Steve and others, We already responded to this issue a few weeks ( months ) ago. But to refresh, as those of you who kept up with the progress of LOTW for the past couple years already know, it is a work in progress and the folks involved have not exactly welcomed input from the makers of logging software. They have had their own plan and were not too interested in what others had to say. As a result, they have made some pretty big "stretches" in the way they use the ADIF file format. If they had consulted with those of us who put the ADIF specification together, they would have been told unanimously not to use the same CFM field already used for cards to report confirmations for LOTW. But they didn't and therefore there is now an issue with users not being able to use the ADIF file they produce unless the makers of logging software make "exceptions" for them in the ADIF standard. To make matters worse, there is the issue of dupe QSOs whereby somebody already has most of their LOTW QSOs logged but now want to "import" a composite of their database. They can expect to gets lots of dupes since nothing makes these unique.
Yesterday we saw a post from somebody who reported a database error for field length in their LOTW. Don't know what standard was violated in his file to cause a field length error since the field lengths are also defined in the ADIF standard. This is probably something that the LOTW folks will have to fix since it appears to violate a very basic standard. All that to simply say this. The LOTW project is a work in progress and we are watching what they are doing but don't have much say in it. When we get to looking at ADIF and LOTW for our next release, we will be looking at those things that make sense us to adapt for, and those things where the LOTW has done something really dumb in violating standards will have to be addressed by them, we will just have to see. At this moment, I don't know if we yet have any "dumb" issues, but I mention that now so that those of you who might be plugged into the LOTW project can reiterate to the LOTW decision makers to avoid violating standards that have served the amateur community very well for a number of years. And, to avoid trying to use fields that already have specific meaning for the QSL card world... if they need to invent a new field for LOTW purposes, then a prudent software designer would do so rather than causing conflicts in meaning for fields that already are in use. We think DXbase has done well in providing LOTW support as of the last release date ( May 2003 ) based on what was known about LOTW at that time. We will continue to provide the kind of feature rich and flexible enhancements that DXbase is famous for. Cheers, Jack ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Porten" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 1:50 PM Subject: RE: [DXBase] LoTW confirmations via ADIF file > Wes is right. To get all of the advantages of LOTW we need a utility to > import the LOTW adif file and only update the confirmed field correctly. > That would be both if a card had been already received or LOTW if that was > only confirmation received. > > Being the class operation they are the folks at DXBase will incorporate > that in the next release, > > Steve Porten > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://home.pacbell.net/sporten > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Wes (N7WS) and Linda [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 3:36 AM > To: Tony Cash; [email protected]; Peter Dougherty > Subject: Re: [DXBase] LoTW confirmations via ADIF file > > At 01:11 AM 11/18/2003 -0500, Tony Cash wrote: > >In a work, NO. > > Not quite. > > As I wrote earlier, you can open an empty database (I called mine lotw.mdb) > and import the .adi file into it. This will populate the log with all lotw > confirmed qsos. Unfortunately, DXB will report these as confirmed by > "card", rather than "lotw." It will also report the qslrecd date with > whatever arrl reports. > > If you wish, you can then import your regular log and have a complete log. > The downside, outside of the obvious complexity and possibilty of screwups, > is that if you have paper qsls for some qsos that are confirmed by lotw, > you've lost this info because when you import the second time, previous > records are not overwritten. > > For example, I have paper cards for several qsos with HC8N. HC8N has > submitted his logs to lotw so if I start with an empty database and import > the .adi, I load a dozen or so records that DXB will dutifully report as > confirmed by "card" on such-and-such date. > > Now if I use the DXB import to bring in the records from my "regular" log, > all of the HC8N records are ignored so I've lost any data that shows what > qsos are actually confirmed by paper cards and whether I've sent a card. > > What you do have by going through this exercise is a complete look at what > you have confirmed by both paper and lotw. > > What I now have is too many damn databases after backing up the backups > before trying another experiment. <g> > > Note: This is not a lotw problem but a DXbase issue. What we need is an > LoTW import program that looks at each existing record and if it is not > confirmed, writes confirmed by "lotw". If it is already confirmed by > "card" then it changes that to "both". It would also be nice if it > imported grid, state and iota too if those fields are empty in the log. > > Wes N7WS > > > > > >73 de Tony, KD4K > > > >My Weather Page > >http://home.adelphia.net/~tonycash/ > >My Ham Radio Page > >http://home.adelphia.net/~tonycash/kd4k/radio.html > >Sawnee Mountain (WB4GQX 147.15 +.600) Repeater Page > >http://home.adelphia.net/~tonycash/sawnee/index.html > > > >----- Original Message ----- > >From: "Peter Dougherty" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >To: <[email protected]> > >Sent: Monday, November 17, 2003 5:40 PM > >Subject: [DXBase] LoTW confirmations via ADIF file > > > > > >> Hi, > >> Can anybody advise if it's yet possible to load the ADIF file I get from > >> the ARRL's LoTW site into DXBase? I don't like to have to go in and > >> manually add each LoTW QSO if I don't have to, and since they now offer > a > >> download in ADIF format of all QSLs, that seems like the preferred way > to > >go. > >> > >> Any suggestions? > >> > >> If I try to import these records every line errors out with something > like > >> the following: > >> > >> "ERROR: HH4/W4WX The field is too small to accept the amount of data > you > >> attempted to add. Try inserting or pasting less data. HH4/W4WX 20030xxx > >> yyyy 10m USB 59 59" (where x and y are actual values of date and time) > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> 73 de Peter (W2IRT) > >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> > >> Please visit http://www.nyctrackbook.com for details of my book > >> Tracks of the NYC Subway > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> DXBase Reflector - Please visit us on the web at www.dxbase.com > >> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > >> To UNSUBSCRIBE please visit: > >> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase > >> > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > >DXBase Reflector - Please visit us on the web at www.dxbase.com > >- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > >To UNSUBSCRIBE please visit: > >http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase > > > > > _______________________________________________ > DXBase Reflector - Please visit us on the web at www.dxbase.com > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > To UNSUBSCRIBE please visit: > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase > > _______________________________________________ > DXBase Reflector - Please visit us on the web at www.dxbase.com > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > To UNSUBSCRIBE please visit: > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase >
