F5LEN WebCluster  

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Info about system
F5LEN web cluster is based on DXNET, a freeware program developped by Olivier F5MZN.
Dxnet is compiled on a Linux system powered by RedHat on a dual-processors Pentium III 500Mhz
with 500MB Ram. This machine is larger than what is required for running DXNET, 
but it also hosts some other applications. The machine is located at F5LEN's home.

DXNET is linked to the european dxcluster network with a telnet connection other internet
trough a DSL 2048/160Kb line. The first partner node is IK5ZUK-6 (sysop Luigi IK5ZUK).

The web front end is based on some bash php scripts running on the system. 
This web interface is designed as "light"as possible to minimize the size
of datas who travel trough the internet and to optimise the speeds of the informations.
The server is down once a week monday morning 0400am to 0410am local time (CET)

Telnet access
A telnet access is available at f5len.homelinux.org on port 7373 (use guest as password).
Try telnet://f5len.homelinux.org:7373
If you need a Telnet client software, take a look here:
http://www.qsl.net/wd4ngb/telnet.htm

Hope this service could help you in your DX quest!...

Vy 73's Pascal - F5LEN 
Sysop.

Some interesting links:

• DXNET (look for the dxnet mailling list for support)
  If you try to compile DXNET on a Linux use CVS tree. Info here.
• F5MZN personal pages for other interesting stuffs. Don't miss Wintest!
  

Feel free to send any requests or comments to:  f5len [at] ref-union.org

Top

Top

• May-24-2008. Stats updated
  The above summary report is a simple numerical tally of the traffic to cluster.f5len.org.
  The average visitors per day is 2,733 and the average length of visit is around 45mn.
  Datas are from 2008-Jan-01 to 2008-May-15.
  
• Mar-28-2008. Greyline calculator
  This online calculator compute the best time for using greyline propagation between two locations.
  You have to enter your own locator and a destination locator or country.
  The results shows the hour(s) in UTC when the greyline is on your location
  and at the same time on the DX location.
  Of course, depending on path, results are not always available.
  Comments or bug reports are welcome!
  
• Feb-7-2008. WAP access
  A WAP access to the DXcluster is now available.
  Url is http://cluster.f5len.org/wap/
  15 spots are displayed on HF, VHF, UHF and 144MHz.
  At this time, sending spots from WAP is not possible.
  A version for smartphones and Iphone (special for F1RHK hi) coming soon.
  Comments are welcome to f5len at ref-union.org
  
• Aug-18-2007. Server crash
  The main server crash this week-end after a thunderstorm.
  A HDD and a network card are dead. I relaoded the OS on a new hard disk
  thie sunday afternoon. Restore datas and programs from backup
  (yes! I have backups! hi). All going on at 17hZ this sunday.
  Muf calculations and greyline map are not yet available.
  
• Jul-28-2007. No refresh since Jul-21
  This week no spots were available. The main server didn't reboot
  monday morning. I was on hollidays without internet conexion.
  I came back home this night and the problem was fixed this saturday morning.
  Sorry for troubles folks!
• Jul-06-2007. Adding RS maps centered on Europe
  Adding a well known rain map of Europe with new background pic.
  This backgroung pic show the locator grid square on Europe.
  This map may be usefull for rainscatter on SHF.
  See here
• May-31-2007. Miscellaneous bands and awards
  Adding a "Misc" link to some dx spots about 220Mhz and 3.4 GHzb band
  and some DX programmes like Sota, Lota and Wap.
  Pascal - F5LEN
• May-3-2007. No luck!
  From Apr 26 07:02 to May 3 10:45 Webcluster was unreachable.
  This time, it was my internet link at home wich was dead. My ISP fix the problem
  this morning.I'm very sorry for inconvenience. Pascal - F5LEN
• Apr-15-2007. Webcluster failure.
  From Apr 12 10:13 to Apr 14 11:01 the cluster was off. This was due to a power failure
  at home. Unfortunately I was on holidays in Bordeaux at this time. After a phone call,
  my father came at home and switch on the circuit breaker. Webcluster was ready again.
  But it was too late for the freezers... hi.
  Sorry for troubles. Pascal - F5LEN
• Mar-26-2007. Webcluster link.
  From 25 23z to 26 10z, a problem on the mirror server broke the link from the cluster.
  Sorry for troubles.
• Mar-22-2007. Dxcluster info page.
  Remove a bad link abour dx cluster general info page to www.dxcluster.info.
  Thanks to Jim AD1C.
• Jan-12-2007. Atlas updated again!
  Still working on geographical informations. After dxing for more than 20 years now,
  I realised (too late? hi) that my knowledges about some dxcc entities are limited to
  prefixes, general localisation etc... But what do I know about Aves Isl discovery?
  About Uruguay history? Nothing.
  So I add an experimental link powered by Google and searching in Wikipedia for
  articles about DXCC entities. If the search failed, Google will search on the web and
  will redirect you somewhere. Sometimes on the CIA World Factbook, or..? I can't know.
  Anyway, the final goal is to learn something new.
  Let me know by email if this could be interesting.
  
