A live POTA hunter's dashboard — spot browser, award tracker, and one-click rig control.
POTA Spot Hunter fetches active Parks on the Air activator spots from the POTA API and gives hunters everything they need in one place: a filterable, sortable spot table with park type icons and age indicators; award tier progress and endorsement tracking tied to your callsign; hint icons that flag spots qualifying for active award events (Late Shift, Early Shift, New Years, Support Your Parks); an interactive world map; and one-click rig control for MacLoggerDX, flrig, and rigctld. Fully themeable. Works with no radio connected at all.
🛠 Status: Active development. Tested on macOS with MacLoggerDX, flrig, and rigctld (Icom IC-7300), and on Windows with Log4OM.
- 📡 Live spot data from
api.pota.app— auto-refreshes at a configurable interval - 🎛 Band and mode filtering
- 🔃 Flexible sorting — click any column header to sort by that column; click again to reverse. Sorts by frequency (low to high) by default — ideal for tuning up through the band.
- 🖱 One-click tuning — click any row to tune your radio, trigger a callsign lookup, and pre-fill the park reference in your logging software (MacLoggerDX only for now)
- 🔗 Clickable links — callsigns and park references link directly to POTA activator and park detail pages
- 🟢 Age indicators — spots are colour-coded by how fresh they are
- 🆕 New spot indicator — a green dot marks spots that appeared in the most recent refresh and haven't been seen before in this session
- 🔁 Configurable auto-refresh — 2, 5, 10, 15, 30, or 60 minutes, or manual only
- 🗺 Interactive world map — all active spots plotted on a resizable map; hover a marker to preview, click to tune
- 📻 Auto Scan — automatically cycles through the visible spot list, dwelling on each spot for a configurable interval (5s, 10s, 30s, or 1m) and tuning the radio as if you clicked the row. Designed for scanning the bands when propagation is uncertain. Any click or keypress stops the scan; restarting resumes from where you left off.
- 🎨 Themes — switch between color themes using the 🎨 dropdown in the header. Includes built-in dark and light themes. Drop a
.jsonfile into thethemes/folder to install a custom theme. See THEMES.md for how to create your own. - 🏕 Park type icons — a Type column shows an emoji for each park's type (National Park, State Forest, Wildlife Area, etc.), fetched in the background and updated dynamically as data arrives. Clicking the Type column header sorts spots by park type.
- 🏆 Award tracking — enter your callsign once and the app fetches your POTA hunter profile. A badge in the header shows your current award tier and clicking it reveals a progress bar toward your next tier, plus band/mode endorsements earned so far.
- 🌙 Award hint icons on spot rows — small icons flag spots that qualify for active award opportunities: Late Shift (🌙), Early Shift (🌅), New Years week (🎆), Support Your Parks event weekend (🎪), and bands not yet in your endorsements (✨). Shift windows are calculated from each park's longitude per POTA rules.
- 📋 Worked callsign indicator — each spot row shows a
×Nlifetime QSO count badge and a colored dot if worked today: amber if band/mode unknown, red if band+mode match the spot (likely no new points). Hover for full details. Supported on MacLoggerDX and Log4OM (beta). - 🎛 Multiple rig control backends:
- MacLoggerDX — full integration via AppleScript (frequency, mode, callsign lookup, park reference note)
- flrig — frequency and mode via XML-RPC
- rigctld (Hamlib) — frequency and mode via TCP
- Log4OM (beta) — frequency and callsign lookup via UDP; worked callsign history via SQLite
- None — browse spots without sending any commands
Download the latest release ZIP from the Releases page and unzip it. You'll get a few files including:
www/— the web app (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)PotaProxy.py— the local proxy server
Keep all the files in the same folder.
Open a terminal in the unzipped folder and run python3 PotaProxy.py. On Windows, after installing Python, you can also just double-click PotaProxy.py in File Explorer. The proxy will automatically open your browser. The Rig Control dropdown defaults to None, so you can browse live spots right away without any radio attached.
