Interacting with the CQDX IRC channel

SpotCollector Online Help Contents

The CQDX window supports interaction with the CQDX IRC channel. This window's caption, which appears in its title bar and on its windows task bar icon, is specified by its Caption connection parameter. The CQDX window is dominated by its receive pane, a rectangular area that displays information received from the CQDX; the receive pane expands and contracts as you resize the CQDX window. 

A transmit pane is located immediately below the receive pane; characters you type into the transmit pane are sent to the CQDX when you strike the enter key; the button labeled X and located to the immediate right of the transmit pane will clear the transmit pane when clicked. In general, text you enter in the transmit pane will immediately appear in your receive pane, as well as the receive pane (or its equivalent) of every other active CQDX user; this facilitates a real-time, often lively conversation among DXers around the world. Rather than interrupt this message flow, SpotCollector routes DX spots from DX Summit directly to the Spot Database; they do not appear in the CQDX receive pane.

On occasion, you may want to converse exclusively with one CQDX user. To do so, enter his or her username in the textbox in the CQDX window's upper-left corner, and check the Private checkbox to its immediate right. Any information sent while the Private box is checked will only be sent to the designated user and will not be visible to any other user. Double-clicking on a line of text in the receive pane will automatically place the originator's username in the upper-left textbox, making it easy to initiate a private conversation with that user.

You can also enter commands in the transmit pane; N6RT provides an excellent summary of commands accepted by CQDX. Sixteen macros, accessible via eight macro buttons and a bank selector, provide an alternative means of supplying information to be transmitted; macros can automatically transmit text strings, your callsign, the current UTC time or date, and the contents of files. 

Spotting via CQDX is accomplished via a spotting robot, which is normally DXS; if DXS is unavailable, however, you must specify the DDX backup spotting robot.

SpotCollector interprets and color codes information received from CQDX as directed by settings in the IRC sub-tab on the Configuration window's Display Fonts tab. Using these settings, unique colors can be assigned to status messages, private messages, transmitted text, and error messages. You can also control the receive pane's background color, font name, and font size, as well as the transmit pane's background color and font name, size, and color.

If SpotCollector is connected to CQDX, you can disconnect without closing the CQDX window by clicking the Disconnect button in the window's lower-left corner. The Disconnect button will then be replaced by a Connect button, which when clicked will re-establish the connection as specified by the current connection parameters.