Various filters can be
applied in AR-Cluster to limit the DX, WWV, and Announcements and WX spots sent
to other connected nodes and users. There are four types of filters: Node
Level, User, and Upstream.
Node filters apply to all
users on the node.
DX Loop filter
The DX loop filter is always active and
removes duplicate DX spots. The last 20
minutes of DX spots are stored in memory and used to test for loops in the
system.
DX Age Filter
The DX age filter is
always active and compares the time of the spot with the node clock. Spots over 15 minutes in age are rejected.
DX CTY Spotter Filter (Cfg > Filters
> DX)
The DX CTY Spotter filter has two operating modes: CTY-Pass
and CTY-Reject. The CTY-Pass mode sends DX spots if the originating country of
the spotter is in the CTY list. The CTY-Reject mode sends DX spots if the
originating country of the spotter is not in the CTY list.
The DX CTY Spotting Node filter has two operating modes:
CTY-Pass and CTY-Reject. The CTY-Pass mode sends spots if the originating
country of the spotting node is in the CTY list. The CTY-Reject mode sends
spots if the originating country of the spotting node is not in the CTY list.
DX TOD Reject Filter (Cfg > Filters > DX-TOD)
The DX Time-Of-Day Reject filter allows the
sysop to reject spots based on time of day, continental location and frequency
band. For example, 160 and 80-meter spots
from
Duplicate DX spot filter (Cfg > Filters > DX-Dupe)
The Duplicate DX spot
filter filters a spot if it matches a previous spot in the
database by call, and is within configured delta frequency and delta time.
Self-Spot Filter (Cfg > Filters > User)
The Self-Spot Filter can be enabled to not allow
users to spot themselves
WWV
A built in WWV loop filter
removes identical WWV spots. This filter
cannot be turned off. This filter only
allows the first WWV every hour to process.
WWV CTY Spotter Filter (Cfg > Filters > WWV)
The WWV CTY Spotter Filter
has two operating modes: CTY-Pass and CTY-Reject. The CTY-Pass mode sends WWV
spots if the originating country of the spotter is in the CTY list. The
CTY-Reject mode sends WWV spots if the originating country of the spotter is
not in the CTY list.
WWV CTY Spotting Node Filter (Cfg > Filters > WWV)
The WWV CTY Spotting Node filter has two operating modes:
CTY-Pass and CTY-Reject. The CTY-Pass mode sends WWV spots if the originating
country of the spotting node is in the CTY list. The CTY-Reject mode sends WWV
spots if the originating country of the spotting node is not in the CTY list.
Announcement
A built in announcement
loop filter is always active removing duplicate announcement spots causes by
network loops.
Announcement/WX CTY Spotter Filter
(Cfg > Filters > Ann/WX)
This filter has two operating
modes: CTY-Pass and CTY-Reject. The CTY-Pass mode sends announcement/WX spots
if the originating country of the spotter is in the CTY list. The CTY-Reject
mode sends announcement/WX spots if the originating country of the spotter is
not in the CTY list.
Announcement/WX CTY Spotting Node Filter (Cfg > Filters
> Ann/WX)
The Announcement/WX CTY
Spotting Node filter has two operating modes: CTY-Pass and CTY-Reject. The
CTY-Pass mode sends announcement/WX spots if the originating country of the
spotting node is in the CTY list. The
CTY-Reject mode sends announcement/WX spots if the originating country of the
spotting node is not in the CTY list.
User Spotter Filters
allows users to narrow down the range of spots received based on the country
and state of the spotter. User filters
are documented in the User Manual. Sysops can apply user spotter filters using
the Cfg > Users (Local), selecting the users call, selecting DX spotter
filter, and setting up countries and/or states/provinces to pass or
reject. Sysops can also add their node
call in as a user and take advantage of user filters.
When a new user logs into
the system, his filters are automatically set to be off. Sysops can set up a default filter settings
for new users logging into the node by defining a user with a call of DEFAULT
and setting the filters as desired. If
the DEFAULT call exists, new users logging into the node will be assigned the
default filter settings.
Testing the Default User Filter
In this example,
a sysop in the
1.
Cfg-Users Local - delete the user DEFAULT if it exists
2.
Cfg-Users Local - delete the user AA0B if it exists
3.
Cfg-Users Local - Add a user named DEFAULT, under the DX Spotter tab, set the
spotter cty filter to -
4.
Telnet into the node as user AA0B. Answer the new user questions (Name, location). Verify the new users filters were set to the
DEFAULT filter settings. (Do a Cfg-Users Local, select AA0B and verify under the
DX Spotter tab, the spotter cty filter should be set to CTY Pass K)
5. Now
the sysop makes a dx spot DX JA1AAA 14000.1
Verify the spot is sent to the user AA0B (the spot was originated by a
6. Start
a second telnet session and log in as a non
The recent success of
AR-Cluster has added many new nodes and sources of spots into the network. We now have spots from all across the
The additional volume of
spots has required us to look at the cluster network and how we distribute
spots. We have polled several sysops
and found that their needs vary greatly.
Most East Coast nodes want only East and
The new filtering scheme
is called upstream filters because the filtering operations occur on the ARC
node passing you the spots. The new upstream filter works on both DX and
announcements spots.
The new upstream protocol
allows for the spot resolution and filtering to be done on the upstream node
side of things. Rather that have 100 to
500 nodes each calculate DX filter parameters, the ARC node receiving the spot
does the work and distributes the processed spot only to those ARC nodes
requesting spots from that region.
The upstream filter
parameters can be updated anytime and using the scheduler, can be set up to
automatically updated at certain times of the day based on sysop and user
interests. If during a contest, a system
sees the system flooding slower downstream bandwidth RF links; he can add more
restrictive filtering upstream to narrower the source region of spots.
Upstream filters are
configured on your node and then sent to the connected upstream ARC node where
the filtering operations will take place.
When establishing a new connection, your last ARC filters will be sent
at the end of the initialization using the AR18 protocol. The node you are
connecting to will also send his desired filter configuration back to you.
Filters can be changed at any time by the
sysop or scheduled in the scheduler.
Filters operations are made on the country of the spotter. Filters can also be extended to the state or
province of the spotter. Filters are applied
to both DX and Announcements. Typical
examples of upstream filters are:
Send
all spots originating anywhere in the world:
Select the Advanced AR17 protocol
Set both the Spotter Cty Filter and the State CTY
filter to OFF
Send
only spots originating in the
Select the Advanced AR17 protocol
Set the Spotter Cty Filter to PASS "K and
VE"
Set the State CTY filter to OFF
Send
only spots originating in the
Select the Advanced AR17 protocol
Set the Spotter Cty Filter to PASS "K"
Set the State CTY filter to PASS "TX, AR, OK
and LA"
In general, sysops who
connect into other nodes using the Internet will apply the same upstream
filters to all nodes that they connect into.
To simplify the process of setting upstream filters across all nodes a
new button was added to the Cfg>Nodes dialog on the Upstream Origination
Filters tab called "Apply to All Nodes". This button will apply the current Upstream
Filters to all nodes listed in the database and also apply the changes to all
directly connected nodes. In addition,
new Upstream Filters settings will be sent to all directly connected nodes.
AR-Cluster also allows for setting a Network Origination
Filter, NOF for each node (Cfg>Nodes>NodeCall>UpstreamOrgFilterTab). This allows the filtering of the node and
user traffic that you receive to be filtered by the CTY and state or
origin. For example, the AB5K node runs
wide open with node connections from all over the world . It also feeds a couple of other nodes across
town using a 1200 baud RF link. Using
the NOF filters, we only report node connections in the state of