July monthly drop. Two headline accuracy fixes came straight from user emails this cycle, and the hosted site now runs on our own DX cluster node.
Headline fixes
- FT8 / digital-mode VOACAP predictions were way off — every prediction ran the P.533 engine at the SSB listening threshold, then bolted the digital-mode advantage on afterwards as a post-hoc dB bump that could never reopen a band SSB had scored at 0%. The engine (browser WASM and REST service both) now runs at each mode's real decode threshold — FT8 −19 dB, FT4 −15, WSPR −26, JT65 −23, CW +5. Verified: Atlanta→Tokyo, 15m, noon goes from 0% (SSB) to 67% (FT8), matching on-air reality. SSB predictions are bit-identical to before. Thanks Jason (W3AAX) for the exact diagnosis.
- Real-time Kp index — current Kp now tracks NOAA's 1-minute estimated planetary K-index instead of the observed 3-hourly product, so the console reacts to geomagnetic events in minutes, not hours. Thanks Manuel (EA7JRS).
New
- OHC Cluster — our own DX cluster node. Aggregates RBN skimmer feeds (CW/RTTY + FT8/FT4) and human spots, serves a classic telnet interface any logger can use, and now feeds the hosted site — ending our dependence on public DXSpider nodes. Custom cluster sessions hardened against reconnect storms; dead nodes get parked.
- Callsign info popup — click any call in the cluster or on the map for an inline station card: name, QTH, grid, country, local time at the DX end, one-click jump to your callbook. The DX target also accepts a callsign lookup (#1036). Thanks Laura (lbatalha) and Jörg (ceotjoe).
- Per-user QRZ/HamQTH logins on the hosted site — enter your own callbook credentials in Settings and get full lookup data (name, QTH, grid) using only your own account. Credentials live in your browser only; the server holds sessions in memory, never persists them, and caches results per credential.
- N3FJP integration configured from Settings — bridge ships with OHC, the server manages it, and the logged-QSO 0,0 bug is fixed. Built by Ben (KC1UEK).
- Simplified Chinese (简体中文) joins the language picker — 16 languages total. 谢谢 Anthony (AntDiClementi).
- Map style rotation for shack wall displays + earthquake magnitude filter. Thanks Anthony (AnthonyOHC) and Michael Wheeley.
- DX Cluster panel: send spots + new filters — spot a station right from the panel; contest filter; one-click "Show only DXpeditions" (cross-referenced against the DXpedition calendar). DXpedition spots are retained through RBN skimmer volume with a 60-minute retention option.
Improved
- Accessibility round two — Map Data text view localized into all 16 languages with v2 sections (lightning, aircraft, aurora, Winlink); aria-live announcements for DX spots, lightning proximity, satellite rise/set, band conditions, weather alerts, and rig state; WCAG 2.1 AA contrast pass. Thanks chrisdebian and w9fyi.
- Satellite pipeline hardened end to end — TLE state machine with unit tests, new "fletcher" HTTP relay for blocked egress IPs, 24-hour OMM cache matching NORAD's release cadence, SatNOGS transmitter metadata, per-source .env disable flags. Thanks Michael Wheeley.
- Windows install/update overhaul — update.ps1 replaces update.bat, scripts parse on stock PowerShell 5.1, one-line iwr install. Thanks Jörg (ceotjoe).
- Self-hosters get the real P.533 WASM engine — local builds now ship the propagation engine instead of silently falling back to the EST heuristic; antenna selection persists.
- Observability — authenticated Prometheus /metrics endpoint + external Cloudflare Worker watchtower probing all OHC services with Discord alerts. Thanks Laura (lbatalha), the most prolific contributor this cycle.
- Security — critical vitest advisory closed, qs DoS patched, all six Dependabot alerts resolved, fletcher relay origin-pinned.
Release-day fixes (bundled in this tag)
- DXpeditions-only filter starved by RBN volume — tagged spots now survive the display caps (#1108)
- Per-user callbook credentials feature (#1110)
- Presence heartbeat 429s no longer freeze all API calls — the "news feed stopped scrolling" fix (#1111)
- ohc-cluster: HTTP API no longer collides with Railway's TCP-proxy PORT
Version
package.json/ lockfile: 26.4.1 → 26.5.0- Replaces the June core-maintainers banner with a bug-reports-drive-releases note crediting W3AAX and EA7JRS — this cycle's headliners were user emails. Keep them coming.
— K0CJH
Docker image: ghcr.io/accius/openhamclock:26.5.0
docker pull ghcr.io/accius/openhamclock:26.5.0
Docker image: ghcr.io/accius/openhamclock:26.5.0
docker pull ghcr.io/accius/openhamclock:26.5.0