SpotCollector Online Help Contents
The checkboxes and selectors on SpotCollector's Pre-filtering window control its ability to discard certain incoming spots without adding them to its Spot Database. This can be used to eliminate CPU time and memory consumed when processing spots of active stations in which you have no interest, e.g. on a band for which you have no antenna, or using a mode family that you do not employ. Pre-filtering can be helpful in reducing the computational load from high-volume spot sources - like DX Cluster configured to convey spots from RBN Skimmers. However, Spot Database Entries populated by spots of nearby active stations not needed for awards can be used to identity propagation openings with stations with whom a confirmed QSO would advance your award progress; thus pre-filtering should be used carefully, and often episodically.
| Enable | when checked, the "discard" options are active; when not checked, no incoming spots are discarded, no matter how the "discard" options are set |
| Pre-filter Skimmer spots only | when checked, settings in the "Discard incoming spots ..." panels only apply to spots submitted by stations whose callsigns end in -# |
| Discard incoming spots of NCDXF beacons | when checked, NCDXF beacons spotted within 200 Hz of an NCDXF beacon frequency are discarded |
| Discard spots from spotting station callsigns ending in -# | when checked, spots submitted by stations whose callsigns end in -# are discarded; this suffix is used to identify spots submitted by an RBN Skimmer |
| Discard spots from spotting station callsigns ending in -@ | when checked, spots submitted by stations whose callsigns end in -@ are discarded; this suffix is used to identify spots submitted from the DX Summit web cluster |
| Discard incoming spots on selected band panel | checking a band's box in this panel will cause spots on that band to be discarded |
| Discard incoming spot in selected mode families panel | checking a mode family's in this panel will cause spots in that mode family to be discarded |
| Discard incoming spots from stations in selected continents panel | checking a continent's box in this panel will cause spots submitted by a station on that continent to be discarded |
| Discard incoming spots of stations in selected continents panel | checking a continent's box in this panel will cause spots of stations on that continent to be discarded |
| Discard incoming spots of stations in selected DXCC entities panel | setting one of this panel's selectors to a DXCC entity's prefix will cause spots of stations in that entity to be discarded; clicking the Clear button beneath a selector clear's that selector |
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Family |
Members |
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SSB |
SSB |
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AM |
AM |
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FM |
FM |
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CW |
CW, CCW |
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SSTV |
SSTV |
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RTTY |
RTTY, RTTYM |
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PSK |
PSK, PSK10, PSK31, PSK63, PSK63F, PSK125, PSK220F, PSK250, PSKAM10, PSKAM31, PSKAM50, PSKFEC31, PSKHELL, QPSK, QPSK31, QPSK63, QPSK125, QPSK250 |
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FT4 |
FT4 |
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FT8 |
FT8 |
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JTx |
JT44, JT4A, JT4B, JT4C, JT4D, JT4E, JT4F, JT4G, JT6M, JT65, JT65A, JT65B, JT65C, JT9 |
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Other Digital |
ALE, AMTOR, AMTORFEC, ASC, ASCII, ATV, CHIP, CHIP64, CHIP128, CLO, CLOVER, CONTESTI, CONTESTIA, DOMINO, DOMINOEX, DOMINOF, FAX, FELDHELL, FMHELL, FSK31, FM441, GTOR, HELL, HELL80, HELLSCHREIBER, HFSK, ISCAT, JS8, MFSK, MFSK8, MFSK16, MFSK144, MT63, OLIVIA, PAC, PAC2, PAC3, PACKET, PACTOR, PACTOR2, PACTOR3, PAX, PAX2, PKT, Q15, QRA64, QRA64A, QRA64B, QRA64C, QRA64D, QRA64E, ROS, SITOR, THOR, THRB, THROB, THROBX, TOR, VOI, WINMOR, WSPR |
| Origin | Geographic Location | |
| NA-E | the North American east coast | |
| NA-M | the North American mid-west | |
| NA-W | the North American west coast | |
| SA | South America | |
| EU | Europe | |
| AF | Africa | |
| AS | Asia | |
| OC | Oceania | |
| ? | unknown |
With Pre-filtering of any DXCC entities or continents enabled, each incoming spot is checked for the presence of an override. If an override is found for a spotted callsign, the spot is pre-filtered or not as a function of the DXCC entity and continent specified in the override. If the override specifies a continent of NA, the spot will only be discarded if the NA-E, NA-M, and NA-W boxes are all three checked in the Discard incoming spots of stations in selected continents panel.
If in SpotCollector's Pre-filtering window, the Enable box is checked, and pre-filtering governed by at least one checkbox or selector is enabled, then
the word pre-filtered will be appended to the caption of the Spot source status panel at the top of SpotCollector's main window
the word Enabled will appear beneath the Pre-filter button in the lower right corner of the Configuration window's Spot Sources tab
the word Enabled will appear beneath the Pre-filter button in the lower right corner of the Configuration window's Spot Database tab
SpotCollector's Pre-filtering window can be displayed by
clicking the Pre-filter button in the lower right corner of the Configuration window's Spot Sources tab
clicking the Pre-filter button in the lower right corner of the Configuration window's Spot Database tab
depressing the CTRL key while double-clicking the words Spot source status in the panel at the top of SpotCollector's main window