaudRate: c.tr.Baud,
+			DataBits: 8,
+			Parity:   serial.NoParity,
+			StopBits: serial.OneStopBit,
+		})
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
@@ -210,7 +239,7 @@ func (c *Client) noteOpenFailure(err error) {
 	c.connMu.Unlock()
 	switch {
 	case n <= openFailQuiet:
-		log.Printf("steppir: cannot open %s: %v (attempt %d)", c.target(), err, n)
+		log.Printf("steppir: cannot open %s: %v%s (attempt %d)", c.target(), err, portBusyHint(c.tr.Mode, c.tr.COM, err), n)
 	case n == openFailQuiet+1:
 		log.Printf("steppir: still cannot open %s — retrying every 2 s, further attempts will not be logged until it comes back", c.target())
 	}
@@ -225,6 +254,18 @@ func (c *Client) target() string {
 }
 
 func (c *Client) pollLoop() {
+	// Signals Stop that the port is genuinely released.
+	defer func() {
+		c.connMu.Lock()
+		if c.conn != nil {
+			c.conn.Close()
+			c.conn = nil
+		}
+		c.connMu.Unlock()
+		if c.done != nil {
+			close(c.done)
+		}
+	}()
 	ticker := time.NewTicker(2 * time.Second)
 	defer ticker.Stop()
 	for {
@@ -632,3 +673,16 @@ func (c *Client) Retract() error {
 	}
 	return c.writeCmd(buildSet(khz*1000, DirNormal, 'S'))
 }
+
+// portBusyHint turns "Serial port busy" into something actionable — see the
+// identical note in internal/ultrabeam.
+func portBusyHint(mode, com string, err error) string {
+	if mode != "serial" || err == nil {
+		return ""
+	}
+	msg := strings.ToLower(err.Error())
+	if !strings.Contains(msg, "busy") && !strings.Contains(msg, "access is denied") && !strings.Contains(msg, "denied") {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return " — another program already has " + com + " open (the SteppIR control window, PstRotator, a terminal). A COM port has one owner: close the other program, then OpsLog can connect."
+}

internal/ultrabeam/stop_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+package ultrabeam
+
+import (
+	"bufio"
+	"errors"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// Stop must not return while the poll loop is still alive: on a serial link the
+// loop owns the port, and a client that outlives its Stop is what turned every
+// later connection into "Serial port busy".
+func TestStopWaitsForPollLoop(t *testing.T) {
+	// A transport that cannot connect, so the loop spends its life in open() and
+	// the reconnect path — the state the real fault happened in.
+	c := New(Transport{Mode: "tcp", Host: "127.0.0.1", Port: 1})
+	if err := c.Start(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	done := c.done
+	time.Sleep(50 * time.Millisecond)
+	c.Stop()
+	select {
+	case <-done:
+	default:
+		t.Fatal("Stop returned while the poll loop was still running")
+	}
+	// Stopping twice must not panic on the closed channel.
+	c.Stop()
+}
+
+func TestPortBusyHint(t *testing.T) {
+	// The Windows driver's own words, and the ones an operator has to act on.
+	if h := portBusyHint("serial", "COM13", errors.New("Serial port busy")); !strings.Contains(h, "COM13") {
+		t.Fatalf("no hint for a busy port: %q", h)
+	}
+	if h := portBusyHint("serial", "COM13", errors.New("Access is denied.")); h == "" {
+		t.Fatal("no hint for access denied")
+	}
+	// A port that simply is not there is a different problem, and saying "another
+	// program has it" would send the operator hunting for a program that is not
+	// running.
+	if h := portBusyHint("serial", "COM13", errors.New("The system cannot find the file specified.")); h != "" {
+		t.Fatalf("hinted at a busy port for a missing one: %q", h)
+	}
+	if h := portBusyHint("tcp", "", errors.New("connection refused")); h != "" {
+		t.Fatalf("serial hint on a TCP link: %q", h)
+	}
+}
+
+// silentPort answers every read the way a serial port with nothing on the other
+// end does: no bytes, no error. bufio turns a run of those into ErrNoProgress.
+type silentPort struct{ writes int }
+
+func (s *silentPort) Read(p []byte) (int, error)  { return 0, nil }
+func (s *silentPort) Write(p []byte) (int, error) { s.writes++; return len(p), nil }
+func (s *silentPort) Close() error                { return nil }
+
+// A controller that never answers must fail ONCE, promptly, with a message that
+// says so — not wedge the poll loop for minutes inside bufio's retry budget.
+func TestSilentControllerFailsWithinTheReadTimeout(t *testing.T) {
+	c := New(Transport{Mode: "serial", COM: "COM_TEST", Baud: 9600})
+	c.conn = &silentPort{}
+	c.reader = bufio.NewReader(c.conn)
+
+	start := time.Now()
+	_, err := c.sendCommand(CMD_STATUS, nil)
+	elapsed := time.Since(start)
+
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("a silent controller reported success")
+	}
+	if elapsed > 3*ubReadTimeout {
+		t.Fatalf("took %s to give up — the read deadline is not bounding the exchange", elapsed.Round(time.Millisecond))
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "no reply") {
+		t.Fatalf("unhelpful error for a silent port: %v", err)
+	}
+}

