ParkWatch settings Get support

Account

Who you are. Your gridsquare drives distance, bearing and “references near me”.

ParkWatch reads your hunter awards through your pota.app sign-in. Open pota.app and sign in; the extension picks up the session automatically while a pota.app tab is open.

Station defaults

For US (FCC) amateurs — ParkWatch flags spots that fall outside your license class's privileges. Leave blank if you're licensed elsewhere.

Sidebar

Panels down the right of the spot list. Tick what you want and use the arrows to order them.

Appearance & behaviour

How ParkWatch looks and how often it checks for spots.

A periodic reload clears the rare stale-state hiccup after long uptime and re-picks-up a fresh pota.app session. "Never" is fine for most; the manual ⟳ button in the panel reloads on demand any time.

What gets flagged

Badges on the spot list. These change what you see — alerts are on the next tab.

Alert me for

Which flags interrupt you. Turning one off leaves the badge in the spot list — it just stops the notification.

Desktop notifications

What interrupts you. The spot list still shows everything.

Only alert me for…

Tick what you want to be interrupted for — anything unticked stays silent. Applies to desktop notifications and phone alerts; the spot list still shows everything.

Bands:

ATNO & rare activations

The rarest catches. By default ParkWatch shows and alerts these even when the band or mode filters above would hide them. Untick the box to treat them like any other spot. To limit the ATNO/rare alerts to what you can work, tick bands and modes below — leave all unticked for every band and mode.

ATNO / rare alert modes

ATNO / rare alert bands

Watchlist

Callsigns or park references that always alert, even if their mode or band is filtered out. One per line — a callsign also matches its portable forms (W1AW matches W1AW/P and DL/W1AW). End a line with - or * to follow a whole country by its POTA/WWFF designation: DL- follows every German park, KFF- every US WWFF reference, and DL* also follows DL callsigns.

Known hunters

Callsigns of hunters you want to keep an eye on. The Known hunters sidebar widget shows when any of them post a spot on POTA or WWFF. One callsign per line (you can also add them straight from the widget).

Phone alerts

Get needed spots on your phone. Browsers can't send SMS directly, so ParkWatch pushes to a phone app instead — ntfy is free with no account (install "ntfy" from the App Store, subscribe to a topic name you choose here), and Pushover is a one-time app purchase many hams already use.

ntfy

Pick a long, unguessable topic — anyone who knows it can read your alerts.

Pushover
Webhook

Receives JSON: {title, message, url}. Point it at a Twilio function or IFTTT to turn alerts into real SMS.

POTA

Parks on the Air. Spots come from api.pota.app; your hunter awards come from your pota.app sign-in and drive the NEW PARK / NEW STATE flags.

Checking…

Not seeing award data? Open pota.app and sign in — ParkWatch reads that session while a pota.app tab is open.

WWFF Spotline

World Wide Flora & Fauna. Shows WWFF spots alongside POTA ones, and sends your spots to Spotline when the reference is a WWFF one (e.g. VEFF-1020). POTA references are unaffected.

Keep it short and operational (QRV, QSY, QRT) or leave it blank — Spotline asks that spots not be used for commentary.

WWFF references you've worked

WWFF publishes no API for your hunter results, so ParkWatch reads them from your own log. On WWFF LogSearch sign in, search as Hunter for your callsign and export the results; or use any ADIF from your logger that carries the WWFF references you've worked (in SIG_INFO). Importing enables NEW REFERENCE flags on WWFF spots and hunted colouring on the map.

LLOTA

Lakes & Lagoons On The Air. ParkWatch downloads LLOTA's reference list by itself and keeps it current (weekly), so it can name and check a lake when you log one. The button below is only needed if you want to update it right now.

LLOTA's own references are self-identifying — LLAR-0001 is LL + the ISO country code — so typing one on the log form selects LLOTA and shows the lake name automatically. Operators sometimes say the short form on air (AR-0001), which is indistinguishable from a POTA park, so the Program selector is still there for those. The ADIF SIG follows your choice. LLOTA spots aren't shown in the list because LLOTA publishes a reference database, not a spot feed.

Do not spot

Operators who have asked not to be spotted. ParkWatch will never post a spot for these to pota.app, WWFF Spotline, or the DX clusters — the Spot button is disabled and auto-spot skips them. One per line; portable forms match automatically. They still appear in the list so you can work them.

