Many of the AR-Clusters
nodes connect into the AR-Cluster Internet backbone which yields a huge
selection of local, continental and worldwide DX spots. During contest periods we sometimes run over
40,000 DX spots in a 48-hour period.
Station spot filtering preferences range from “I only want to see spots
within a few surrounding states”, to “I want so see spots from a large area
such as North America”, to “give me anything spotted in the world”. You can use the built-in filtering to limit
the spots to your desired area of coverage even down to the state-by-state
level.
DX spots can be filtered
by the originating stations location, by the country of the spot and by the
band and mode of the spot. Filters can
also be applied for Announcements and weather.
The following commands can be used to reset all
user filters. Both commands are
equivalent. If you suspect you have
entered a invalid filter command, reset your filters.
set/nofilter
The following commands can be used to display all
of your user filters. Both commands are
equivalent.
show/filter
The following commands can be used as a shortcut to
quickly set the DX, Announcement and WX origination filters to the same
value. This should make it easier for
the casual user as he generally wants to set all filters to see US or US and VE
DX, announcements and weather spots.
The command turns off the DX CTY, BandMode, KeyWord and state level
filters. To just see DX, ANN and WX
from US stations:
set/filter K/pass
To just see DX, ANN and WX from US and VE stations:
set/filter K,VE/pass
The
most popular filter used is the DX spot origination filter, filters DX spots
based on the country and state (or Canadian province) of the spotter. This filter allows the user to control the
area of spot coverage presented to him.
Stations with limited antennas may only want to see spots originating
from a few states away. Stations with
better antenna configurations might want to see spots from all across a wide
region such as North America. The
“big-gun” multi stations with plenty of extra operators to tune the bands may
want to turn off all filters and receive spots from stations around the world. The spot origination is usually placed in
the PASS mode to only pass spots from a certain areas. It can also be operated in the REJECT mode
where it rejects spots from selected areas.
The country locations are specified by the abbreviation in the ARRL.CTY
country list file. The states and provinces
are standard postal abbreviations. The
best way to demonstrate the various options of the DX spot origination filters
is by example. Note, if you use a
state filter, you also have to activate the country filter for the state.
The
commands to receive spots originating in the USA, Mexico and Canada are:
set/filter dxorigcty/pass k,xe,ve
set/filter dxorigstate/off
or
set/filter doc/pass k,xe,ve
set/filter dos/off
The
commands to receive DX spots originating in the states of Texas, Oklahoma and
Arkansas are:
set/filter dxorigcty/pass k
set/filter dxorigstate/pass tx,ok,ar
or
set/filter doc/pass k
set/filter dos/pass tx,ok,ar
The
commands to receive DX spots originating in the US 4th and 5th
call areas are:
set/filter dxorigcty/pass k
set/filter dxorigstate/pass k4,k5
or
set/filter doc/pass k
set/filter dos/pass k4,k5
The
commands to receive US DX spots except for California and the US 7th
call area are:
set/filter dxorigcty/pass k
set/filter dxorigstate/reject k6,k7
or
set/filter doc/pass k
set/filter dos/reject k6,k7
The
commands to receive DX spots originating anywhere in the world are:
set/filter dxorigcty/off
set/filter dxorigstate/off
or
set/filter doc/off
set/filter dos/off
You
can examine your current DX spot origination filters with the following
commands:
show/filter dxorigcty or show/filter doc
show/filter dxorigstate or show/filter dos
The announce spot origination filter, filters
announcement spots based on the country and state (or Canadian province) of the
spotter. This filter allows the user to
control the area of spot coverage presented to him. The spot origination is usually placed in the PASS mode to only
pass spots from a certain areas. It can
also be operated in the REJECT mode where it rejects spots from selected
areas. The country locations are
specified by the abbreviation in the ARRL.CTY country list file. The states and provinces are standard postal
abbreviations. The best way to
demonstrate the various options of the announcement spot origination filters is
by example. If you use a state filter,
you also have to activate the country filter for the state.