internal/ultrabeam/ultrabeam.go

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"log"
 	"net"
 	"runtime"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
 
@@ -91,9 +92,19 @@ type Client struct {
 	lastStatus *Status
 	statusMu   sync.RWMutex
 	stopChan   chan struct{}
-	running    bool
+	// done is closed by pollLoop as it exits, so Stop can WAIT for it. Without
-	seqNum     byte
+	// that wait the loop outlives the client that owns it, and on a serial link
-	seqMu      sync.Mutex
+	// the zombie keeps the port open: every later client then fails with "Serial
+	// port busy" — forever, because the thing holding the port is us.
+	done    chan struct{}
+	running bool
+	seqNum  byte
+	seqMu   sync.Mutex
+
+	// First-exchange diagnostics — see armDiag.
+	diagMu   sync.Mutex
+	diag     bool
+	diagJunk []byte
 
 	// Optimistic pattern direction kept until the antenna's status poll reports
 	// it (or it ages out) — the motors take a second or two, and a stale poll in
@@ -165,7 +176,15 @@ func (c *Client) open() (io.ReadWriteCloser, error) {
 		if c.tr.COM == "" {
 			return nil, fmt.Errorf("ultrabeam: no serial port configured")
 		}
-		p, err := serial.Open(c.tr.COM, &serial.Mode{BaudRate: c.tr.Baud})
+		// 8N1 spelled out. The library's zero values happen to mean the same
+		// thing today, but a controller that answers nothing is impossible to
+		// diagnose with a line count that depends on a default.
+		p, err := serial.Open(c.tr.COM, &serial.Mode{
+			BaudRate: c.tr.Baud,
+			DataBits: 8,
+			Parity:   serial.NoParity,
+			StopBits: serial.OneStopBit,
+		})
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
@@ -181,6 +200,27 @@ func (c *Client) open() (io.ReadWriteCloser, error) {
 	return dialer.Dial("tcp", net.JoinHostPort(c.tr.Host, fmt.Sprintf("%d", c.tr.Port)))
 }
 
+// diagNextExchange asks for the next command/reply to be dumped to the log.
+//
+// "It does not work" is unanswerable for a serial link, because the three
+// possible causes look identical from the outside: nothing arrives (wrong port,
+// dead cable, controller off), something arrives but is not our protocol (wrong
+// baud), or a valid frame arrives and we misread it. One hex dump of the first
+// exchange after each connect separates them, and costs two log lines per
+// connection.
+func (c *Client) armDiag() {
+	c.diagMu.Lock()
+	c.diag = true
+	c.diagJunk = c.diagJunk[:0]
+	c.diagMu.Unlock()
+}
+
+func (c *Client) diagOn() bool {
+	c.diagMu.Lock()
+	defer c.diagMu.Unlock()
+	return c.diag
+}
+
 // target names what the client is talking to, for the log.
 func (c *Client) target() string {
 	if c.tr.Mode == "serial" {
@@ -219,10 +259,22 @@ func transientRead(err error) bool {
 
 func (c *Client) Start() error {
 	c.running = true
+	c.done = make(chan struct{})
 	go c.pollLoop()
 	return nil
 }
 