• Jan-11-2007. Atlas updated.
  Adding small maps of the earth for each DXCC entities for an easiest localisation
  of DXCC entities. Thanks again to the GMT project.
• Jan-9-2007. Adding IOTA in the menu (tnx DE8TOM idea). To find some place in the menu,
  I decided to delete 2,4GHz. The 2,4GHz link was not used. Anyway,this band can be
  displayed from the UHF link.
• Nov-19-2006. Maintenance is planned this week (20-24th nov). I have to replace a router.
  So the cluster may be off from time to time. I don't now when the shutdown wil occure.
  I will do fast as possible. Sorry for troubles.
• Oct-29-2006. Adding 70MHz band selection. Tnx to Alain F1GXV.
• Sep-22-2006. Fixed a bug on the send dx spots function. You can send spots again. Tnx DL6BF.
• Aug-24-2006. A mirror site will come very soon. The new site will not be hosted at home.
  I expect that the speed will be improved. The core of the cluster will stay near the chack!
• May-16-2006. Since few weeks the web cluster  is not available from time to time.
  This situation is cause by an overload of my ADSL home line. I'm looking for a new dedicated
  hosting solution. The average dayly visits is about 1400+ and hits are about 30,000. 
  In other words about 20Gb are transmitted every months through the network.
• Mar-05-2006. Did you read this: Dx cluster Monkey Zoo? Enjoy! (tnx F1RHK).
• Jan-16-2006 More than 460 differents callsigns had some spots on the webcluster. 
  Thanks to them! Here are dxcc where they come from: 3V8,9K,A3,A4,A9,BY,CN,CU,CX,
  DL,EA,FK,FR,G,HA,I,JA,K,LU,LX,LY,LZ,OE,OH,OK,OM,ON,PA,PY,RU,S5,SM,SP,TR,VE
  VP5,XE,YL,YO,YU,YV.  Average distribution is F:43% DL:10% I:6% SP:4% G:3% YO:3% ON3%
  K:3% YU:2% EA:2%.
• Dec-15-2005 DSL link is up again after one week failure due to my ISP. DSL link 
  come back at 21h15z this thursday. I'm very sorry for troubles.
• Nov-28-2005 During CQ WW week-ends more than 70,000 dx spots 
  were sent on the dx cluster network. Average is 1 spot every 6s... (70,323 spots)
• DSL reset by HF seems to be fixed with the help of F6FGZ (tnx). Mod on the
  DSL modem was made with two capacitors. Now I can transmit on all bands without sync loses.
• Oct-21-2005 Adding moon phases on the sunset/sunrise calendar.
• Oct-16-2005 Adding some geomagnetic forecasts on the solar forecast page.
• Oct-13-2005 Added two new features to the search page.
  Search can be performed on the dxcall and/or the spotter callsign.
• Oct-6-2005 The callsign search option was improved (more more faster).
  New search options in the dx spots database will be available soon.
• Aug-27-2005 A small bug fixed in geaographic position of some dxspots (callsigns
  beginning with a number like 9Q, 4X...)..
• Aug-25-2005 Adding the geographic positions on the earth of the lasts HF spots 
  on the greyline maps. Code has to be improve (somedays adding color vs bands??) 
  but it's working for now.
• Aug-24-2005 Filtring characters " < "and ">" for a better columns format.
• Aug-10-2005 Adding sunrise and sunset on the dxcc info page for the current date.
  Also available a sunset and sunrise calendar for any location. Location can be input in degrees
  or with a ww locator. This calendar is available via the G-line link.
  This day I create a mailling list for users. See here.
• Aug-3-2005 Maps workshop is available again. Using GMT 4.0 now.
• Jul-30-2005 Solar forecast graphs are ok.
• Jul-8-2005 Cluster is back at 14h Utc. All features are not restore yet. 
  But cluster is ok. I still have some work so the system could be down 
  from time to time next days. (After IARU contest).
• Jul-7-2005 One of the hdd crash this evening. As usual no complete backup was
   available. Have to rebuild a new system.
•  May-20-2005 Fixed bug on the form wich is used to send dx spots. DX callsign longer 
  than 12 caracters can be spotted now. (Tnx F5CBQ).
• April-16-2005 Fixed a small bug on muf calculation. Callsigns prefixed with a / were wrong
  calculated. Tnx F5CBQ.
• Mar-13-2005: Bash scripts migrated from php to C. It's a  more efficient way... 
  Thus, the computing time released is use to generate two new pages for HF bands:
  CW and DIGI modes.
• Mar-04-2005: Added a 13 months solar activity forecast in the solar forecast heading.
•  Feb-22-2005: Added some dx news  (planned activities, special calls...) to the home page.
• Jan-16-2005: A cookie is now used to record the last locator used for MUF calculation. 
  If you had set a "New RX Locator" in the form of the MUF page, this locator will be used for 
  next calculation. 
• Jan-9-2005: Adding MUF calculation "M". Using Minimuf compiled under linux. Minimuf is not 
  so accurate as recents softwares but doing the job. Please email me your comments about
  this feature.
• Nov-10-2004: Adding a new cluster link with IW9FRA-6 in Trapani (JM68ga) Italy.
• Oct-23 & 24 2004: Adsl routeur crash. A new one has been setup this monday. The site is back.
  Pse sry for this failure.
• Oct-15-2004: After few days of scripting with GMT, maps for dxcc look-up are finished.
• Oct-9-2004: Nex Dxnet version 4.4 was succesfully compiled this afternoon and 
  now running on the system
• Oct-01-2004: Adding some qsl info searchs.
• Sep-14-2004: Real time solar indices added. 
  SFI (Solar flux index) updated 3 time each day the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory 
  (Solar Radio Monitoring Programme). 
  SSN (Solar Sunspots number) is derivated from the SFI. This is not the SIDC number but 
  a derivated statistical value not so far from the official one. Read more
  KP the planetary index, is a statistical index, updated every 3 hours by NOAA/SEC.
• Sep-14-2004: Added solar forecast and summary graphs.
• Sep-12-2004: Added a greyline map. Updated every 15 mn.
• Sep-03-2004: you can send your own spots via the web interface.

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