The FT8 skimmer

Whenever a station is idle it scans the HF bands and decodes FT8, and what it hears is pooled across the whole RHR network. You can use that two ways.

The skimmer page

Tools → FT8 Skimmer in the console opens the skimmer page, a map and list of the DX stations heard in the last 24 hours. It is also at /skimmer and needs no sign-in. Use the filters to narrow it by time interval, by the RHR station or country that heard them, by callsign, and with DX only to drop domestic stations; Refresh every 5m keeps the page current. When a filter matches very many stations the page shows a sample spread across the interval. The band bar at the bottom shows how busy each band is.

The FT8 Activity panel on your account overview is a summary of the same data for the past 24 hours.

The Telnet feed

The skimmer's spots are also served over Telnet, in the same format as a DX cluster, so your logger or award-tracking software can show them in real time.

1. In the console, open Tools → FT8 Skimmer Telnet.
2. Note the Host and Port (7373), or click Copy URL to Clipboard for the telnet:// address.
3. Add it to your software as a cluster node.

The same host and port are listed under Telnet Access in the skimmer page's information dialog.