+// Stop closes the link and WAITS for the poll loop to leave.
+//
+// The wait is the point. Closing the port from another goroutine does not undo
+// an open() the loop is already inside: that open returns a fresh handle, the
+// loop stores it, and the client that was told to stop goes on owning the serial
+// port. The next client — a settings save, a profile switch — then cannot open
+// it, and the operator sees "Serial port busy" with no other program running.
+//
+// Bounded, because a serial open can sit in the driver for a while and a stuck
+// device must not freeze a settings save. If the deadline passes, the loop is
+// still on its way out and the log says so.
 func (c *Client) Stop() {
 	if !c.running {
 		return
@@ -236,9 +288,30 @@ func (c *Client) Stop() {
 		c.conn = nil
 	}
 	c.connMu.Unlock()
+
+	if c.done == nil {
+		return
+	}
+	select {
+	case <-c.done:
+	case <-time.After(6 * time.Second):
+		log.Printf("Ultrabeam: poll loop did not exit within 6s — %s may stay busy a moment longer", c.target())
+	}
 }
 
 func (c *Client) pollLoop() {
+	// Signals Stop that the port is genuinely released.
+	defer func() {
+		c.connMu.Lock()
+		if c.conn != nil {
+			c.conn.Close()
+			c.conn = nil
+		}
+		c.connMu.Unlock()
+		if c.done != nil {
+			close(c.done)
+		}
+	}()
 	ticker := time.NewTicker(2 * time.Second) // Increased from 500ms to 2s
 	defer ticker.Stop()
 
@@ -256,7 +329,7 @@ func (c *Client) pollLoop() {
 				log.Printf("Ultrabeam: Not connected, attempting connection to %s...", c.target())
 				conn, err := c.open()
 				if err != nil {
-					log.Printf("Ultrabeam: Connection failed: %v", err)
+					log.Printf("Ultrabeam: Connection failed: %v%s", err, portBusyHint(c.tr.Mode, c.tr.COM, err))
 					c.connMu.Unlock()
 
 					// Mark as disconnected
@@ -266,9 +339,25 @@ func (c *Client) pollLoop() {
 					continue
 				}
 				c.conn = conn
+				// Stopped while open() was running? Let go of the port at once.
+				// Stop cannot interrupt an open already in flight, so without this
+				// the fresh handle is stored by a client that has been told to die,
+				// and it keeps the port — which is precisely the "Serial port busy"
+				// the next client then reports, forever.
+				select {
+				case <-c.stopChan:
+					conn.Close()
+					c.conn = nil // already closed; keep the deferred cleanup from closing it twice
+					c.connMu.Unlock()
+					return
+				default:
+				}
 				c.reader = bufio.NewReader(c.conn)
 				pollFails = 0
 				log.Printf("Ultrabeam: Connected to %s", c.target())
+				// Dump the first exchange on this link. A connection that opens and
+				// then says nothing is the whole of what a serial user can see.
+				c.armDiag()
 			}
 			c.connMu.Unlock()
 
@@ -502,6 +591,10 @@ func (c *Client) sendCommand(cmd byte, data []byte) ([]byte, error) {
 
