Importing ADIF and Tab-delimited Files

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The Import QSOs tabbed dialog enabled you to import QSOs from standard ADIF files: 

• Click the Start button, and use the file selector to choose the file containing the QSOs to be imported. The Progress panel provides a display of real-time statistics, as well as errors encountered

• Click the Abort button to terminate the import operation before it completes.

You can also import QSOs from non-standard ADIF files, and from tab-delimited files.

To make it easy to view newly imported QSOs, DXKeeper provides the option to automatically set the Select  item of each imported QSO set to Y.  Before starting the import operation, however, you should set the Select  item of all existing QSOs to N by clicking the Import QSO tab's  Set all Select to N button.  After the import operation is complete Invoke the Sel filter to see only the imported QSOs in the Log Page Display.

If SpotCollector is running when an import operation completes, DXKeeper will direct it to automatically update the entries in the Spot Database to reflect advances in award progress. If you are planning to import several files, it will be more efficient to unchecked the Enable automatic updates box box in the Recomputation panel on the the Spot Database tab of SpotCollector's Config window, perform the imports, click SpotCollector's Recomp button, and then check the Enable automatic updates box box.

Import Options  

Options available on this tab allow you to prevent the importing of duplicate QSOs,  import from non-standard ADIF files produced by other applications, recover or insert missing information, save errors to a file, and/or display a report showing any advances in award progress attributable to the imported QSOs:

General Options

• if you want each imported QSO's QSL_Sent_Via item set to 'B' (for "bureau") unless it specifies otherwise, check the Default to 'send via bureau' box.

• check the Deduce missing items from entity, primary subdivision, and DXCC database box to have DXKeeper fill in missing items like CONT, CQ, ITU, or ARRL Section when they can be unambiguously determined from the DXCC entity and Primary Administrative Subdivision and a DXCC database query of the imported callsign.

• check the Query Callbook and DXCC database for missing items box to have DXKeeper lookup each imported QSO's callsign in the selected Callbook and the DXCC database and fill in any items not present in the imported QSO with information from these sources; this option will be disabled if no Callbook is currently selected.

• check the Set Select in imported QSOs to Y box to have each imported QSO's Select  item set to Y, thereby making it easy to later filter the Log Page Display to contain only the imported QSOs by invoking the Sel filter; its generally appropriate to set the Select item of all existing QSOs to N before performing the import so that when the import is complete, only newly-imported QSOs will have their Select items set to Y.

• if you check the Guarantee unique start times box , DXKeeper assumes that the ADIF file being imported contains QSOs in ascending order of start time, and compares imported QSO's start time to that of its immediate predecessor; if a QSO's start time is the same or earlier than that of its predecessor's start time, the imported QSO's start time is set to that of its predecessor plus 5 seconds, time and the imported end time is set to 1 second after the start time -- thereby guaranteeing that each imported QSO has a unique start time.

• if the file you are importing contains tags contains binary data, you must either check the Ignore tags with binary data box or select Import From Logic; otherwise, DXKeeper will be unable to properly import the file

• check the Produce and Display Award Progress Report box to 

  • track all changes to award progress attributable to the imported QSOs, subject to the objectives specified in the DXCC/Top Bands & Modes panel

  • generate a report in a file whose pathname is created by appending _progress.txt to the pathname of the file being imported (over-writing any existing file with that pathname)

  • display the generated report. Award progress is subject to the objectives you've 

• check the Report import errors in error file checkbox to record all import errors in a file whose pathname is created by appending _error.txt to the pathname of the file being imported, over-writing any existing file with that pathname whether or not new errors are actually reported; note that import errors are also displayed in the Progress panel, but to a maximum of 65,000 characters

Duplicate Checking

• if you are importing QSOs into an empty log, you can uncheck the Check Duplicates on Import checkbox to improve performance; if you are importing into a populated log and wish to prevent the importing of duplicates, check the Check Duplicates on Import box and specify the range (in minutes)

  • 0 means an imported QSO must exactly match a logged QSO's begin date/time  to be considered a duplicate

  • a number larger than 0 specifies a range before and after the imported QSO's begin date/time; if a matching logged QSO's begin date/time falls in this range, the imported QSO will be considered a duplicate

• if the  Consider primary and secondary administrative subdivisions box is checked,  an imported QSO is only rejected if its primary and secondary administrative subdivisions also match

• if the  Consider gridsquares box is checked,  an imported QSO is only rejected if its gridsquare also matches

Substitution Options

If the file you are importing contains QSOs that may be missing Station Callsign, Operator Callsign, Owner Callsign, or QTH Identifier fields, use the options in this panel to populate missing items with the default values you've specified:

• check the Substitute ... for missing station callsigns box to populate missing Station Callsigns with the callsign specified in the Station callsign text box in the Default panel of DXKeeper's configuration window.

