>Then later I do the following:
>SELECT mytable
>SET FILTER TO &pcCondition
>SCAN FOR &pcCondition
>...
>...
>...
>ENDSCAN

Scan for < condition > will yield same results without the filter. You may need the filter if you're moving off the scanned record within the scan loop, but otherwise Scan For will see only the records which comply to pcCondition, so you simply don't need the filter in this case. It's just overkill.