> We are seeing some 'new' cluster software, but it doesn't seem to do
> many new tricks. I haven't see AR-Cluster, but I'm told it has filtering
> capability.
Jim and gang,
We have been beta-testing version 2.0 of AR-Cluster for the last couple of
months. Version 2.0 contains advanced filtering for both the nodes and
users.
When version 2.0 AR-Clusters nodes connect to each other, they send a
packet describing how spots are filtered between the nodes. Filters can be
implemented in several ways but most of our sysops are interested in
filtering by the country and state/province of the spotter.
For example, when the K7AR node connects, he only wants to see West Coast
spots so he sets filters to limit spots to states and provinces around the
West Coast geographical area. When the K1TTT node connects he turns off
all filtering and gets both US and worldwide spots.
User filters allow individual users to further filter their spots. K7AR
runs a tight West Coast regional node filter so his users typically need no
further user filters. K1TTT runs his filters wide-open, so if some of his
users do not desire the foreign and out-of-area spots they can filter them
as needed. A user on the K1TTT node could set up filters so narrow that he
only sees spots from a single state.
Sysops can dynamically alter node to node filters as needed. For example,
during the recent ARRL SSB test, the AB5K node recorded the following
spots:
Saturday 6332 spots (peak of 475 spots per hour)
Sunday 8320 spots (peak rate of 540 per hour)
A connecting node feeding limited bandwidth RF links might want to do some
regional filtering during peak spotting periods so spots do not back up in
the slower RF systems. In the late hours of the night, when spots are
slower, the sysop can open up the regional filters as necessary.
Users can test drive version 2.0 by a TELNET connection to:
WU3V: winnt.wu3v.net or AB5K: 24.27.19.252
We are always looking for ideas for expanding the product to meet the needs
of our sysops and users so if anyone has any ideas, please forward them to
us.
73 Terry AB5K
==============================
AR-Technology
Technical support for AR-Cluster
DX spotting and contest software
Support options for AR-Cluster
email jmoore@ieee.org
listserv ar-cluster@wu3v.net
Web Page http://149.74.21.166]
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