Re: [Dx4win] V8.01 Observations (long)
Yes, Randy, I find same problem with DXCC CW statistic, that majority of checked countries is only as confirmed! So I hope it will be solved. 73, Milos, OK1MP Message: 9 Date: Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:27:57 -0500 From: Randy Farmer w...@tx.rr.com Subject: [Dx4win] V8.01 Observations (long) To: dx4win@mailman.qth.net Message-ID: 20090805012758316.fddc18...@cdptpa-omta01.mail.rr.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed I downloaded and had a look at the new version today. I don't yet have my license key, but I was able to import my version 7 log and check out some of the new features. Importing the Version 6/7 format log file into Version 8 was absolutely trouble free. I did have to re-do some of my custom Logbook Report formats to account for the new fields, but this was no problem at all. All of my Selections and Group definitions imported perfectly. I'm especially glad to see the improvements to the LOTW record keeping and the elimination of the need to explicitly filter the log by date selection to get accurate DXCC CW statistics. The testing I've done so far has concentrated on checking out the DXCC CW reporting. Unfortunately, I have found some problems. I have around 56K QSOs in my log, the vast majority being CW. The log files go back to 1965, so there are a good many CW QSOs in the log that were made prior to being eligible for CW DXCC credit. Some of these have been submitted for Mixed and Band DXCC credit. I also keep track of my DXCC records using a fairly elaborate Excel spreadsheet and make sure it's updated every time the DX4WIN log changes and/or I receive new DXCC credits from ARRL. My standard procedure is to do a quick compare of the DX4WIN DXCC Summary reports against this spreadsheet each time after importing LOTW data or making any other changes to the log. I checked out the Version 8 DXCC Summary reports and found right away that regardless of the selection made in the dropdown boxes the Summary report ALWAYS gives the stats for All Bands / All Modes. The good news is that these stats are completely accurate, including the CW numbers. I tried all combinations of the Modes and Bands dropdown choices and always got the All modes / All bands report. I then took a look at the Listing reports for various band and mode combinations.To use the Listings data, I use the Write to File option to dump the report data to csv format to import into Excel. It's disappointing that while the Listing report format has changed slightly, it STILL uses the asterisk (*) character to designate Checked status. The asterisk is a special wild card character in Excel, and directly importing the csv file makes it impossible to edit and manipulate the data -- weird things happen. This means I still need to first run the csv file through Wordpad or some similar text editor to do a search and replace of the asterisk with some other character so I can use the file in Excel. It would be real nice if the report output used some other character to show Checked status. All of the DXCC reports except for CW were completely correct. There were multiple discrepancies for CW DXCC, which upon close examination all turned out to be the result of counting pre-1975 QSOs for CW credit. If these old records were excluded from the statistics, the CW report would be totally accurate. I have taken great care in setting the Mixed, Band and Mode credit flags for these older QSOs in the log file, and none has the Mode credit flag set, yet the report claimed that they were credited for CW. Apparently the internal logic of the program looks at neither the QSO date nor the status of the DXCC Mode flag when it generates the DXCC report. So we're almost there... The Summary gets the CW statistics correct, so there's clearly some logic that runs on QSO date, but it's obviously incompletely implemented. Also regarding the Listing report, when including Deleted entities the new version sorts its output in alphabetical Prefix order without regard for whether the prefix is for a Deleted entity or not. The older versions put all the Deleteds in alphabetical order at the bottom of the prefix list, a MUCH better way to present the data. I had to immediately re-sort the imported csv files to get them in the same order as the data from Version 7. Please restore the Version 8 Listing report to the same format as the Version 7 and earlier listings! There is also some sort of internal coding error that caused me a bit of hair pulling. For some reason, while the prefix for Minami Torishima is JD1/M, the Listing report renders it as JD1/W and thus interchanges the lines for Minami Torishima and Ogasawara, JD1/O. It was no fun dealing with this until I took a close look at the report and saw the incorrect prefix. Apart from these small problems, I like the looks of the enhancements to this new version of DX4WIN. I'm looking forward to getting my license key and doing
Re: [Dx4win] V8.01 Observations (long)
