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. Installation instructions can be found at: Download the full version of CC User (2.421).
Install in C:\VE7CC not C:\Program Files Click
here to download the version 2.421 ZIP file After installing the full version (2.421) you can upgrade to version of 3.0271 by downloading
the update here. Install it over the original
version. Click here to download the version
3.0271 ZIP file 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 2025-12-17 (ND4XdxClusterNode01.html)