 	seq := c.getNextSeq()
 	packet := c.buildPacket(seq, cmd, data)
+	diag := c.diagOn()
+	if diag {
+		log.Printf("Ultrabeam: first exchange on %s — sending %d bytes: % X", c.target(), len(packet), packet)
+	}
 	if _, err := c.conn.Write(packet); err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to write: %w", err)
 	}
@@ -509,6 +602,20 @@ func (c *Client) sendCommand(cmd byte, data []byte) ([]byte, error) {
 	// Read the reply with a timeout generous enough for a remote link.
 	c.setReadTimeout(ubReadTimeout)
 	buffer, err := c.readPacket()
+	if diag {
+		c.diagMu.Lock()
+		junk := append([]byte(nil), c.diagJunk...)
+		c.diag = false
+		c.diagMu.Unlock()
+		switch {
+		case err != nil && len(junk) == 0:
+			log.Printf("Ultrabeam: first exchange — NOTHING came back (%v). The controller is not answering on this port. Note that the USB cable presents TWO COM ports and only the SECOND one reaches the controller (at 19200 baud on the units seen so far); also check the cable and that the controller is on.", err)
+		case err != nil:
+			log.Printf("Ultrabeam: first exchange — %d bytes came back but no frame started (% X): %v. Bytes with no frame usually mean the wrong baud rate.", len(junk), junk, err)
+		default:
+			log.Printf("Ultrabeam: first exchange — reply %d bytes: % X (%d discarded before the frame: % X)", len(buffer), buffer, len(junk), junk)
+		}
+	}
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
@@ -561,13 +668,53 @@ func (c *Client) drainStale() {
 // so a raw ETX only ever appears as the real terminator. Caller holds connMu and
 // has set a read deadline.
 func (c *Client) readPacket() ([]byte, error) {
+	// A DEADLINE for the whole frame, not a timeout per read.
+	//
+	// A silent serial port does not error: it returns (0, nil) on every read once
+	// its timeout expires, and bufio retries that a hundred times before giving up
+	// with ErrNoProgress. With a 4-second port timeout that is over six minutes of
+	// a poll loop frozen mid-exchange, logging nothing — which is exactly how a
+	// controller that never answered looked like a program that had hung. Short
+	// port timeouts, checked against a deadline here, turn it into one clear
+	// "nothing came back" after four seconds.
+	deadline := time.Now().Add(ubReadTimeout)
+	c.setReadTimeout(250 * time.Millisecond)
+	defer c.setReadTimeout(ubReadTimeout)
 	var buffer []byte
 	for {
+		// A stop must not have to wait out the deadline. Without this, tearing the
+		// client down mid-exchange took up to four seconds — long enough for the
+		// replacement client to find the port still held, and for Stop to give up
+		// waiting and say so.
+		select {
+		case <-c.stopChan:
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("stopped")
+		default:
+		}
+		if time.Now().After(deadline) {
+			if len(buffer) == 0 {
+				return nil, fmt.Errorf("no reply within %s", ubReadTimeout)
+			}
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("incomplete frame within %s (% X)", ubReadTimeout, buffer)
+		}
 		b, err := c.reader.ReadByte()
 		if err != nil {
+			// A quiet port between bytes is normal — go.bug.st returns (0, nil) on
+			// its timeout, which bufio eventually reports as ErrNoProgress. Only the
+			// deadline above decides that the exchange has failed.
+			if transientRead(err) {
+				continue
+			}
 			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to read: %w", err)
 		}
 		if len(buffer) == 0 && b != STX {
+			// Kept, briefly, for the first exchange after a connect: what gets
+			// discarded here IS the diagnosis when the link is misconfigured.
+			c.diagMu.Lock()
+			if c.diag && len(c.diagJunk) < 32 {
+				c.diagJunk = append(c.diagJunk, b)
+			}
+			c.diagMu.Unlock()
 			continue // resync to the start of a frame
 		}
 		buffer = append(buffer, b)
@@ -725,3 +872,21 @@ func (c *Client) ModifyElement(elementNum int, lengthMm int) error {
 	_, err := c.sendCommand(CMD_MODIFY_ELEM, data)
 	return err
 }
+
+// portBusyHint turns "Serial port busy" into something actionable.
+//
+// A COM port has exactly one owner. The message the driver gives back says the
+// port is busy and stops there, which reads like a fault in OpsLog — and the
+// program actually holding it is usually the antenna manufacturer's own control
+// window, sitting open on the same desktop. Naming that is the difference
+// between a bug report and a five-second fix.
+func portBusyHint(mode, com string, err error) string {
+	if mode != "serial" || err == nil {
+		return ""
+	}
+	msg := strings.ToLower(err.Error())
+	if !strings.Contains(msg, "busy") && !strings.Contains(msg, "access is denied") && !strings.Contains(msg, "denied") {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return " — another program already has " + com + " open (the UltraBeam Controller window, PstRotator, a terminal). A COM port has one owner: close the other program, then OpsLog can connect."
+}