If you want to use POTA Spot Hunter to tune your rig, start MacLoggerDX, flrig, rigctld, or Log4OM, then select the appropriate backend from the Rig Control dropdown. Click any row or map marker to tune your radio.
The app is split into two files that work together:
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
www/index.html |
The web UI — served by the proxy at http://localhost:8080/ |
PotaProxy.py |
Local Python proxy — bridges the browser to rig-control software |
The browser cannot talk directly to MacLoggerDX, flrig, or rigctld because of the browser's same-origin security policy. The proxy runs locally on your machine, accepts simple HTTP requests from the web page, and forwards commands to whichever rig-control backend you have configured.
Browser (www/index.html — served by proxy)
│
│ HTTP GET /tune/mldx?freq=14074&mode=FT8&callsign=W1AW¬e=POTA+US-1234
▼
PotaProxy.py (localhost:8080)
│
├── MacLoggerDX via osascript / AppleScript
├── flrig via XML-RPC (port 12345)
└── rigctld via TCP (port 4532)
| Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|
| Python 3.7+ | Standard on macOS 12+. Install via Homebrew: brew install python |
| A modern browser | Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or Edge |
| One of the following (optional — only needed for click-to-tune): | |
| MacLoggerDX | macOS only. |
| flrig | macOS, Linux, Windows. |
| rigctld (Hamlib) | macOS, Linux, Windows. brew install hamlib on macOS. |
| Log4OM (beta) | Windows only. |
No third-party Python packages are required — only the standard library.
MacLoggerDX must be running on the same Mac as the proxy. No extra configuration is needed — the proxy communicates with MacLoggerDX via AppleScript.
When you click Tune, the proxy will:
- Set the VFO frequency and mode
- Trigger a callsign lookup
- Pre-fill the Note field with the POTA park reference
flrig must be running and connected to your radio. Default host/port is 127.0.0.1:12345. To use a non-default port:
python3 PotaProxy.py --rig-port 12346Install Hamlib, then start rigctld with your radio's model number and serial port. Default host/port is 127.0.0.1:4532.
Find your radio's model number:
rigctld -l | grep -i "your radio name"Basic start:
rigctld -m <model> -r <device> -t 4532Platform-specific device paths:
| Platform | Example device path |
|---|---|
| macOS | /dev/tty.usbserial-XXXX or /dev/cu.usbmodem-XXXX |
| Linux (not tested) | /dev/ttyUSB0 or /dev/ttyACM0 |
| Windows (not tested) | COM3 (check Device Manager) |
⚠️ Icom IC-7300 users (model 3073): The IC-7300 requires RTS and DTR lines to be held OFF or the radio will reset when rigctld connects. Always start rigctld with the extra flags:rigctld -m 3073 -r /dev/tty.usbserial-XXXX -t 4532 \ --set-conf=rts_state=OFF --set-conf=dtr_state=OFF
To use a non-default rigctld port:
python3 PotaProxy.py --rigctld-port 4533Log4OM must be running. When you click Tune, the proxy will:
- Set the VFO frequency
- Trigger a callsign lookup (Log4OM auto-runs a QRZ lookup on receipt)
The worked callsign indicator (×N badges) works automatically — PSH reads your Log4OM QSO database directly with no extra configuration needed.
Required — verify Remote Control is enabled:
Log4OM enables Remote Control by default, so most users won't need to change anything. If tuning does not work, confirm it is on:
- Open Configuration → Software integration → Connections → Remote Control tab
- Confirm Enable remote control is checked and the port is 2241
⚠️ UDP commands are fire-and-forget — if Remote Control is disabled, tune clicks are silently dropped with no error message.
Known limitations (beta):
- Mode is not set when tuning — Log4OM's
SetModecommand is non-functional in the current release. Set the mode manually in Log4OM or via your CAT interface. - Park reference note is not pre-filled — Log4OM has no equivalent to MacLoggerDX's Note field.
