BandOpticon
What can you use BandOpticon for?
I wrote BandOpticon so that I could get a live view of all bands simultaneously, but without all bands being plotted on the same map. I also wanted an ‘un fussy’ app that just worked in a browser without installation, and works on a phone just as well as on a desktop. Very early on this led me towards making something based on a grid of tiles, each covering one band and/or mode. In my mind there are two main uses:
- The ‘all bands at once’ view, with an option for a detailed view showing connectivity of one or a few bands, and
- A way of overlaying my tx/rx spots with those of other stations ‘close to’ me.
Below are some examples. I’ve put a lot of effort in recently to improve the user interface (and my JavaScript!). So you can quickly hop between looking at all bands, a specific set of bands and modes, or just one band and mode, zoom in on an area, and highlight activity from a specific callsign. You can even set a different zoom level for each band you’re watching simultaneously.
I hope I’ve created something that allows you to get to what information you want easily.
All Band Overview
A few Selected Bands
Connectivity Detail
This screenshot shows detail from a plot of 2m FT8 activity. You can browse the callsigns by hovering the mouse, and you can select calls to
highlight from the list of ‘home’ calls on the left.
Benchmarking My Rx performance
In the screenshot below, the stronger colours show my Rx spots against the background of everyone else’s.