motor_bandfreq_test.go

@@ -76,3 +76,30 @@ func TestMotorTuneKHzForBandFallsBack(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+// The Ultrabeam's USB link answers on 19200 and on nothing else — confirmed on
+// hardware, where 9600 opened the port and returned not one byte. A speed with a
+// single right answer must not be storable as anything else, whatever an older
+// config or a hand-edited setting says.
+func TestNormMotorBaud(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, tc := range []struct {
+		typ, transport string
+		in, want       int
+	}{
+		{"ultrabeam", "serial", 9600, 19200},
+		{"ultrabeam", "serial", 0, 19200},
+		{"ultrabeam", "serial", 115200, 19200},
+		// Over TCP the speed is the adapter's business, not ours.
+		{"ultrabeam", "tcp", 9600, 9600},
+		// The SteppIR controller really does run at several speeds.
+		{"steppir", "serial", 4800, 4800},
+		{"steppir", "serial", 19200, 19200},
+		// Nonsense falls back rather than reaching the driver.
+		{"steppir", "serial", 0, 9600},
+		{"steppir", "serial", 999999, 9600},
+	} {
+		if got := normMotorBaud(tc.typ, tc.transport, tc.in); got != tc.want {
+			t.Errorf("normMotorBaud(%q, %q, %d) = %d, want %d", tc.typ, tc.transport, tc.in, got, tc.want)
+		}
+	}
+}

motor_trackmode_test.go

@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 package main
 
-import "testing"
+import (
+	"os"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
 
 // The tracking mode decides how often a motorized antenna's elements run, so a
 // value that fails to parse must not silently become the most aggressive
@@ -46,3 +50,36 @@ func TestBandForHzDrivesBandTracking(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("30 m and 20 m both read %q — band mode would never re-tune between them", a)
 	}
 }
+
+// A "Test connection" on a serial port must not open a port OpsLog already
+// holds: a COM port has one owner, and the owner is the running antenna client.
+// Building a second client made the two fight — one of them logging "Serial port
+// busy" for the rest of the session.
+func TestTestUltrabeamReusesTheLiveSerialClient(t *testing.T) {
+	src, err := os.ReadFile("app.go")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	body := funcBody(t, string(src), "func (a *App) TestUltrabeam(s UltrabeamSettings) error {")
+	if !strings.Contains(body, "a.liveMotorFor(s)") {
+		t.Error("TestUltrabeam builds a client without first checking whether the live one already owns that port")
+	}
+	// The check has to come BEFORE the second client is created, or it is no check.
+	if i, j := strings.Index(body, "a.liveMotorFor(s)"), strings.Index(body, "newMotorClient(s)"); i < 0 || j < 0 || i > j {
+		t.Error("the live-client check must precede newMotorClient")
+	}
+}
+
+// funcBody returns the source of a function, up to the closing brace in column 0.
+func funcBody(t *testing.T, src, signature string) string {
+	t.Helper()
+	i := strings.Index(src, signature)
+	if i < 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("function not found: %s", signature)
+	}
+	rest := src[i:]
+	if j := strings.Index(rest, "\n}\n"); j >= 0 {
+		return rest[:j]
+	}
+	return rest
+}

spotcolors.go

@@ -24,6 +24,16 @@ const keySpotColors = "flex.spot_colors"
 type SpotColor struct {
 	Text string `json:"text"`
 	Bg   string `json:"bg,omitempty"`
+	// Hide keeps this status OFF the panadapter entirely.
+	//
+	// Expressed as "hide" and not "send" so the zero value means SEND: every
+	// palette stored before this existed has to keep behaving as it did, and a
+	// missing field must never be read as "the operator turned this off".
+	//
+	// A colour and a switch rather than one control: the operator who stops
+	// drawing already-worked stations today may want them back tomorrow, and
+	// their colour should still be there when they do.
+	Hide bool `json:"hide,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // SpotColors is the whole palette, keyed by the status names the cluster uses.
@@ -97,14 +107,17 @@ func normSpotColors(s SpotColors) SpotColors {
 		if !known[k] {
 			continue
 		}
-		c := SpotColor{}
+		c := SpotColor{Hide: v.Hide}
 		if hexARGB(v.Text) {
 			c.Text = strings.ToUpper(strings.TrimSpace(v.Text))
 		}
 		if hexARGB(v.Bg) {
 			c.Bg = strings.ToUpper(strings.TrimSpace(v.Bg))
 		}
-		if c.Text != "" || c.Bg != "" {
+		// Kept when it carries ANY decision — a status with no colours but "hide"
+		// set is a real instruction, and dropping it would silently switch that
+		// status back on.
+		if c.Text != "" || c.Bg != "" || c.Hide {
 			out.Colors[k] = c
 		}
 	}
@@ -190,36 +203,127 @@ func (a *App) spotColorFor(status string) SpotColor {
 func spotStatusTag(status string) string {
 	switch status {
 	case "new":
-		return "NEW DXCC"
+		return "New DXCC"
 	case "new-band-mode":
-		return "NEW BAND+MODE"
+		return "New B&M"
 	case "new-band":
-		return "NEW BAND"
+		return "New Band"
 	case "new-mode":
-		return "NEW MODE"
+		return "New Mode"
 	case "new-slot":
-		return "NEW SLOT"
+		return "New Slot"
 	case "new-pota":
-		return "NEW POTA"
+		return "New POTA"
 	case "new-county":
-		return "NEW COUNTY"
+		return "New Cnty"
 	case "new-pfx":
-		return "NEW PFX"
+		return "New Pfx"
 	case "my-call":
-		return "ME"
+		return "Me"
+	case "worked":
+		return "Worked"
 	}
 	return ""
 }
 