The
commands to receive announcement spots originating in the USA, Mexico and
Canada are:
set/filter annorigcty/pass k,xe,ve
set/filter annorigstate/off
or
set/filter aoc/pass k,xe,ve
set/filter aos/off
The
commands to receive announcement spots originating in the states of Texas,
Oklahoma and Arkansas are:
set/filter annorigcty/pass k
set/filter annorigstate/pass tx,ok,ar
or
set/filter aoc/pass k
set/filter aos/pass tx,ok,ar
The
commands to receive announcement spots originating in the US 4th and
5th call areas are:
set/filter annorigcty/pass k
set/filter annorigstate/pass k4,k5
or
set/filter aoc/pass k
set/filter aos/pass k4,k5
The
commands to receive US announcement spots except for California and the US 7th
call area are:
set/filter annorigcty/pass k
set/filter annorigstate/reject k6,k7
or
set/filter aoc/pass k
set/filter aos/reject k6,k7
The
commands to receive announcement spots originating anywhere in the world are:
set/filter annorigcty/off
set/filter annorigstate/off
or
set/filter aoc/off
set/filter aos/off
You
can examine your current announcement spot origination filters with the
following command:
show/filter annorigcty or show/filter aoc
show/filter annorigstate or show/filter aos
The
WX spot origination filter, filters announcement spots based on the country and
state (or Canadian province) of the spotter.
This filter allows the user to control the area of spot coverage
presented to him. The spot origination
is usually placed in the PASS mode to only pass spots from a certain
areas. It can also be operated in the
REJECT mode where it rejects spots from selected areas. The country locations are specified by the
abbreviation in the ARRL.CTY country list file. The states and provinces are standard postal abbreviations. The best way to demonstrate the various
options of the announcement spot origination filters is by example. If you use a state filter, you also have to
activate the country filter for the state.
The
commands to receive WX spots originating in the USA, Mexico and Canada are:
set/filter wxorigcty/pass k,xe,ve
set/filter wxorigstate/off
or
set/filter woc/pass k,xe,ve
set/filter wos/off
The
commands to receive WX spots originating in the states of Texas, Oklahoma and
Arkansas are:
set/filter wxorigcty/pass k
set/filter wxorigstate/pass tx,ok,ar
or
set/filter woc/pass k
set/filter wos/pass tx,ok,ar
The
commands to receive WX spots originating in the US 4th and 5th
call areas are:
set/filter wxorigcty/pass k
set/filter wxorigstate/pass k4,k5
or
set/filter woc/pass k
set/filter wos/pass k4,k5
The
commands to receive US WX spots except for California and the US 7th
call area are:
set/filter wxorigcty/pass k
set/filter wxorigstate/reject k6,k7
or
set/filter woc/pass k
set/filter wos/reject k6,k7
The
commands to receive WX spots originating anywhere in the world are:
set/filter wxorigcty/off
set/filter wxorigstate/off
or
set/filter woc/off
set/filter wos/off
You
can examine your current WX spot origination filters with the following command:
show/filter wxorigcty or show/filter woc
show/filter wxorigstate or show/filter wos
DX Spot Band-Mode filters
allow for the filtering of DX spots by the band and mode of operation. Valid bands are 160, 80, 40, 20, 17, 15, 12,
10, 6, 2, 1, 70 VHF, UHF, and MW (microwave).
Valid modes are CW, RTTY and SSB.
The Band-Mode filter is a commonly used as HFers may want to reject
spots above 30 MHz and UHF/VHFers may want to reject spots below 30 MHz. The spot DX Band-Mode filter can be placed
in the PASS mode to pass spots from a certain areas or in the REJECT mode where
it rejects spots from selected areas.
The user should be aware that the mode of operation is determined by the
frequency of the spot and that during contests stations tend to spread out
beyond what is normally accepted frequency range for their operating mode. For example if a CW station is operating in
the RTTY part of the band, his mode will be flagged as RTTY. The best way to demonstrate the various
options of the spot DX band-mode filter is by example.
The
command to receive only 20 meter spots is:
set/filter dxbandmode/pass 20-cw,20-rtty,20-ssb
or
set/filter dxbm/pass 20-cw,20-rtty,20-ssb
The
command to receive only 20 meter and 40 meter CW spots is:
set/filter dxbandmode/pass 20-cw,40-cw
or
set/filter dxbm/pass 20-cw,40-cw
The
command to receive only HF spots is:
set/filter dxbandmode/reject vhf,uhf,mw
or
set/filter dxbm/reject vhf,uhf,mw
The
command to receive only VHF, UHF and microwave spots is:
set/filter dxbandmode/pass vhf,uhf,mw
or
set/filter dxbm/pass vhf,uhf,mw
The
command to receive only 6-Meter spots is:
set/filter dxbandmode/pass 6-CW,6-SSB,6-FM
or
set/filter dxbm/pass 6-CW,6-SSB,6-FM
The
command to receive only 30-Meter spots is:
set/filter dxbandmode/pass 30-CW,30-RTTY
or
set/filter dxbm/pass 30-CW,30-RTTY
The
command to receive only VHF, UHF and microwave spots is:
set/filter dxbandmode/reject vhf,uhf,mw
or
set/filter dxbm/reject vhf,uhf,mw
The
command to turn off band-mode filtering is:
set/filter dxbandmode/off
or
set/filter dxbm/off
The
command to examine your current band-mode filtering is:
show/filter dxbandmode
or
show/filter dxbm
Special commands can be applied to set up DX band mode
filters for contesting which reject all spots except on the contest bands of
160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters.
