G'Day Bill,

Clearly there is a value, calculated by Logic, that "turned the spot red" - and now, as you say, based on color, we want to create an alert. But, that value may or may not be available to use in the filter dialogue. I will leave it to Dennis to let us know if we can get access to that value.

I have asked elsewhere what "bandmodest" figures in the filtering of spots. One can see it in the ToolTip for the filter on the spot log and in the filter dialogue. I assume the filter variable "spotbyst" is "spot by state". "bandmodest" is "band mode status" - I wonder - but what is the value??? Its numeric, but I cannot figure out what values it takes. My attempts usually end in search errors from the code.

The following seems obvious, but I will set it out anyway. We may all benefit somewhat - so I will not assume anything. Many more members VIEW the topics than reply to them.

You know what band and mode for which you need the call - the RED ones - which will tell you which bands and modes for the call.

A limitation of the "fill in the blanks" - QBE mode - query by example - filter process is that each value is limited to TWO values, and EITHER and or or of the values. Within the limitions of programming, Dennis has tried to include all the combinations we might want, but there are certainly more combinations we can create ourselves

In the filter dialogue for alert setup, fill in the blanks for the call, the mode and the bands. Make sure there are TWO values for say BAND. Now click on EDIT and you can modify the statement to what ever you want.

Change AND to OR, or add more values to expressions, just keep the expressions legal and appropriately in brackets to give a final logical value of TRUE or FALSE. Like this ...

(BAND='10M' OR BAND='20M' OR BAND='40M') AND CALL='CE0Z' AND (MODE='CW')
or
(BAND='10M') AND (CALL='CE0Z' OR CALL='VK4IU') AND (MODE='CW' OR MODE='SSB' OR MODE='DATA') AND SPOTBYDXCC='K'

Now that the "expression" is in the table for alerts. You can click on the line in the table and hand edit the expression to whatever you want. Just make sure it is a legal expression and results in TRUE or FALSE.

You can also filter out the extra spots by using "Spotbymi" - that is only alert me for a spot by someone within XX miles of me, or someone in my continent, or someone in my DXCC.

Peter VK4IU

G'Day Bill,

We are not "modifying" the program here. One cannot do that.

We are simply using the standard facility that Dennis provides. He expected us to be doing what I have described. Hence the EDIT button on the flter dialogue.

Depending on the way Dennis wrote the actual Foxpro code, the value of the "color" may not be available to us. My guess is that it will NOT be available - easily.

We will have to use the existing facilities available to us.

Perhaps I am not understanding the problem. To "cut down" the number of spots that get through your filter, you can use the "fill in the blanks" as described, and not edit anything.

Perhaps if you describe what is NOT working for you, I can be of more assistance.

Peter VK4IU

G'Day Bill,

It is early morning here. I guess it is getting darker when you are.

Yes. I think I understand. I too have to try and filter out all the spots that are occuring to get to the ones I want. In VK land, we see thousands of spots we cannot work because we are in the southern hemisphere. Spotters in the rest of the world outnumber VK/ZL spotters by hundreds to one. Let me try again.

I understand the need to keep the "COUNTRY" in the list. At some point one has to decide what one is trying to work NOW - the rest can wait. Alerts are about what you need to work now. See below - how to turn a filter OFF/ON.

The Tools, Setup, Bands form and your log field award configuration controls what gets into Logics spot log. The Alert Setup controls what of the spot log gets into the alert log. Keep in mind you can control at the Telnet cluster source what spots are sent to Logic. But that'a another story.

I am failing to see what the problem is with the ALERT SETUP filters. The Alert filter is fundamentally the same as the Spot log filter - except you can define dozens of filters, putting them in the alert setup "filter table". Each entry in the filter table is applied in turn when a spot comes in to see if an "alert" needs to be generated.

It would be fantastic, but there is NO mechanism in the alert filter setup to alert you when the spot has RED fields - that is, Logic is indicating that you need it on a band, or mode or award etc by coloring the spot field RED. To my knowledge, there is NO single value in the filter list for you to use directly - if any fields in the spot are red - alert me.

But, you can make up a filter that gets very close to "filtering on the color" - by making your own entries in the Alert setup "table of filters". It is most appropriate for working DXperitions. You can have many filters in the alert setup table, and when a spot comes in, Logic will run down each and every entry in the Alert filter table, and put the spot in the alert list if ANY filter in the table has a result of TRUE.

Clearly you cannot have an alert for a specific dxpedition and an alert for the same DXCC or country - you will get multiple alerts occurring.

If you look at the full spot list, for the DXpedition, you can quickly see which spots Logic is "coloring red" - for me right now Logic is saying I need K9W on PHONE, it is red, and 10M, it is also red. But, I have no way to test the "redness" of those values for the spot in a filter.

I turn off any filters for that DXCC or country or band or mode, and having seem Logic tell me "for what bands modes I need the call", I ADD a filter like this in Alerts, Setup ...

