so ive been on HF for about 8 months now and just starting to really get into chasing DX and i gotta say the whole cluster spotting thing is a bit overwhelming at first. i use QRZ a lot already for lookups obviously but i only recently figured out you can set up an alert thing on there and also watch spots come in. then someone on a local net mentioned DXwatch and i went and checked that out too.

my question is basically are people using both of these at the same time or do you just pick one? i have them both open in browser tabs and sometimes the same spot shows up on both but sometimes one has something the other doesnt. also is there a way to filter by band on dxwatch because right now im seeing spots for 160m and stuff which i cant even use yet, just feels like a lot of noise in the feed.

also tangentially — is the dx sherpa app worth bothering with or is that kind of overkill for someone like me who's just trying to work a few new entities here and there. appreciate any thoughts

yeah filtering on dxwatch is definitely there, you might just have to poke around a bit. if you look at the top of the page there should be band filter options, i have mine set to just show 20 and 17 meters most of the time since thats where i spend most of my time. as for using both QRZ and dxwatch simultaneously, honestly i do it sometimes. QRZ spots seem to lag just a tiny bit behind in my experience but i use it more because i already have the tab open anyway for lookups. dxwatch feels a bit more raw and fast if that makes sense.

DX sherpa is pretty good actually, i wouldnt call it overkill even for casual chasing. the interface takes a little getting used to but being able to see your log against what's spotted in real time is really handy when you're trying to figure out if somethings a new one for you or not. just my two cents, you dont need it but its not just for hardcore dx'ers either

im kind of in the same boat as you honestly, been licensed about a year and a half and the whole cluster ecosystem confused me for a while. one thing i found helpful was also looking at pskreporter if youre doing any digital modes because it shows you propagation in a visual way that the text-based clusters just cant do. not exactly the same thing but it kind of helped me understand what bands were actually open before i went hunting spots.

for the 160m noise on dxwatch — yeah just filter it out, you can do that. once you get your filter settings where you want them it gets a lot more usable