Dual POTA / WWFF parks

Many parks are registered in both POTA and WWFF. ParkWatch can treat them as one and spot to both programs at once, so hunters on either side see you.

Lets the activator — and every hunter watching — see the park counts for both programs. {alsoref} is the other program's reference. Keep it short: Spotline asks that spots not be used for commentary, so this stays a reference note.
Preview:

Dual-park data covers North and South America (source: cqparks.net, refreshed weekly). Parks elsewhere won't be cross-referenced.

When you spot

Heads-up: re-spotting a station you hunted bumps them back to the top of everyone's spot list. Some hunters consider routine self-crediting re-spots poor etiquette — use with discretion.

Used for hunting spots (re-spots of stations you work); your own self-spots default to your park information. Placeholders, filled in automatically: {name} park name · {park} park ref · {call} your callsign · {activator} station worked · {mode} · {freq} MHz.
Preview:

IOTA cluster

Show IOTA (Islands on the Air) spots on the spotting page, read directly from the IOTA cluster's public feed over the web — no telnet or native helper needed. Each spot is tagged with its island‑group name. Toggle them on the spotting page with Hide IOTA.

DX cluster — callsign & comment watch

Read a DX cluster over telnet and surface any callsigns you're watching or comment matches in the spot feed. Needs the native helper running.

Watched callsigns come from your single Following list (sidebar → Following), so there's no separate list to keep in sync — it's the one source for POTA, WWFF, LLOTA, IOTA and the DX clusters.

Also send spots to DX clusters over telnet when you press Spot (or when auto-spot fires). Telnet needs the native bridge — the same one used for Station Master logging — so install it from the bridge/ folder if you haven't.

Common cluster ports: 23, 7300, 7373, 8000 — check your node's documentation. If a test connects but the node stays silent, it may require a registered callsign.

Off by default: POTA welcomes self-spotting, but most DX clusters prohibit it and some sysops restrict access for it. Your pota.app self-spots are unaffected either way.

Logging

Every QSO is always kept in a local queue you can download as ADIF from the panel — that file imports into DXKeeper, Log4OM, ACLog, HRD and virtually everything else. The services below also get each QSO pushed live over HTTP.

Fills in name, QTH, state/province and country as you log a contact. Needs your QRZ.com account; full detail requires QRZ's XML subscription. Credentials are stored only on this computer and sent only to qrz.com. Without this, country is still filled in from the callsign prefix.

Saving asks Chrome for permission to reach that URL.

Each contact is uploaded to Club Log as part of the normal log transfer. You only need your email and an app password — create the app password in your Club Log account settings (don't use your main password). ParkWatch already includes the required application key; the field above is only for advanced users who want to use their own.

Each contact is sent to QSL Master as an ADIF message over UDP in real time, and they email the QSL out automatically. Your personal API key (from your QSL Master account) identifies you — keep it private. This uses the ParkWatch helper (from the installer), and needs outbound UDP to the server allowed by your firewall. Leave the server and port at their defaults unless told otherwise.

Each QSO goes out as an ADIF datagram. Works with Station Master Pro, Log4OM, and anything else that accepts inbound ADIF over UDP. One-time setup: install with ParkWatch.pkg / Install ParkWatch (Windows).bat, then fully restart Chrome — after that Chrome starts the bridge automatically.

Log4OM setup: Settings → Software Integration/Connection → Inbound connections → add ADIF_MESSAGE on the port you set here, then Communicator → Interfaces → tick Auto Start.
Important: give each logger its own port. Only the first program listening on a port receives the datagram — two loggers sharing 2333 means one of them silently gets nothing.

Direct connections to DXKeeper, ACLog, or Log4OM use raw TCP sockets, which browser extensions can't open. Use the ADIF export for those — or, if your logger can ingest N1MM-style UDP, point the UDP target above at it.

Rig control

Tune your radio to a spot with one click. Pick the backend your station uses, then Test connection below.

Start rig control in your TCI software first: in Station Master Pro, start Rig Control (TCI); in ExpertSDR2/3, Options → TCI.

If changing bands doesn't switch the mode on a real radio driven over CAT (e.g. an FTDX10 through Station Master Pro), the band change hasn't settled before the mode is sent. Increase this — try 400–600 ms — so the mode command lands after the band change. Pure-SDR TCI targets can use a smaller value.

