Antenna Rotator (PstRotator)

Wait and Pounce can steer a rotatable antenna so your beam follows the DX you're working. It drives PstRotatorAz over the network, and can either turn to every station you reply to or rotate to preset headings on a schedule — or both.

Requires PstRotatorAz

This feature talks to the PstRotatorAz application (which in turn controls your rotator). You need PstRotatorAz installed and configured for your hardware.

Connecting to PstRotatorAz

In Settings → Antenna Rotator → PstRotatorAz Connection:

1. In PstRotatorAz, open Communication → UDP Control Port, set it to a port of your choice, and enable UDP Control in its Setup.
2. In Wait and Pounce, enter the same UDP Server address and UDP Server port number.
3. Once connected, the Current azimuth field (and the status bar) show your antenna's live heading in degrees.

Two automation modes

The two modes can be combined. Track on Reply takes priority over the hourly schedule — while the antenna is following a station you're replying to, it overrides any scheduled heading.

Track on Reply

In the Track on Reply group:

• Point the antenna at every station we reply to — when on, the antenna turns to the bearing of whatever station Wait and Pounce is replying to (computed from its location), not only wanted callsigns.
• A per-band selector lets you enable tracking only on the bands where your rotatable antenna is actually used — so it won't try to swing for a band on a fixed antenna.
• Only move if azimuth changes by more than: (degrees) — a dead-band so the rotator doesn't hunt back and forth for tiny bearing changes. Set a few degrees to spare the motor.

Return to Previous Position

In the Return to Previous Position group:

• Return the antenna to its previous azimuth when idle — after you stop replying to stations, the antenna swings back to where it was pointing before.
• Return after not replying to any station for: (minutes) — how long to wait with no reply before returning. While the countdown runs, the status bar shows how long until the antenna returns.

Hourly Schedule

In the Hourly Schedule group:

• Rotate to a fixed azimuth at given times (UTC) — turn the antenna to preset headings at preset times, ideal for following a known opening (e.g. long-path at a certain hour).
• A small table with Time (UTC) and Azimuth (°) columns; use Add / Remove to manage rows. Rows are kept sorted by time automatically.

Status bar read-out

While the rotator is connected, the current azimuth is shown in the status bar in near real time, so you can confirm at a glance that the antenna is following along. When a return-to-previous countdown is active, that is shown too.

Tracking vs schedule

If you mostly chase whatever decodes, leave Track on Reply on and the schedule off. If you run fixed skeds or follow predictable openings, the schedule is handy — and you can keep tracking on too, since a station you're actively replying to always wins.