Telnet Filters for ARRL DX Contests
Part of a presentation at a YCCC Contest University had to
do with
using filters to restrict the telnet spots that you see in your
computer. If you have
a desire to use Skimmer spots, the use of a filter is almost necessary
to restrict
the spots hitting your computer. I will use N1MM as the example of a
logging
program, and how I would set it up to make the spot filters most
accessible to
the user.
Filters are predicated on several requirements:
- There is no need to see WARC, VHF, or UHF spots.
- There is no need to see SSB spots.
- You may want to see your own spots (or selected stations spots)
- You may want (or not want) Skimmer spots.
- AR Cluster nodes normally default to no skimmer spots, so they must be
turned on if you want to see them.
There are three main software packages for telnet nodes:
- AR Cluster (K1TTT, WC2L, W1GQ)
- DX Spider (W1NR, K1RK)
- CC Cluster (VE7CC)
CC Cluster uses its own interface program that allows you to customize what
spots you see; I haven't covered its use here.
AR Cluster Filters
The easiest way to do this is to dedicate two of the keys below the
Telnet window.
If you right click on the key to the right of the WWV key, a menu will
open up showing
you each key and the command it sends to the telnet node. Make the
button say:
No Skim
and the string to send:
set/dx/filter call=W1UE,KM1W or Not Skimmer and {ARRL_CW}
- set/dx/filter is the command
- call=W1UE, KM1W will pass those two calls (if you want to see when
you and some of your competition is spotted)
- Not Skimmer means you won't see skimmer spots
- {ARRL_CW} means you get stations spotted on CW frequencies
within the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10m bands
For the key below the one you just did, label the button as "Skim", and
the string to send is:
set/dx/filter call=W1UE,KM1W or Skimmer and {ARRL_CW}
The breakdown of what each means is just like the above, except that "Skimmer" now accepts Skimmer
spots.
To clear the filters, type "set/dx/filter" in the Type box at the top of
the window.
Many of the skimmers are in Europe, so Europeans on 160/80 that are
calling CQ will be picked
up far quicker using skimmer than waiting for a US station to spot
them. If you don't have a
strong station on 160/80, you may not want Skimmer spots at night.
DX Spider Filters
Skimmer spots are not available on DX Spider nodes that I could find.
If you want them and
are intent on using a DX Spider node, you can get the program WintelnetX
from K1TTT's website
and configure it to use a node and the Reverse
Beacon Network web site
to get spots from
both sources. I haven't done it and aren't sure how to do it, so no
help from here.
As above, I would set up a button to start the filter. There are
actually two filters needed:
Label the button to the right of WWV with "HF/CW" and put the string to
send as:
acc/spots on 10-cw,15-cw,20-cw,40-cw,80-cw,160-cw
To the right of the button above, label it "Rej/K" and put the string to
send as
rej/spots call dxcc 226,197 not call w1ue,km1w
You must click on both buttons to install the two different filters.
The first string accepts spots only on the bands and mode specified.
The second string rejects
spots of US/VE stations other than any calls you have listed after "not call".
To clear the filters, type "Clear/Spots all" in the type box.
Comments/suggestions/additions are welcome. It should be possible to
set up similar
buttons in WinTest, or just type the command in the entry box for the
node. Enabling
Skimmer spots will probably multiply the spots you see by a factor of 20.
When it comes time for the ARRL SSB contest, simply replace "CW" where
it appears in
any of the above filters with "SSB" and you're all set. For SSB, of
course, it doesn't make
any sense to accept skimmer spots.
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