Pete, I'm sure I'm going to get this wrong, because I'm doing it from memory, but here goes. I am not going to refer to the priority numbers, they still confuse me, but I can handle colors OK. :-)
The simplest way to think of the default spot colors is as follows: yellow - needed all-time red - needed band blue - needed mode I'll get to green in a minute. When the color is BOLD, it has never been worked. When the color is not bold, it has been worked but not confirmed. Yellow is kind of a special case. If you have never worked North Korea, the spot will be bold yellow. There is no such thing as non-bold yellow spots because after you work an entity once, the band/mode needs of the spot takes over. So if you work North Korea on 20 meter CW, you will then see the following when the *same callsign* is spotted: North Korea spotted on new band: bold read North Korea spotted on new mode: bold blue Now if a *different* North Korea callsign is spotted on a new band or new mode, you will see the same as the above. However, if a different North Korea callsign is spotted on 20 meter CW (same band/mode you worked before), that spot will be blue (not bold) because that mode is not confirmed. This is because needed MODE spots are considered "higher priority" than needed band spots. That's because there are fewer entities to work, i.e. 335 x (CW,SSB,RTTY) vs. 335 x (160m, 80m, 40m, etc.), so they are more desirable (fewer "new ones" to come by). Now here is where green spots come in. First of all there is no bold green spot. Let's say you have North Korea confirmed on 20 meter CW and 15 meter SSB. A spot comes in for North Korea on 20 meter SSB. What color should the spot be? Not BLUE, because it's already confirmed on SSB. Not red, because it's already confirmed on 20 meters. You guessed it, green! Some people out there (like myself and other loonies I know) chase entities on all possible band/mode combinations. This helps us identify them from the spots. I hope this makes sense. 73 - Jim AD1C ===== Jim Reisert AD1C, 7 Charlemont Court, North Chelmsford, MA 01863 USA +978-251-9933, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, http://www.ad1c.com PGP Fingerprint: D8E2 3D78 339F A7F1 8C13 1193 B5D1 4FB6 79D1 70DC