Optional — faster disconnect detection:
By default, PSH detects whether Log4OM is running by checking the Windows process list. For faster detection, enable the heartbeat:
- On the Remote Control tab, check Enable data output through UDP
- Check Send 5 seconds status messages
With this enabled, PSH will detect Log4OM going offline within ~15 seconds instead of up to ~30 seconds.
usage: PotaProxy.py [-h] [--backend {mldx,flrig,rigctld}]
[--port PORT] [--rig-host HOST]
[--rig-port PORT] [--rigctld-port PORT]
[--no-browser] [--debug]
options:
--backend Default rig-control backend (default: mldx)
--port Proxy listen port (default: 8080)
--rig-host Host for flrig/rigctld (default: 127.0.0.1)
--rig-port Port for flrig (default: 12345)
--rigctld-port Port for rigctld (default: 4532)
--no-browser Do not automatically open the browser
--debug Enable verbose debug logging
Examples:
# Default — MacLoggerDX backend, opens browser automatically
python3 PotaProxy.py
# Use flrig on a non-default port, suppress browser auto-open
python3 PotaProxy.py --backend flrig --rig-port 12346 --no-browser
# Use rigctld on a remote machine on the local network
python3 PotaProxy.py --backend rigctld --rig-host 192.168.1.50| Control | Options |
|---|---|
| Band | All, 160m through 2m |
| Mode | All, CW, SSB, FT8, FT4, Other Digital |
| Auto-refresh | 2, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60 min, or Manual |
| Auto Scan | Off, 5s, 10s, 30s, 1m |
Click any column header to sort by that column; click again to reverse. The default sort is frequency ascending. Filters apply instantly without reloading.
The proxy exposes a simple REST-like API on http://localhost:8080. You can call these endpoints directly from a terminal for testing:
# Get the app version
curl http://localhost:8080/version
# List available backends
curl http://localhost:8080/backends
# Ping a backend (check if rig software is reachable)
curl http://localhost:8080/ping/mldx
curl http://localhost:8080/ping/flrig
curl http://localhost:8080/ping/rigctld
# Tune a radio (freq in kHz)
curl "http://localhost:8080/tune/flrig?freq=14074&mode=FT8"
curl "http://localhost:8080/tune/mldx?freq=14074&mode=FT8&callsign=W1AW¬e=POTA+US-1234+Yosemite"All responses are JSON with an ok field:
{ "ok": true, "backend": "flrig", "freq_hz": 14074000, "mode": "FT8" }
{ "ok": false, "error": "Cannot reach flrig — is it running?" }The proxy is designed to be extended. To add a new backend (e.g. OmniRig, DX Lab Suite Commander):
- Create a class that inherits from
RigBackendinPotaProxy.py - Implement
tune(freq_hz, mode)— receives frequency in Hz and a mode string - Optionally implement
ping()for connection health checks - Register it in the
_build_backends()function - Add it to the
rig-selectdropdown inwww/index.html
See the FlrigBackend and RigctldBackend classes for worked examples.
PotaSpotHunter/
├── www/ # Web app — served by the proxy
│ ├── index.html # HTML shell
│ ├── style.css # All styles
│ └── app.js # All JavaScript
├── PotaProxy.py # Local proxy server
├── LICENSE # MIT License
├── .gitignore
├── CHANGELOG.md # Version history
├── requirements.txt # No third-party dependencies (documents intent)
└── README.md
| Source | URL |
|---|---|
| POTA spot API | https://api.pota.app/spot/activator |
| POTA activator profile | https://pota.app/#/profile/<CALLSIGN> |
| POTA park detail | https://pota.app/#/park/<REFERENCE> |
| MacLoggerDX scripting reference | https://dogparksoftware.com/MacLoggerDX%20Help/mldxfc_script.html |
| Hamlib / rigctld reference | https://hamlib.sourceforge.net/html/rigctld.1.html |
| flrig XML-RPC reference | http://www.w1hkj.com/flrig-help/xmlrpc_commands.html |
MIT License — see LICENSE for full text.
Copyright (c) 2025 Gregory Wright (W7GFW) <greg@gregorywright.org>
See you on the air. I am usually doing CW at parks near Seattle, and the random contest.
de W7GFW