[RTTY] Skimmer Spotting S&P Stations (a little long)

[Pete Smith N4ZR]

Following this whole discussion about S&P stations being spotted as 
runnersled me to wonder whether logging software couldn't do more to 
address this.  For example, N1MM+ (and Classic before it) always 
replaceeach spot of a station with the next one on the same band. To be 
sure, that isn't any help if an S&P station is DXing the contest and 
only calling stations very occasionally, or on different bands, but for 
the rest of them, it should help a lot.

Something else that occurs to me - how many people using Skimmer spots 
have set their logging programs' spot time-out interval to 11 minutes or 
less?  Back when we dealt with human spots, I'll bet most people used 
30-45 minute timeouts, but with Skimmer spots, an 11-12 minute timeout 
should help clean up the bandmap.

That said, I suspect many people are like me, and use tools like N1MM+'s 
Available Mults and Qs window, sorted by arrival time, and try to grab 
stations as soon as they're spotted. I find this to be a real key to 
maintaining a 100+/hr rate S&Ping, because you can often be the first 
caller. However, by the time a mis-identified S&Per's spot disappears 
from the list, it's too late. That can mean that the station you pounce 
on won't be there, but another one may be, so you have to be careful not 
to be calling someone you've already worked.

For me, that leads to considering tools like CT1BOH's skimquality 
filters. I had an exchange with him yesterday, and he provided the 
following explanation of how that might work:

He says [slightly edited for anaudience less familiar with his work]:

    Every time a spot arrives in the [DX cluster's] database
    (call/time/freq), the program [AR Cluster V6] will look for each
    call, the frequency and time and add a counter.  If the counter
    reaches 3, frequency does not change +/- 0.35 KHz and time is within
    25 minutes, then that call will be tagged "V" meaning Valid or
    Good.  Once a call has been tagged V, if there is another spot of
    that call at a frequency greater than +/- 0.35 KHz from the last
    valid one, then that spot will be tagged Q or QSY?.  This re-starts
    the counter.  If it is a legitimate CQer who has moved, the station
    will quickly get another Q, then another, at which point it will be
    re-tagged V [and any previous spots on your bandmap will be removed,
    presumably, by your logging program].  If it was not a runner
    changing frequency or a bad spot, continuing good spots will keep
    the correct spot in the V category and therefore alive on the bandmap.

What Jose is saying is that by letting only ? (not yet validated) and V 
(validated) spots through to your logging program, you can clean up your 
bandmap considerably.  You could also just let V spots through, at the 
cost of some small delay in spots' appearance.

Why not give it a try and see if it's worth adding to your toolbox?  You 
can find a list of DX clusters using AR Cluster V6 at 
http://www.dxcluster.info.

-- 

73, Pete N4ZR
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