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 switchAdd 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 pasteI 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
Peter VK4IU
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