Every FTx decode WSJT-X, JTDX or MSHV puts on the wire, grouped by T/R
period. Optional and closable, from Tools -> FT decodes; its open state is
remembered, because an operator running digital modes leaves it open for
the session rather than consulting and closing it.
The period is the point, and what separates this from the cluster list.
FT8 is a sequence of fifteen-second slots and a band is read by watching
them go by: who called CQ this slot, who answered, what I was sending while
they did. A flat list sorted by time loses exactly that, so the list is
grouped one section per period, newest first, with the operator's own
transmission shown inside the slot it went out in.
Three fields had to be carried up from the wire to make it possible:
- the decode's OWN timestamp, which the parser read and threw away. It is
what assigns a slot: a period's decodes arrive in one burst a second or
two after it closes, so arrival time piles a whole period into the next
one. Rebuilt to UTC from milliseconds-since-midnight, with the
day-boundary case handled - a decode stamped 23:59:58 arriving at
00:00:01 would otherwise be dated a day ahead and sit at the top of the
list for the rest of the session.
- the decoded line itself. The exchange is what says where a station is in
a QSO, and no set of extracted fields reads like "R-09" does.
- tx_message and transmitting from Status, which nothing parsed before.
Recorded once per message rather than on every Status, which repeats it
about once a second for the whole over.
Also picked up on the way: is_new, low_confidence, off_air, the operator's
own call and grid, and the T/R period itself - better authority on slot
length than the mode name, which says nothing about a custom period. The
Status tail is read defensively: those fields were appended over successive
schema versions and JTDX and MSHV each stop at their own point, so a short
packet is normal and keeps whatever parsed.
Status flags come from ClusterSpotStatuses, the resolver the cluster list
and band map already use, filling the same cache. One verdict per call:
"new band" in this panel and plain worked in the cluster two seconds later
would be worse than no flag at all. Clicking a call goes through the same
handler as a cluster spot, so answering a station is one gesture whether it
came off telnet or off the receiver.
Filters: CQ only, new-anything only, band, mode, continent, an SNR floor
and a free search. The band, mode and continent choices are built from what
is actually on the feed - offering 160 m to a station whose receivers are
all on 6 m is noise.
Decodes are held in the frontend and pruned to a rolling half hour: they
are a live view, not data, nothing outside the panel reads them, and a
night of FT8 on 20 m would otherwise grow a list no filter can rescue.
Arrivals are staged on a 300 ms timer so a period landing as fifty packets
costs one status lookup and one render.
rouggy
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