WSJT-X / JTDX

Log your FT8 / FT4 contacts straight from WSJT-X (or JTDX) into your active activation — no manual entry. The moment you click Log QSO in WSJT-X, the contact drops into the Activator Log, stamped with your park reference(s) and pushed to your loggers.

You can also flip this from the Activator Log with Log contacts from WSJT-X; it's the same switch.

  1. In WSJT-X: File → Settings → Reporting → under UDP Server set 127.0.0.1 on the port below.
  2. Leave the Secondary UDP Server unchecked — do not tick "Enable logged contact ADIF broadcast". It sends a different format on the same port and blocks ParkWatch from seeing your contacts.
  3. Make sure the ParkWatch helper is installed (the same one used for UDP logging and the DX cluster).
  4. Start your activation, then tick Log contacts from WSJT-X in the Activator Log.

Default is 2237. If you also run JTAlert or GridTracker on this port, that's fine — they can share it. Contacts flow while the Activator Log tab is open. If you also log from WSJT-X to another program directly, point one or the other — not both — to avoid duplicates.

Where's the helper, and is it running? It's the same bridge used for UDP logging and the DX cluster, installed in your user folder (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/ParkWatch/bridge; Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\ParkWatch\bridge). It starts on demand — there's no window. Once you switch on Log contacts from WSJT-X in the Activator Log, the status next to the toggle tells you exactly what's happening: listening on 2237 — waiting for WSJT-X (helper is up, no packets yet), hearing WSJT-X (N pkts) (WSJT-X is talking to it — log a QSO), N logged (working), or helper not found / port busy if something's wrong.

Update notifications

ParkWatch checks its website (parkwatch.online) once a day and tells you when a newer build is posted. Click Download on the reminder and it grabs the right build for your computer automatically — then unzip it over your existing ParkWatch folder and hit Reload (↻) in chrome://extensions. Not ready yet? Not now reminds you again tomorrow, or turn reminders off below.

Reloading in place keeps everything — your known hunters, watchlist, alert settings, award progress and daily counters all live in the browser's extension storage and carry straight over. What clears that storage is pressing Remove, or loading the new copy from a different folder (which makes you remove the old one first). So always unzip over the same folder and Reload — don't Remove ParkWatch. As a safety net, use Backup & restore below before any big change.

ParkWatch's home & downloads: parkwatch.online

Upcoming activations ticker

The scrolling bar at the bottom of ParkWatch. Turn it on or off in the Appearance tab; the content settings below control what it shows. Neither program documents a stable public schedule API, so the endpoints are editable — if one stops working, correct it here rather than waiting for a new build.

Reference data

POTA/WWFF/LLOTA park lists refresh automatically every day at 00:01 UTC. You can also refresh them now.

Data

If NEW PARK / NEW STATE flags ever look wrong, "Download award diagnostic" saves the raw API responses (your award data, never your login token) to a JSON file you can share for a fix.

Backup & restore

Save every ParkWatch setting to a file — your known hunters, watchlist, alert bands/modes, logging and spotting options, and the daily parks counter — then import it into ParkWatch on another computer, or after a fresh install, to set it up the same way. This copies your settings only — not your ADIF queue (use Export ADIF queue above for that), your award data, or your pota.app login, all of which the new install rebuilds on its own.

Heads-up: the file holds any credentials you've entered — QRZ password, logbook and Wavelog keys, Pushover/ntfy details. Treat it like a password: keep it somewhere private and don't email it around.

Automatic backups

ParkWatch writes backups into a backup folder inside your ParkWatch folder (the folder you unzipped and run from). Needs the ParkWatch helper (from the installer) running.

A safety net while you're activating: if ParkWatch or your computer closes mid-activation, open the Activator Log and click Recover to bring the contacts back. Choose Off to turn it off.

Restore

Lost an activation you were in the middle of? You don't need this section — open the Activator Log and click Recover at the top. It brings back the contacts from the most recent auto-save.

Bringing data back from a daily backup — after a reinstall, or on another computer with the backup folder copied across. Pick a backup, tick what to bring back, and Restore. Activation history and the QSO queue are added to what you already have (nothing is deleted); settings are replaced. Needs the helper.

Support ParkWatch

ParkWatch is free and open source (MIT), with no ads, no tracking and no accounts. If it has saved you some time in the field and you would like to chip in toward development, it is genuinely appreciated — and entirely optional.