-// spotComment appends the status tag to the cluster's own comment.
+// spotComment builds what the panadapter shows under a spot:
-func spotComment(comment, status string) string {
+//
-	c := strings.TrimSpace(comment)
+//	CQ up 2 [F4BPO] [Franz Josef Land] [New Slot]
-	tag := spotStatusTag(status)
+//
-	if tag == "" {
+// the cluster's own text, then WHO spotted it, then the entity, then what it is
-		return c
+// worth. Same order and same shape as DXHunter, whose users read these at a
+// glance and should not have to learn a second convention.
+//
+// # The spaces are not spaces
+//
+// SmartSDR's command line separates parameters ON SPACES, so a comment written
+// with ordinary ones arrives at the radio as "CQup2[F4BPO]" — every word run
+// together, which is exactly how ours looked. Non-breaking spaces (U+00A0) pass
+// through the parser untouched and render as spaces on the panadapter. This is
+// the trick DXHunter uses, and there is no other way to get a readable comment
+// through that protocol.
+func spotComment(comment, spotter, country, status string) string {
+	var b strings.Builder
+	add := func(s string) {
+		s = strings.TrimSpace(s)
+		if s == "" {
+			return
+		}
+		if b.Len() > 0 {
+			b.WriteString(" ")
+		}
+		b.WriteString(s)
 	}
-	if c == "" {
+	// The radio has the last word on length: a comment past roughly sixty
-		return "[" + tag + "]"
+	// characters comes back from SmartSDR cut mid-word — one was echoed as
+	// "…[European Russia" with the closing bracket and the status gone. So the
+	// parts are added in order of what an operator would keep, and the cluster's
+	// own words — the longest and the least specific — are the ones trimmed.
+	// The cluster's own text arrives padded: RBN lines are column-aligned, so a
+	// comment reads "FT8    5 dB  LN14    CQ" with runs of spaces holding the
+	// columns apart. Those runs became runs of NON-BREAKING spaces, which the
+	// panadapter faithfully rendered as a gap wide enough to push the rest of the
+	// comment off the screen. Columns mean nothing once the text is out of its
+	// table: one space between words.
+	comment = strings.Join(strings.Fields(comment), " ")
+	tag := bracket(spotStatusTag(status))
+	spot := bracket(spotter)
+	cty := bracket(country)
+	room := panCommentMax - len(tag) - len(spot) - len(cty) - 3 // 3 separators
+	add(trimTo(comment, room))
+	add(spot)
+	add(cty)
+	add(tag)
+	// Every space, including the ones already inside the cluster's comment.
+	return strings.ReplaceAll(b.String(), " ", "\u00A0")
+}
+
+// panCommentMax is what SmartSDR keeps of a spot comment. Measured against a
+// real radio's own status echo, with a margin: the cost of being wrong is a
+// comment cut mid-word, and nothing in the protocol reports the limit.
+const panCommentMax = 58
+
+// trimTo shortens s to at most n characters, on a word boundary when it can.
+// A negative or tiny budget yields nothing at all — the brackets that follow
+// matter more than a two-letter fragment of the cluster's text.
+func trimTo(s string, n int) string {
+	s = strings.TrimSpace(s)
+	if n < 4 {
+		return ""
 	}
-	return c + " [" + tag + "]"
+	if len(s) <= n {
+		return s
+	}
+	cut := s[:n]
+	if i := strings.LastIndex(cut, " "); i > n/2 {
+		cut = cut[:i]
+	}
+	return strings.TrimSpace(cut)
+}
+
+// bracket wraps a non-empty value in square brackets.
+func bracket(s string) string {
+	s = strings.TrimSpace(s)
+	if s == "" {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return "[" + s + "]"
+}
+
+// spotHidden reports whether this status should stay off the panadapter.
+//
+// Read from the same cached palette as the colours — see spotColorFor — because
+// it is consulted on every spot from every cluster.
+func (a *App) spotHidden(status string) bool {
+	a.spotColorsMu.Lock()
+	if a.spotColorsCache == nil {
+		c := a.GetSpotColors()
+		a.spotColorsCache = &c
+	}
+	p := a.spotColorsCache
+	a.spotColorsMu.Unlock()
+	if c, ok := p.Colors[status]; ok {
+		return c.Hide
+	}
+	return false
 }

