LOGic's spotting facility includes a sophisticated and flexible filtering mechanism that you can customize to show only spots of interest to you. Chances are, you do not want all spots to be shown!

There are two types of filtering that LOGic uses: Filtering and Prefiltering. Filtering permits you to display only certain spot records of the many that may be in your spot log database, and may be changed at will, with instant results. The Show All control on the main page of the spot log controls whether spots that are not needed for an award are shown. Additionally, the filter button on the same page can be used to show only spots that meet any criteria you specify -- a certain band, mode, spots for IOTAs, etc. It works very much like the Filtering feature on the log form. It is typically turned off during normal operation, and used to search for spots of interest.

To omit spots that you are simply not interested in, LOGic uses Prefiltering. Prefiltering prevents spots from ever reaching the spot log. Unwanted spots are simply discarded.

Prefiltering starts with the Band Table. (You can access the Band Table screen from tools/setup, or from a button in the Options page of the spot log). Here, you can disable bands of your choosing altogether. Checkmark Disable This Band for bands that you never work. Disabled bands will not show in any of the awards progress displays. You will not even be able to log QSOs for these bands. Disabling a band is almost the same as deleting it from the band table. The only difference is that it is easier to put back if you later change your mind.

Of particular interest for this topic is the checkmark that says Process spots for this band. If you work 2 meters, but don't care about receiving 2-meter spots, turn off Process spots for this band for 2 meters.

The band table also permits you to choose which awards are spotted -- the heading for this feature reads Specify which spots to mark as needed for each award. On a per-band basis, you can turn off, for example, ITU zone spotting, and specify that you don't care about unworked bands or modes for DXCC -- you just care about unconfirmed countries, period. This feature does not do any filtering of spots -- it does not prevent them from being sent to the spot log. It controls only whether or not they are ever marked as Needed in the spot log. Consult LOGic's Help for more information.

If a spot makes it past band filtering, it is then processed by the Prefilter option of the spot log. This works a lot like Filtering as discussed previously, except that spots that do not make it past the filter are discarded, not merely hidden. By default, the prefilter is set to show only spots posted by stations located in your continent. After all, if you are in the USA, something heard by a station in Asia is probably not of much interest to you. This simple default prefilter is a carryover from previous versions of LOGic, which had an option entitled "Process only spots originating from your continent". However, it would make more sense to prefilter spots based on distance, say 1000 miles from you. Simply click the Filter button and fill out the form! Advanced users can even prefilter spots based on distance and band and time of day.

You can test your spotting setup with the test spot feature on the options page. Simply fill in the test spot field using the format in which a packet cluster sends the spot. A sample is provided. Note that LOGic incorporates a 5-minute timer to reject duplicate spots that may be received when monitoring a packet cluster network in discinnected mode. So be sure to change something when repeatedly using the Test Spot feature.

If for some reason you want all received spots to be displayed in the spot log, first go to the band table, enable all bands and enable spotting. Next, set the Prefilter to None. Finally, make sure that Show All is checkmarked, and that there is no filter set on the main page.