[Dxspider-support] DX spot filtering

[Dirk Koopman]

On Tue, 2006-02-14 at 12:23 +0000, Klaus Heintzenberg wrote:
> Hi Dirk.
> 
> Thank you for working on the filtering of the callsign field of
> the DX spots.
> 
> There are some more useless 'callsign strings' to be ignored in
> case you like to work on that any more.
> 
> 1.   Number of characters: Minimum 3
> 2.   At least one character MUST be numerical
> 3.   Only characters:  A..Z, 0..9 and /  NOTHING ELSE
>      (no !!!  no ????  no ---  etc    3Y0X? is no callsign)
> 4.   Strings in the callsign field should resemble an amateur radio
>      callsign

Klaus

Thank you for the summary. I appreciate it (especially the exceptions).

However, there is a problem, which goes something like this:-

Who are we providing the service for and what do they want out of it?
Especially as it is the *exceptions* (the special cases) that are
particularly interesting.
 
I don't have a problem with limiting the character set (although I would
include the character '-'), I *do* have a problem with checking that it
is a valid callsign. 

Whilst I appreciate that HF users have a particular view, I (for
instance) have had a lot more to do with VHF and above. I know that many
things that interest VHF operators, seem to infuriate HF users. I have
never been able to understand why. Things like VIDEO, MUF etc etc.

Also it seems to me a perfectly rational thing to spot uncertainty (so
long as it does not become a habit) - particularly in the case of
stations such as 3Y0X. Someone else in the world may be in a better
position to provide certainty, if they are given this clue to know where
to look. So the judicious use of a trailing '?' seems reasonable.

I could easily impose "is_callsign($call)" checking, it is used
elsewhere, but I am afraid that I am reluctant to be (anything like) as
strict as you would want.

In the end: common sense and education must be the way to control what
appears in the data passed around the cluster. I can only do so much to
control that by program. Anything that I do to impose over strict
restrictions will make people either attempt to get around it (eg:
V1DEO) else stop them doing spots at all. 

So, right now, I will look at restricting the character set a bit (more)
but otherwise leave it alone. 

Sorry

Dirk G1TLH
-- 
Dirk Koopman <djk at tobit.co.uk>