Amateur Radio ND4X
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Need access to a DX Cluster Node? You are welcome to try the
ND4X CC Cluster Node. TELNET Access is available
by connecting to: (Web / IP Address) ND4X.COM (PORT) 7373 If your logging program does not have native support for
connecting to a DX Cluster built into it, you can always download the free
VE7CC CC User program to access a DX Cluster. The link to the CC User program
can be found at: VE7CC DX Cluster User Program
. History On December 2, 2024 the
W4NJA cluster, which was hosted at the QTH of AB4IQ and KF4CXO, failed after
a Microsoft Windows update. The CC
Cluster application was then installed on a computer hosted at ND4X on
December 3, 2024. The cluster is currently
connected to twelve other nodes, to avoid DX Spot downtime if any single node,
or internet link fails. The other
nodes that the ND4X Cluster is connected to are distributed across England,
Germany, Canada and the United States, using the internet for the wide area
network backbone. Any DX spot from
anywhere in the world should be relayed to all nodes in the Cluster System
almost immediately, and from the nodes then out to their local users. This is the fourth-generation
hardware platform a local DX Cluster has run on. The cluster is currently hosted on a Lenovo
MT-700 Tiny PC, running 64 Bit Windows 10 Pro, 32 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, powered
by an i7-6700 processor at 2.8 GHz. The
Cluster Node, along with the internet modem and router are connected to UPS
power supplies to protect them from brief power failures. The original cluster was
configured in 1995, and was connected to the W6GO DX Cluster in California by
an HF 20 Meter link using an Icom IC-706 for its
sole source of spotting information.
The link was always subject to band conditions. The antenna was a vertical at the ND4X QTH
in Reidland.
The local users would access the cluster using a 2 Meter VHF packet
type connection through a 2 Meter digipeater located at West Kentucky
Technical College. The original
cluster was running an application called ARcluster. The cluster communicated with the HF radio
and the 2 Meter radio by using a dual serial port DSRI (now SIIG) card in the
node PC. Alinco
DR-1200T 2 Meter radios were the standard for the 2 Meter VHF communication
links. In 1996 a digipeater was
installed on the “FBI Tower” in Land Between the Lakes, at Golden Pond, KY to
replace the HF link. The 2 Meter VHF
link proved much more reliable to a new node located in Nashville, than the
HF link to California. The link had
three hops to connect to Nashville, Golden Pond, KY, to another digipeater in
Clarksville, TN, and then to the Nashville, TN node. The new Nashville node also had VHF links
to other nodes in Georgia and elsewhere in Tennessee to expand our DX spot
information, and the geographic network continued to grow at a rapid pace. Over the years, the
internet replaced the 2 Meter node backbone, and then also the way local
users access the cluster. Most modern
logging programs have an internet-based telnet window built into them, to
allow connection to the DX Packet Cluster network. 2 Meter links would still be possible, but
the internet downsizes the additional hardware overhead required for VHF
connections. The original cluster in
1995 was running 16 Bit Microsoft Windows 3.1 on a “Dayton Special” clone PC,
with an Intel 80286 microprocessor, 1 MB of RAM memory and 10 GB hard disk.
The operating system was updated in late 1996 to Windows 95 which offered 32 bit computing (but the Intel 80286 processor was still
limited to 16 Bit computing), and the memory was expanded to the maximum
supported – 16 MB. It is hard to
believe today we think in terms of GB instead of MB, showing how far and fast
computing has evolved. The second-generation
cluster node was also on a “Dayton Special” clone PC, supporting an Intel
Core 2 Duo E6320 processor in 2007 and running Microsoft Windows XP. The third-generation
cluster node was a Lenovo ThinkCentre M3306 system with an Intel Core i5
processor. This system was retired
December 2, 2024. |
CC Cluster Overview |
Version 2025-01-12 (ND4XdxClusterNode01.html)