Hi Randy, I do second your very accurate review. I've found the same CW problems; yes, should be nice to change the asterisk in the reports and get back the listing report to the version 7 format as well. 73 DX de PY2YP - Cesar Randy Farmer wrote: I downloaded and had a look at the new version today. I don't yet have my license key, but I was able to import my version 7 log and check out some of the new features. Importing the Version 6/7 format log file into Version 8 was absolutely trouble free. I did have to re-do some of my custom Logbook Report formats to account for the new fields, but this was no problem at all. All of my Selections and Group definitions imported perfectly. I'm especially glad to see the improvements to the LOTW record keeping and the elimination of the need to explicitly filter the log by date selection to get accurate DXCC CW statistics. The testing I've done so far has concentrated on checking out the DXCC CW reporting. Unfortunately, I have found some problems. I have around 56K QSOs in my log, the vast majority being CW. The log files go back to 1965, so there are a good many CW QSOs in the log that were made prior to being eligible for CW DXCC credit. Some of these have been submitted for Mixed and Band DXCC credit. I also keep track of my DXCC records using a fairly elaborate Excel spreadsheet and make sure it's updated every time the DX4WIN log changes and/or I receive new DXCC credits from ARRL. My standard procedure is to do a quick compare of the DX4WIN DXCC Summary reports against this spreadsheet each time after importing LOTW data or making any other changes to the log. I checked out the Version 8 DXCC Summary reports and found right away that regardless of the selection made in the dropdown boxes the Summary report ALWAYS gives the stats for All Bands / All Modes. The good news is that these stats are completely accurate, including the CW numbers. I tried all combinations of the Modes and Bands dropdown choices and always got the All modes / All bands report. I then took a look at the Listing reports for various band and mode combinations.To use the Listings data, I use the Write to File option to dump the report data to csv format to import into Excel. It's disappointing that while the Listing report format has changed slightly, it STILL uses the asterisk (*) character to designate Checked status. The asterisk is a special wild card character in Excel, and directly importing the csv file makes it impossible to edit and manipulate the data -- weird things happen. This means I still need to first run the csv file through Wordpad or some similar text editor to do a search and replace of the asterisk with some other character so I can use the file in Excel. It would be real nice if the report output used some other character to show Checked status. All of the DXCC reports except for CW were completely correct. There were multiple discrepancies for CW DXCC, which upon close examination all turned out to be the result of counting pre-1975 QSOs for CW credit. If these old records were excluded from the statistics, the CW report would be totally accurate. I have taken great care in setting the Mixed, Band and Mode credit flags for these older QSOs in the log file, and none has the Mode credit flag set, yet the report claimed that they were credited for CW. Apparently the internal logic of the program looks at neither the QSO date nor the status of the DXCC Mode flag when it generates the DXCC report. So we're almost there... The Summary gets the CW statistics correct, so there's clearly some logic that runs on QSO date, but it's obviously incompletely implemented. Also regarding the Listing report, when including Deleted entities the new version sorts its output in alphabetical Prefix order without regard for whether the prefix is for a Deleted entity or not. The older versions put all the Deleteds in alphabetical order at the bottom of the prefix list, a MUCH better way to present the data. I had to immediately re-sort the imported csv files to get them in the same order as the data from Version 7. Please restore the Version 8 Listing report to the same format as the Version 7 and earlier listings! There is also some sort of internal coding error that caused me a bit of hair pulling. For some reason, while the prefix for Minami Torishima is JD1/M, the Listing report renders it as JD1/W and thus interchanges the lines for Minami Torishima and Ogasawara, JD1/O. It was no fun dealing with this until I took a close look at the report and saw the incorrect prefix. Apart from these small problems, I like the looks of the enhancements to this new version of DX4WIN. I'm looking forward to getting my license key and doing more testing with live hardware. Thanks to Paul for a significant improvement in this new generation of
Re: [Dx4win] V8.01 Observations (long)
I too am excited that Paul finally implemented a start date for DXCC CW. I also have QSOs dating back to 1967. I have been comparing the Summary totals and the Listing totals for CW between ver 8.0 and 7.07. I personally like the way that Paul has implemented the DXCC Listing for CW. For example, I have a CW contact with ZL4OL/A from 1971 that I had submitted for DXCC Mixed and 20M Band credit. Prior versions would always attempt to submit this contact for DXCC CW credit. Now it does not. When I do a DXCC Listing for CW mode, there is an asterisk on 20M for that contact -- and that is correct since I did make a CW contact on that band -- and I want to see it since I may have submitted it for DXCC Band/Challenge credit. However, the new Listing for CW does not have an asterisk for that contact under the first column which is CW mode. And that is correct also, since it occurred prior to 1975. The Listing also works fine for Deleted Countries prior to 1975. For example, I have a number of KZ5 contacts on CW that prior versions would always try to submit for CW credit. The Listing shows asterisks on the bands on which I made those QSOs on CW, but does not show an asterisk under the CW mode column -- which is exactly the way that I would want the data displayed. Now that you explain it this way, I see your point. I was myopically trying to do stats only for DXCC-eligible CW contacts, but since there's no per band CW DXCC award there's really no point in segregating the older CW QSOs from the analysis. If you think of the asterisk as an indicator that means Don't bother submitting this one for DXCC CW as opposed to This one has already been credited for CW DXCC (a subtle but important distinction) Paul's logic all makes sense for the reasons you cite. I