spotcolors_test.go

@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 package main
 
-import "testing"
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
 
 // A colour the Flex refuses is a spot that never appears, and the command error
 // goes to a log nobody is reading. Anything that is not #AARRGGBB must be
@@ -47,30 +50,118 @@ func TestNormSpotColors(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestSpotComment(t *testing.T) {
-	// The cluster's own text is kept: it carries the signal report and the
+	// What the panadapter shows: the cluster's words, who spotted it, the entity,
-	// operator's note, which is why the spot is readable in the first place.
+	// then what it is worth — DXHunter's order, so an operator reads one
-	if got := spotComment("CQ up 2", "new"); got != "CQ up 2 [NEW DXCC]" {
+	// convention and not two.
-		t.Fatalf("got %q", got)
+	got := spotComment("CQ up 2", "F4BPO", "Franz Josef Land", "new-slot")
+	want := "CQ up 2 [F4BPO] [Franz Josef Land] [New Slot]"
+	if plain(got) != want {
+		t.Fatalf("got %q, want %q", plain(got), want)
 	}
-	// An empty comment must not produce a leading space on the panadapter.
+	// EVERY space is non-breaking, the ones inside the cluster comment included:
-	if got := spotComment("", "new-band"); got != "[NEW BAND]" {
+	// SmartSDR splits its command line on spaces, so a real one truncates the
-		t.Fatalf("got %q", got)
+	// comment at the first word.
+	if strings.Contains(got, " ") {
+		t.Fatalf("an ordinary space survived: %q", got)
 	}
-	// Nothing to say about a station already in the log.
+	if !strings.Contains(got, " ") {
-	if got := spotComment("loud", "worked"); got != "loud" {
+		t.Fatal("no non-breaking space in the comment")
-		t.Fatalf("got %q", got)
 	}
-	if got := spotComment("loud", "none"); got != "loud" {
+	// Missing parts leave no empty brackets and no double separators.
-		t.Fatalf("got %q", got)
+	if p := plain(spotComment("", "", "", "new")); p != "[New DXCC]" {
+		t.Fatalf("got %q", p)
 	}
-	// Every colourable status except the two quiet ones is labelled, or the
+	if p := plain(spotComment("CQ", "", "Spain", "")); p != "CQ [Spain]" {
+		t.Fatalf("got %q", p)
+	}
+	// A status with nothing to announce contributes no tag.
+	if p := plain(spotComment("loud", "DL1ABC", "Germany", "none")); p != "loud [DL1ABC] [Germany]" {
+		t.Fatalf("got %q", p)
+	}
+	// Every colourable status except the unresolved one is labelled, or the
 	// palette would say something the text does not.
-	for _, s := range spotColorOrder {
+	for _, st := range spotColorOrder {
-		if s == "worked" || s == "none" {
+		if st == "none" {
 			continue
 		}
-		if spotStatusTag(s) == "" {
+		if spotStatusTag(st) == "" {
-			t.Fatalf("status %q has a colour but no tag", s)
+			t.Fatalf("status %q has a colour but no tag", st)
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+// plain puts the ordinary spaces back, for readable assertions.
+func plain(s string) string { return strings.ReplaceAll(s, " ", " ") }
+
+// The per-status switch must survive a save with no colours on that row: it is
+// an instruction in its own right, and dropping it would quietly turn the status
+// back on. And a palette written before the switch existed must keep sending
+// everything — "no field" is not "the operator turned this off".
+func TestSpotColorHideSurvivesNormalisation(t *testing.T) {
+	in := SpotColors{Enabled: true, Colors: map[string]SpotColor{
