HamClock End of Life. I’m pretty sure by now almost all Hams have heard; the creator of HamClock, Elwood Downey WB0OEW ended his life on Jan 29, 2026. From his Website it appears before Elwood decided to move on, he set HamClock’s “End-of-Life” for June, 2026.
I’ve never met Elwood, never spoke to him. I don’t know details as to why he checked out. But I do see he checked out on his terms, so we’ll just leave it at that. He did give the Ham community some time to figure out a “Plan B”. It did not take but a few days and OpenHamClock.com has appeared with a solid Plan B (more below).
I bought an Inovato Quadra from Elwood a few years ago. It was something like $75 bucks with a couple accessories included. I dedicated a 32″ computer screen/TV I picked up for $15 at an estate sale to Elwood’s HamClock. The combination has worked flawlessly 24/7 since, and all for less than $100. I probably look at HamClock at least 20 times a day. There’s a lot of information for a DXer like me on it.
Plan B. Not wanting to wait until June before making a move I decided to configure OpenHamClock.com to replace my HamClock.
After a little tweaking, and a fairly simple learning curve, I have to say I’m impressed! The Inovato Quadra has been repurposed from HamClock (the program) to open a Web Page at OpenHamClock.com. I set a few parameters at the log-in screen, then set the Quadra to run “full screen” in Firefox.
The settings I used: Your Callsign (N0UN), Your Callsign size (2), I set my Grid Square (DM79qk), then fine-tuned the exact coordinates to my main tower, set the Theme for (Dark), Layout to (Dockable), Timezone to (UTC), DX Cluster Source to (DX Spider Proxy), Language (English) and saved my settings. Your settings are saved in your Browser so when you go to the main site OpenHamClock.com from your browser you’re all set – everything is just as you left it. Don’t forget to bookmark OpenHamClock.com to make it easy to find for yourself!
By setting the Layout to Dockable, I got rid of some of the modules I don’t care for – like DX Target, PSK Reporter, POTA, the DX Cluster, etc. It’s pretty darn slick you don’t need a program, just access OpenHamClock.com straight from any Browser! How easy is that?!
I really like it! Think I’ll let it play for a month or two – then I’ll make a donation.
Too bad about Elwood, hope he finds what he was looking for. For the rest of us, it’s just a matter of time.
See you in the pileups!
N0UN
OpenHamClock on my Inovato Quadra Firefox Web Browser:
And that little computer, the Inovato Quadra:
And now another ham…..believe it’s N0LSR….has taken over the chore of recovering the source code and setting up a server to keep HamClock running after all. So it may very well NOT die in June as originally thought?
Anyway, I need to find out from Wayne how to get FireFox to run full screen. That’s my issue right now on my Quadra running on my 50 inch Roku TV. The Firefox is just half screen or less, and the map on OpenHamClock is all smushed up and unreadable.
So how does one get FireFox running full screen?
Though if N0LSR succeeds in his efforts, it may all be a moot point in the end for me….as HamClock may be just fine after all?
K4TK
Tim,
Press F11 on your keyboard to enter or exit Full Screen
N0UN
I’m trying to use Firefox on the Inovato Quadra Hamclock. I don’t think it has that F11 function like a PC/laptop? I’ll check….but I think it functions somewhat differently. But i could be wrong…………
There is another project on Gitbub OtherHamClock-backend.
Below is the vision of the group
The goal is to make this as a drop-in replacement for the HamClock backend by replicating the same client/server responses with Perl CGI scripting and static files. We don’t have access to the backend server source code so this is completely created by looking at the interfaces. To allow existing HamClock’s running on Arduino to continue to work, we will setup a local DNS sinkhole to redirect to your local backend running at your home or office. Or, the HamClock client may be modified to point to a new central server permanently or use the built-in -b option
There is a link
https://github.com/BrianWilkinsFL/open-hamclock-backend
Mike
VE9KK
Bummer about the end of Hamclock. But I read on the Inovato site that Michael and others at looking at trying to keep it going. Guess it hinges on whether they can get to the source code?
Thanks for the info on the OpenHamClock site. I got on there today……..
73