(CALL='K9W') AND (BAND='10M') AND (MODE='PHONE')

... now I will get the spot appearing in the Alert list and an "announcement" if I so choose. But I know that is completely useless unless someone in VK/ZL spotted K9W. So I add SpotBy to the filter like this ...

(CALL='K9W') AND (BAND='10M') AND (MODE='PHONE') AND (LIKE('VK*',SPOT_BY) OR LIKE('ZL*',SPOT_BY))

I could accomplish a more limited alert by ...

(BAND='10M') AND (CALL='K9W') AND (MODE='PHONE') AND SPOTBYKM<=1000

I can do all that with the filter dialogue - no hand editing. Except if I want THREE values for BAND, or MODE, for example.

Clearly, compared to me, there will be a lot more spotters within a 1000 kms of you than me. Think about how you can limit the spots in your situation using the values in the Alert Filter values.

I add filters to the Alert "table of filters" for each and every DX pedition, for whcih Logic is coloring the fields red, and I want to work them. It is not perfect, but adequate for my purposes, and a little simpler given my location.

There are a few tricks to make life a little easier and simpler.

If you use only the "filter dialogue" to setup the alert "table of filters", making simple changes can get a bit tedious - Logic does no "remember" the filter settings to edit them - for Dennis to parse the filter to do that is asking too much. Long ago I go used to doing simple edits to the text of the filter - that's what Dennis intended when he created the Alert Setup dialogue and made the text of the filter available to edit in Select Criteria. He even mentions it in the Help.

Alert table of filters - ON/OFF switch

Add a filter in the usual way - click PLUS. Then click on the table entry for the filter definition and edit the filter like this ...

.T. AND ( filter )

... that is ...

.T. AND ( (CALL='K9W') AND (BAND='10M') AND (MODE='PHONE') )

Now you can turn this specific alert filter OFF simply by changing the .T. to .F. like this ...

.F. AND ( (CALL='K9W') AND (BAND='10M') AND (MODE='PHONE') )

The filter always results in FALSE and no alert occurs.

Next DXpedition - copy and paste

I don't delete filters in the Alert Setup filter table. I turn them OFF. When the next DXpedition comes along, I already have a set of filters ready to use - I simply have to change the CALL. I edit the CALL, the band etc, and change .F. to .T.. My memory is as bad as most, so I always update the Description and make a detailed Comment for reference.

I just click on the filter in the list of filters, and edit the text in the Select Criteria. But, if I want to keep the existing filters, I look through the table of filters to find those I can use. I then click on the entry in the table of filters, select the expression in Select Criteria with the mouse, press CTRL C, click the PLUS to add another alert filter entry, then click in Select Criteria and press CTRL-V. Now I have a new alert filter to edit as appropriate. Mostly I only need to change the CALL. It is more complicated to describe than to do it. Try it.

One is bound to make a "typo" every now and then. Usually, Logic simply pops up an error and I click IGNORE, and correct the filter. After a little while, one gets used to making the edits. The technique saves so much time and effort I rarely use the full filter dialogue in Alerts Setup.

As usual - start with simple things and work up to more complex filters.

I would not call this "modifying the program" or "changing the database" or "fooling with the guts of Logic". It is what Dennis intended to happen. He says so in the Logic Help.

I hope I have helped. By helping I consolidate my own education, and often, learn something new.

Good DX.

Peter VK4IU

Fantastic.

Yep. 9 bands by 3 modes and over 300 DXCC makes for a lot of alerts. But surely not all those bands are open at the same time. If they are I want to move to where you are! Surely you are not working so many bands and modes at the same time.

I do not think that was the intention of the alerts process. I think it was designed for a far more narrow focus of activity. In reality, given propagation, one cannot work so many bands and modes over the same few hours.

The filter ON/OFF switch should help you there.

Have you been using the "spot log filter" and "quick filter" to advantage. I would be interested in how you use that. I have configured the options for the spot log to keep records for 36 hours and have been experimenting with what I can do with the collected data.

Even if we had a means to test for the "RED" ones, without additional filtering, that is still means a lot of alerts for the "average operator". Those with over 300 DXCC might get a few less.

One does not want to change the BANDS table too much. But, I have changed it and, more regularly, the configuration in the Telnet source cluster. I tell the cluster to only send me spots for the particular bands and modes I want to work over the next few hours - the bands that I know will be open.

I use the VE7CC program locally, connecting it to VE7CC-1. In the VE7CC program running on my PC, I turn on the Ports/Logging program feature and connect Logic to that port locally. Then I use the VE7CC program tools - point and click - to limit the flow of spots to Logic, and then in Logic I do the final filtering for the alerts. It is a very simple process once setup, and limits the BANDS changes in Logic.

It is a trick to know what to do when. To know when the DX is on the air, when on what mode and band, I use DXMonitor. It runs here 24 hours a day, and I pay it little attention. DXMonitor just accumulates the spots over time and will plot the activity of any spot. When I know I will have the time to work DX, the day before, I get DXMonitor to show me the plot for a specific DXpedition CALL, what days, when, using what frequency the DX was active, fit that into the band openings, and plan things accordingly.

