Filter rules

A connection’s filter is a list of rules. Each rule is a field, a condition and one or more values, such as Band is 20m, 40m. A spot passes the filter when it satisfies the rules as you joined them with And and Or.

Why you’d use it

You want SOTA activators on 2m FM, plus anyone on HF from your favorite association. Two groups of rules joined by Or do it: Band is 2m And Mode is FM Or Park, summit, or location contains W4C/.

How it works

And and Or

The first rule starts with Where. Every rule after it has a Join of And or Or. And binds tighter than Or: a spot passes when it matches every rule between two Ors.

So Band is 20m And Mode is CW Or Callsign is KK4PWJ reads as “(20m CW) or KK4PWJ on anything”. The heading above the rules changes to say which you built: “Pass spots that match all of these rules”, “…any of these rules”, or, when you mix them, “And comes before Or”.

An empty filter passes every spot. A rule row with no values is ignored when you save, so an unfinished row never widens the filter. You can have up to 50 rules, up to 1,000 values in one rule and 5,000 values across the connection.

“is” and “is not”

is passes a spot that has any of the values. is not passes a spot that has none of them, including a spot that has no value for that field at all. Park, summit, or location is not US-2763 passes every DX Cluster spot, because those carry no park.

The fields

Which fields you see depends on the source. Reverse Beacon Network and Logged contacts connections have no reference or island rule, because those spots carry no reference.

Field	Conditions	Values
Callsign	is, is not	Calls you type. Press Enter after each, or paste a list separated by spaces or commas.
Callsign group	is in, is not in	One or more of your callsign groups
Goal	is in	Exactly one of your goals
Band	is, is not	160m, 80m, 60m, 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, 10m, 6m, 2m, 70cm
Mode	is, is not	Any digital, CW, SSB, FM, AM, FT8, FT4, RTTY, PSK
Park, summit, or location	is, is not, contains, does not contain	References such as US-2763 or W4C/CM-001, or text
Frequency (kHz)	is, is not, is greater than, is less than	One number in kHz, such as 14074
IOTA island (DX Cluster only)	is, is not	References such as EU-005, continents, or Any island

There are no rules for the spotter, country, grid square, comment text or US state (states come in only through a goal).

Callsign. A value matches the call as spotted or its base call. KK4PWJ catches KK4PWJ/P, W4/KK4PWJ and KK4PWJ/QRP. A value with a suffix, such as KK4PWJ/P, matches only that exact form. There are no wildcards or prefix matches: KK4 does not catch KK4PWJ.

Callsign group. Matches when the spot’s base call is a member of any of the groups you pick. Membership is live: when you edit the group, every connection that uses it changes. A Callsign group is in rule whose groups are all empty passes nothing. The helper under the rule says how many stations your callsign and group rules name.

Band. The band is worked out from the frequency. A frequency outside the amateur bands has no band.

Mode. Any digital catches every digital mode: FT8, FT4, JS8, RTTY, PSK31, Olivia, WSPR, SSTV and the generic DATA that SOTAwatch reports. SSB catches USB and LSB. The other choices match that exact mode only. PSK does not catch spots stored as PSK31 or PSK63; use Any digital for those.

Park, summit, or location with is or is not is an exact match against the spot’s POTA park, SOTA summit, WWFF reference, IOTA reference, or any of a WWBOTA spot’s bunkers. US-1000 never matches US-10000. As you type, Long Lines suggests entries from the POTA, SOTA and WWFF lists (only the one program your source carries, if it carries one). A reference that isn’t in any list still goes in when you press Enter. Values are upper-cased and must be letters, digits, / and -, up to 64 characters.

Park, summit, or location with contains or does not contain looks for your text anywhere in the spot’s references and its POTA location, ignoring case. US-NC catches every park located in North Carolina, W4C/ every summit in that association, KFF- every WWFF reference in the US.

Frequency (kHz). is is an exact match, so it is rarely what you want. Use is greater than and is less than together to cover a range: is greater than 14000 And is less than 14070 gives you the 20m CW segment.

IOTA island. A reference such as EU-005 matches that island group. A continent code such as EU matches every island on it. Any island fills in all seven continents. Spots without an IOTA reference never pass is.

Goal. Passes a spot that matches something the goal still needs: a band, a POTA park or a US state. When the goal is complete or has ended, the rule is off and passes every spot. See Goals.

Reverse Beacon Network needs a station

RBN sends hundreds of thousands of spots a day. On an RBN connection, every group of rules between two Ors must contain a Callsign is or Callsign group is in rule. Save stays disabled until it does, with the message “High volume source: at least one callsign or group is required.” A goal rule does not count, because it names no stations.

Set it up

1. In the connection editor, under Filter, select Add rule.
2. Choose the Field. Changing the field clears the row’s values.
3. Choose the Condition.
4. Enter the Values. For calls and references, press Enter after each one.
5. To add a second rule, select Add rule again and set Join to And or Or.
6. Watch the Preview card update as you edit.
7. Select Save connection.

Common setups

20m CW in North Carolina parks. Source: Parks on the Air.

Join	Field	Condition	Values
Where	Band	is	20m
And	Mode	is	CW
And	Park, summit, or location	contains	US-NC

Any digital mode, except FT8. Source: SOTA.

Join	Field	Condition	Values
Where	Mode	is	Any digital
And	Mode	is not	FT8

Friends on RBN, but only below 7040 kHz. Source: Reverse Beacon Network.

Join	Field	Condition	Values
Where	Callsign group	is in	Friends
And	Frequency (kHz)	is less than	7040

When it doesn’t work

A rule row is red. The value is not valid for that field. Examples: “Enter a frequency in kHz, such as 14074.” or “Type a reference such as EU-005, or pick a continent.”

A park I added never matches. Check the condition. is needs the exact reference; to catch a whole state or prefix, use contains.

The connection sends spots I excluded. Check the joins. Band is 20m Or Band is 40m And Mode is CW means “anything on 20m, or CW on 40m”, not “CW on 20m or 40m”. Put both bands in one Band is rule instead.

“Parks in this goal can’t match here”. The connection’s source doesn’t carry POTA parks. See Goals.