Examples:
set/filter hf/cw
set/filter hf/ssb
set/filter hf/rtty
set/filter hf/off
The spot CTY filter allows
DX spots to be filtered by the county of the spot. The country is determined based on the ARRL.CTY files. The DX spot CTY filter can be placed in the
PASS mode to pass spots from designated countries or in the REJECT mode to
reject spots from designated countries.
The best way to demonstrate the various options of the spot CTY filter
is by example.
The
command to show all DX spots except for those in the USA would be:
set/filter dxcty/reject k
The
command to show all DX spots except for those in US, Mexico and Canada would
be:
set/filter dxcty/reject k,xe,ve
The
command to show only DX spots from the US, Mexico and Canada would be:
set/filter dxcty/pass k,xe,ve
The
command to turn off all DX CTY filters is:
set/filter dxcty/off
The
command to display the current settings of the DX CTY filter is:
show/filter dxcty
The
DX Spot Keyword Reject Filter allows the user to specify a list of keywords,
which if contained in the DX spot call field, will cause the spot to be
rejected.
set/filter dxkeyword/reject /bust (reject spots with /bust in the callsign)
set/filter dxkw/reject /bust (reject spots with /bust in the callsign)
set/filter dxkeyword/reject /bust,video (reject spots with /bust or video in the callsign)
set/filter dxkw/reject /bust,video (reject spots with /bust or video in the callsign)
set/filter dxkeyword/off (turn the keyword reject filter
off)
set/filter dxkw/off (turn the keyword reject
filter off)
show/filter dxkeyword (show the keyword reject
filter)
show/filter dxkw (show the keyword reject
filter)
AR-Cluster
includes a DX Needs database which can be used to track the needs DX country
needs of node users. Spot filtering can also be applied to only show the DX
spots based on your country needs. The
SET/FILTER NEEDS command is used to set your needs. User needs can be set on each of the three operating modes of CW,
SSB and RTTY. If the first character in
the filter command is a “+”, the data is appended into the needs list,
otherwise the existing list is overwritten.
Needs countries prefixes are based on the ARRL.CTY country list. Examples:
set/filter dxneeds/ssb 3d2/r,3y/b,bv9p,jd/o,jd/m
set/filter dxneeds/rtty r1mv,sv5,t33,zk1/n
set/filter dxneeds/cw r1mv,sv5,t33,zk1/n
set/filter dxneeds/cw +r1fj,vp8/h,jy,zs8,vu4,vu7
You
can activate and deactivate the display of spots based on need with the
following commands:
set/filter dxneeds/off
set/filter dxneeds/on
You
can display your stored needs list with the command:
show/filter dxneeds
You
can display your stored needs list with the command:
show/filter dxneeds
You
can also query the needs database looking at the needs of other stations or a
specific country prefix. You may also
specify a mode qualifier (CW, SSB, RTTY) to just show the needs for that
mode. Examples follow.
You
can show the needs of another station with the following command:
show/ dxneeds k1ttt
show/ dxneeds/ssb k1ttt
You
can show all stations who need the Marshall Islands with the following command:
show/ dxneeds V7*
AR-Cluster has other built in filters that are
either automatic or configured by the sysop.
You should be aware of these filters as they may effect and their
capabilities as they may effect the spots that you receive.
Upstream Filters – These filters reside on the ARC node that your
node connects to. These filters can be
used to narrow the coverage of the node to a specific geographical area.
Anti-Loop Filter – Is always on and removes duplicate spots.
Spot Lockout Filter – Is usually activated and removes bad calls such
as TEST, FR0G and etc.
Spot Origination Filter – Similar to the user spot origination filter but
effects all users on the node.
Spot Age Filter – Rejects spots over xx minutes old.
Spot CTY Filter – Similar to the user spot CTY filter but effects
all users.
Spot Node Filter – Pass or reject spots from designated nodes.
Spot Band-Time Reject Filter – Rejects spots based on band and time of day.
Spot Comment Filter – Rejects spots containing specific text in the
comment field.
Internet Spot Filter – Rejects spots, which originated from the OH2AQ
spot grabber.
Spot Close Dupe Filter – Rejects spots with the same call spotted within
the last x minutes within a designated frequency spread.
Spot Close Dupe Filter – Does not allow a user to spot himself.