amateur-radio-dx_skill

Overview

This skill monitors global DX clusters in real time, alerts you to rare and wanted stations, and produces daily band-activity digests for amateur radio operators. It supports automated cron monitoring, cluster selection, and optional AI-enhanced scoring to prioritize workable DX. Designed for practical use by hams who want to catch rare contacts and track DX expeditions.

How this skill works

The skill connects to standard DX cluster nodes via the PacketCluster/AR-Cluster protocol (telnet) and parses spot streams to detect new and rare stations. It saves state locally to avoid duplicates, filters by cluster, band, or prefix, and can run continuously or on a schedule to emit alerts and daily digests. An optional AI-enhanced mode adds propagation-based workability scoring and DXCC filtering tailored to your station.

When to use it

• When you want real-time alerts for rare DX prefixes (e.g., VP8, VK0, 3Y0).
• To monitor specific bands or cluster nodes for openings and activity peaks.
• As an automated background monitor via cron to catch fleeting expedition spots.
• Before a contest or DX window to identify hot bands and active stations.
• When you want a daily summary of band activity and notable rare contacts.

Best practices

• Run the monitor under a non-privileged user and keep the state file in your home directory.
• Use your callsign when connecting to clusters; some nodes require valid IDs.
• Combine multiple cluster nodes for broader geographic coverage.
• Filter by band and prefixes you can realistically work to reduce noise.
• Schedule frequent short checks (e.g., every 5 minutes) and a single daily digest at a convenient time.

Example use cases

• Start live monitoring on 20m and get notified when a rare expedition appears.
• Set a cron job to log only new spots and forward high-priority alerts to your messaging system.
• Run the daily digest to see which bands had the most activity and which rare prefixes were spotted.
• Use AI-enhanced mode to prioritize spots with high propagation workability for your QTH and equipment.
• Track active DX expeditions and cross-reference with NG3K/425 DX News links to plan skeds.