can and will live happily with this convention in my own offline record keeping. As you point out, the entity CW DXCC credits are correct now. I'm still trying to figure out if there's some sort of a bug in 8.01 in the Reports - Summary function, however. No matter what selections I make from the dropdown list of options I ALWAYS get the summary for All bands / All modes. Does this happen to just me (on two different installations on two different computers) or does anyone else see this problem? It for sure worked just fine in version 7 and earlier. I still do not see a way to easily submit both Lotw and Card confirmations for DXCC. I wish the Submission report would list how the contacts were confirmed -- e.g. Lotw, Card, etc. That way I could more easily separate out Lotw submissions from Card submissions when making an online submission of both types via the Lotw website. This is what originally drove me to set up separate tracking functions in Excel. Since the inception of LoTW I had nothing but troubles getting submissions together. It took work in Excel to figure out what was going on anyway, so I just started doing the whole submission thing that way. The fact that the program logic also will invariably select a Phone QSO for a Band or Mixed submission when there's a perfectly good CW QSO that could fill the same bill doesn't help, either. I'm just a CW kind of guy, and I'll always submit CW stuff when I can :) Thanks for the slap upside the head that got me out of a bad rut in my thinking. I'll now quit bellyaching about the handling of DXCC CW and enjoy the features of the new version. 73... Randy, W8FN __ Dx4win mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dx4win Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Dx4win@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
[Dx4win] V8.01 Observations (long)
I downloaded and had a look at the new version today. I don't yet have my license key, but I was able to import my version 7 log and check out some of the new features. Importing the Version 6/7 format log file into Version 8 was absolutely trouble free. I did have to re-do some of my custom Logbook Report formats to account for the new fields, but this was no problem at all. All of my Selections and Group definitions imported perfectly. I'm especially glad to see the improvements to the LOTW record keeping and the elimination of the need to explicitly filter the log by date selection to get accurate DXCC CW statistics. The testing I've done so far has concentrated on checking out the DXCC CW reporting. Unfortunately, I have found some problems. I have around 56K QSOs in my log, the vast majority being CW. The log files go back to 1965, so there are a good many CW QSOs in the log that were made prior to being eligible for CW DXCC credit. Some of these have been submitted for Mixed and Band DXCC credit. I also keep track of my DXCC records using a fairly elaborate Excel spreadsheet and make sure it's updated every time the DX4WIN log changes and/or I receive new DXCC credits from ARRL. My standard procedure is to do a quick compare of the DX4WIN DXCC Summary reports against this spreadsheet each time after importing LOTW data or making any other changes to the log. I checked out the Version 8 DXCC Summary reports and found right away that regardless of the selection made in the dropdown boxes the Summary report ALWAYS gives the stats for All Bands / All Modes. The good news is that these stats are completely accurate, including the CW numbers. I tried all combinations of the Modes and Bands dropdown choices and always got the All modes / All bands report. I then took a look at the Listing reports for various band and mode combinations.To use the Listings data, I use the Write to File option to dump the report data to csv format to import into Excel. It's disappointing that while the Listing report format has changed slightly, it STILL uses the asterisk (*) character to designate Checked status. The asterisk is a special wild card character in Excel, and directly importing the csv file makes it impossible to edit and manipulate the data -- weird things happen. This means I still need to first run the csv file through Wordpad or some similar text editor to do a search and replace of the asterisk with some other character so I can use the file in Excel. It would be real nice if the report output used some other character to show Checked status. All of the DXCC reports except for CW were completely correct. There were multiple discrepancies for CW DXCC, which upon close examination all turned out to be the result of counting pre-1975 QSOs for CW credit. If these old records were excluded from the statistics, the CW report would be totally accurate. I have taken great care in setting the Mixed, Band and Mode credit flags for these older QSOs in the log file, and none has the Mode credit flag set, yet the report claimed that they were credited for CW. Apparently the internal logic of the program looks at neither the QSO date nor the status of the DXCC Mode flag when it generates the DXCC report. So we're almost there... The Summary gets the CW statistics correct, so there's clearly some logic that runs on QSO date, but it's obviously incompletely implemented. Also regarding the Listing report, when including Deleted entities the new version sorts its output in alphabetical Prefix order without regard for whether the prefix is for a Deleted entity or not. The older versions put all the Deleteds in alphabetical order at the bottom of the prefix list, a MUCH better way to present the data. I had to immediately re-sort the imported csv files to get them in the same order as the data from Version 7. Please restore the Version 8 Listing report to the same format as the Version 7 and earlier listings! There is also some sort of internal coding error that caused me a bit of hair pulling. For some reason, while the prefix for Minami Torishima is JD1/M, the Listing report renders it as JD1/W and thus interchanges the lines for Minami Torishima and Ogasawara, JD1/O. It was no fun dealing with this until I took a close look at the report and saw the incorrect prefix. Apart from these small problems, I like the looks of the enhancements to this new version of DX4WIN. I'm looking forward to getting my license key and doing more testing with live hardware. Thanks to Paul for a significant improvement in this new generation of the program. With a little tuning it will be a great leap forward. 