+		"worked":   {Hide: true},                    // no colours, just the switch
+		"new":      {Text: "#FFFF3B30", Hide: true}, // both
+		"none":     {Text: "not a colour"},          // neither survives
+		"new-band": {Text: "#FFFFCC00"},             // colour only
+	}}
+	out := normSpotColors(in)
+	if c, ok := out.Colors["worked"]; !ok || !c.Hide {
+		t.Error("a status hidden with no colour was dropped")
+	}
+	if c := out.Colors["new"]; !c.Hide || c.Text != "#FFFF3B30" {
+		t.Errorf("hide and colour did not both survive: %+v", c)
+	}
+	if _, ok := out.Colors["none"]; ok {
+		t.Error("an entry with nothing valid in it was kept")
+	}
+	if c := out.Colors["new-band"]; c.Hide {
+		t.Error("a colour-only entry came back hidden")
+	}
+	// An older palette says nothing about hiding, and must send everything.
+	old := normSpotColors(SpotColors{Enabled: true, Colors: map[string]SpotColor{"new": {Text: "#FFFF3B30"}}})
+	if old.Colors["new"].Hide {
+		t.Error("a palette from before the switch existed came back hidden")
+	}
+}
+
+// SmartSDR cuts a long comment mid-word — one came back from the radio as
+// "…[European Russia", losing its closing bracket and its status. What the
+// operator would keep must therefore survive: the spotter, the entity and the
+// status, with the cluster's own words trimmed to fit.
+func TestSpotCommentFitsTheRadio(t *testing.T) {
+	long := "FT8    5 dB  LN14    CQ DX FROM A VERY TALKATIVE SKIMMER NODE INDEED"
+	got := plain(spotComment(long, "OH6BG-#", "European Russia", "new-band"))
+	if len(got) > panCommentMax {
+		t.Fatalf("comment is %d chars, over the %d the radio keeps: %q", len(got), panCommentMax, got)
+	}
+	for _, must := range []string{"[OH6BG-#]", "[European Russia]", "[New Band]"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(got, must) {
+			t.Errorf("%s was trimmed away — the cluster text should go first: %q", must, got)
+		}
+	}
+	// A short comment is left exactly as it is.
+	short := plain(spotComment("CQ", "K1ABC", "Spain", "new"))
+	if short != "CQ [K1ABC] [Spain] [New DXCC]" {
+		t.Fatalf("got %q", short)
+	}
+	// No room at all for the cluster's words: they go, the brackets stay.
+	tight := plain(spotComment("CQ DX UP 2 LISTENING", "VERYLONGSPOTTER-#", "Democratic Republic of the Congo", "new"))
+	if strings.Contains(tight, "LISTENING") {
+		t.Errorf("kept the cluster text at the expense of the tags: %q", tight)
+	}
+}
+
+// RBN lines are column-aligned, so a comment arrives as "FT8    5 dB  LN14
+// CQ". Preserved as non-breaking spaces, those runs rendered on the panadapter
+// as a gap wide enough to push the rest of the comment off the screen.
+func TestSpotCommentCollapsesClusterPadding(t *testing.T) {
+	got := plain(spotComment("FT8   -13 dB          CQ", "WC2L-#", "United States", "new"))
+	want := "FT8 -13 dB CQ [WC2L-#] [United States] [New DXCC]"
+	if got != want {
+		t.Fatalf("got  %q\nwant %q", got, want)
+	}
+	// Tabs and newlines are padding too.
+	if p := plain(spotComment("CQ\t\tDX\n", "K1ABC", "", "")); p != "CQ DX [K1ABC]" {
+		t.Fatalf("got %q", p)
+	}
+}

telemetry.go

@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import (
 
 const (
 	// appVersion is stamped on every heartbeat (and could feed the About box).
-	appVersion = "0.26.3"
+	appVersion = "0.26.6"
 
 	// posthogHost is the PostHog ingestion endpoint. EU cloud by default; change
 	// to https://us.i.posthog.com for a US project.