That saves me hours of time.

Lets hope Dennis has something to say about "bandmodest", "mixedst", "bandst" which are in the filter dialogues but I find impossible to use to any advantage. Also, how does "thisform.spot_level" figure in the process.

Right now I have an alert filter for BANDMODEST>0 and everything is being "alerted" - red field or no red field!

Have fun. I would love to know how you are using the spot log filter to advantage.

Peter VK4IU

Hi Peter,

I currently have 329 countries confirmed. I have the remaining 11 countries entered in ALERT section like this DXCC="CY0". I have another 20 or so entries in the Alert filter section that are for countries that I have confirmed only under my old call K7RIE.

You are right, I can not work the same station on all bands in a few hour period.

I don't choose to be editing my filters all the time and yet I want to know if any station I need shows up on any HF band. That works great for countries like CY0. The only time a problem occurs is when a expedition shows up that is in the ALERT filter section and in a few hours can have a spot on most of the bands (not that I can work them everywhere there is a spot) but it lets me know where they are and when they are on.

Right now I have set my SPOT save time set to one hour. My thinking is that any spot over an hour old is likely no longer any good. In the real world If I can't see it on the screen I ignore it. I very seldom scroll down.

I also have no filters set at VE7CC (the node I typically use) since I work all modes and all bands. I do all of my filtering using the PREFILTER and the FILTER screens. Right now the only PREFILTER I have set is DIRECTION NOT EQUAL to 0. This eliminates bad spots that I receive. Bad spots almost always have a direction of 0. I have no idea how those are generated.

On the ALERT filter page I frequently add to the filter AND NOT BAND="6M" on those countries that EU works in Africa. Since I live in Washington State there is no chance for me to work into Africa from here on 6-meters. I don't have big antennas on 6 and propagation is typically nil.

I use the QUICK Filter but since it only works on spots and not on Alerts I don't often use it.

Now for the gem of your last post............ I know nothing about "Bandmodest", "Mixedst", and "Bandst". While I was looking at those in the filter window I noticed "DAYS AGO". I think that is the Days Ago you were referring to in your last post. I thought you were referring to the setting under Spots that turns a call green if you have worked it in the last NN days. I have set a days ago filter in ALERT. If it really eliminates Alerts when you have worked a station on some band/mode this is going to solve my problem. By setting it to 60 for those countries that have an expedition they will be eliminated from ALERTing when I work them. It is not encouraging however when I run a test spot with Days Ago set to less than 60 the Alert announces as normal for call I have already worked on a given frequency. It is possible that DAYS AGO does not work on test spots. I will try it on some calls that I am receiving lots of alerts on.

I will let you know what I find.

Thanks again for your help/suggestions.

FOLLOW ON

Days Ago is not working for me to stop alerts on a station I have already worked on a given band/mode. I have it set to less than 60. Does it work for you?

73,

Bill
W7OO

Hi--

I haven't read thru all this, but I am thinking that if you want to "alert" for red (needed) stuff, you shouldn't be using alerts at all, but just the basic spot announcement system.

First of all, make sure Announce All is off (Announcement tab).

Set the spot level as desired (options tab). This also controls when the spot is red, BTW. You probably want "has been worked"

Spotting of certain bands and modes is controlled from the band table. There is a button to access band setup on the Options tab.

BandST(atus) BandModeST(atus), etc:

* Fulfilled = 0
* Requested = 1
* Worked = 2
* Unworked = 3

Tnx & 73,

Dennis WN4AZY

G'Day Bill,

I am very interested in your understanding on this.

My appologies to Dennis. I found "DAYS AGO" in the help. ... and I pride myself on reading the help. Another sign I am getting "older"! The Help explains Days Ago, and says there is a "Days Ago column" but I cannot find it - yet!

After Dennis's hints - the fog has lifted. My reading of "our problem", is this ...

I have set "Spot Level" to "Count spot as needed unless - HAS BEEN WORKED" ignoring QSL status, and I can now see better what is happening with the Spotlog. The "Progress forms" now better reflect what I am seeing in the spot log. How dumb of me to miss that on the Options panel. Only "unworked" is now in my spot log. Your spot log should be really small.

Re-reading the Help for "Alerts" - the Alert system is independent of the Spot Log. So none of that is going to help you with your excessive Alerts as currently configured.

I will use Alerts as I have been doing - DXPeditions and immediate operating needs only. And will be simply using "quick filtering" the spot log to keep an eye on the bigger picture.

I have now set various filters in the Alert setup and will watch the DESCR field to see which "alerts" are triggered when - just to see what I can learn today.

There is a "five minute duplicate spot timer" - see DX Spotting help - on the spot log. It would be good if we had "the five minute timer" as a configurable variable on the Alert log as well. That would filter excessive alerts.

Thanks for your efforts Bill, Dennis. Much appreciated.

Peter VK4IU