73... Randy, W8FN __ Dx4win mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dx4win Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Dx4win@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by:
Re: [Dx4win] V8.01 Observations (long)
Randy, I too am excited that Paul finally implemented a start date for DXCC CW. I also have QSOs dating back to 1967. I have been comparing the Summary totals and the Listing totals for CW between ver 8.0 and 7.07. I personally like the way that Paul has implemented the DXCC Listing for CW. For example, I have a CW contact with ZL4OL/A from 1971 that I had submitted for DXCC Mixed and 20M Band credit. Prior versions would always attempt to submit this contact for DXCC CW credit. Now it does not. When I do a DXCC Listing for CW mode, there is an asterisk on 20M for that contact -- and that is correct since I did make a CW contact on that band -- and I want to see it since I may have submitted it for DXCC Band/Challenge credit. However, the new Listing for CW does not have an asterisk for that contact under the first column which is CW mode. And that is correct also, since it occurred prior to 1975. The Listing also works fine for Deleted Countries prior to 1975. For example, I have a number of KZ5 contacts on CW that prior versions would always try to submit for CW credit. The Listing shows asterisks on the bands on which I made those QSOs on CW, but does not show an asterisk under the CW mode column -- which is exactly the way that I would want the data displayed. I also like the new band map. I still do not see a way to easily submit both Lotw and Card confirmations for DXCC. I wish the Submission report would list how the contacts were confirmed -- e.g. Lotw, Card, etc. That way I could more easily separate out Lotw submissions from Card submissions when making an online submission of both types via the Lotw website. But I am placing my order for 8.0 tonight! Dave, N4QS - Original Message - From: Randy Farmer w...@tx.rr.com To: dx4win@mailman.qth.net Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 8:27 PM Subject: [Dx4win] V8.01 Observations (long) I downloaded and had a look at the new version today. I don't yet have my license key, but I was able to import my version 7 log and check out some of the new features. Importing the Version 6/7 format log file into Version 8 was absolutely trouble free. I did have to re-do some of my custom Logbook Report formats to account for the new fields, but this was no problem at all. All of my Selections and Group definitions imported perfectly. I'm especially glad to see the improvements to the LOTW record keeping and the elimination of the need to explicitly filter the log by date selection to get accurate DXCC CW statistics. The testing I've done so far has concentrated on checking out the DXCC CW reporting. Unfortunately, I have found some problems. I have around 56K QSOs in my log, the vast majority being CW. The log files go back to 1965, so there are a good many CW QSOs in the log that were made prior to being eligible for CW DXCC credit. Some of these have been submitted for Mixed and Band DXCC credit. I also keep track of my DXCC records using a fairly elaborate Excel spreadsheet and make sure it's updated every time the DX4WIN log changes and/or I receive new DXCC credits from ARRL. My standard procedure is to do a quick compare of the DX4WIN DXCC Summary reports against this spreadsheet each time after importing LOTW data or making any other changes to the log. I checked out the Version 8 DXCC Summary reports and found right away that regardless of the selection made in the dropdown boxes the Summary report ALWAYS gives the stats for All Bands / All Modes. The good news is that these stats are completely accurate, including the CW numbers. I tried all combinations of the Modes and Bands dropdown choices and always got the All modes / All bands report. I then took a look at the Listing reports for various band and mode combinations.To use the Listings data, I use the Write to File option to dump the report data to csv format to import into Excel. It's disappointing that while the Listing report format has changed slightly, it STILL uses the asterisk (*) character to designate Checked status. The asterisk is a special wild card character in Excel, and directly importing the csv file makes it impossible to edit and manipulate the data -- weird things happen. This means I still need to first run the csv file through Wordpad or some similar text editor to do a search and replace of the asterisk with some other character so I can use the file in Excel. It would be real nice if the report output used some other character to show Checked status. All of the DXCC reports except for CW were completely correct. There were multiple discrepancies for CW DXCC, which upon close examination all turned out to be the result of counting pre-1975 QSOs for CW credit. If these old records were excluded from the statistics, the CW report would be totally accurate. I have taken great care in setting the Mixed, Band and Mode credit flags for these older QSOs in the log file, and none has the Mode