• check the Substitute ... for missing operator callsigns box to populate missing Operator Callsigns with the callsign specified in the Operator callsign text box in the Default panel of DXKeeper's configuration window.

• check the Substitute ... for missing owner callsigns box to populate missing Owner Callsigns with the callsign specified in the Owner callsign text box in the Default panel of DXKeeper's configuration window.

• check the Substitute QTH ID... box to place the specified default QTH identifier into the myQTH item of any imported QSO whose ADIF record lacks an APP_DXKEEPER_MY_QTHID tag; note that this option is only enabled if if your log contains one or more QTH definitions and you've specified a default QTH identifier

Note that

• If an imported QSO is missing a Station Callsign field but contains an Operator field, and both the Substitute ... for missing station callsigns and Replace Station Callsign with boxes are unchecked, then the contents of the Operator field will be imported as the Station Callsign

• If an imported QSO is missing an Owner Callsign field, and the Substitute ... for missing owner callsigns box is unchecked, then 

  • if the imported QSO contains a Station Callsign field, its contents will be imported as the Owner Callsign

  • if the imported QSO does not contain a Station Callsign field but does contain an Operator field, the Operator field's contents will be imported as the Owner Callsign.

Replacement Options

if you are importing a contest log, the following options may be useful:

• if you check the Station Callsign box, the Station Callsign of every imported QSO will be replaced with the specified value.

• if you check the Operator Callsign box, the Operator Callsign of every imported QSO will be replaced with the specified value.

• if you check the Owner Callsign box, the Owner Callsign of every imported QSO will be replaced with the specified value.

• if you check the Contest ID box, the Contest ID of every imported QSO will be replaced with the specified value.

• If you check the State, Province, & Section box and set the selector to its right to an ADIF tag, the field of each imported QSO designated by that tag will be inspected word by word for a Grid Square or for 

  • a US State abbreviation (if the QSO's DXCC entity is USA, Alaska, or Hawaii)

  • a Canadian Province abbreviation (if the QSO's DXCC entity is Canada)

  • an ARRL section abbreviation (if the QSO's DXCC entity is the USA, Alaska, Hawaii, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, US Pacific possessions, or Canada)

  If unambiguous, a CQ zone and ITU zone will be derived from the State, Province, and Grid Square. Any Information found in or derived from the specified field will only be utilized if field specifications are absent from the imported QSO. 

ADIF Style

While there exists a formal ADIF specification, some applications export ADIF files that are not fully compliant in ways that require foreknowledge on DXKeeper's part in order to successfully import information:

If the file you are importing contains tags that specify binary data, you must either check the Ignore tags containing binary data box or select Logic in the ADIF Style panel; otherwise, DXKeeper will not properly import the file.

Application-specific ADIF tags

The ADIF specification enables applications to define their own tags. With the ADIF Style set to Standard ADIF, DXKeeper recognizes the application specific tags of certain other applications, as described below:

Importing tab-delimited files

To import a tab-delimited file by set the ADIF Style panel to tab-delimited file before initiating the import operation. Tab-delimited files are easily created by spreadsheet applications; each row in the spreadsheet produces a line in the file, and each column in the spreadsheet is represented by a tab-delimited field in each line. For DXKeeper to successfully import a tab-delimited file,

1. the first line must contain a caption for each field, where a caption is either a valid ADIF tag, or one of the following

   • QSO_BEGIN_DATE - treated the same as QSO_DATE

   • QSO_BEGIN_TIME - the first 4 digits represent the QSO start time

   • UDF-X - treated the same as APP_DXKEEPER_USER_DEFINED_X (where X is an integer between 0 and 7)

   • any other caption will ignored, as will the data associated with its field

2. the following fields must be present

   •  CALL

   • QSO_DATE or QSO_BEGIN_DATE

   • TIME_ON or TIME_OFF or QSO_BEGIN_TIME

   • BAND or FREQ

   • MODE

3. subsequent lines must contain fields whose values comply with the ADIF specification, e.g. frequencies are represented in megahertz with the period character as a decimal separator; the following exceptions are supported

   • BAND - the trailing M character is optional; 20 and 20M are both acceptable

   • QSO_DATE and QSO_BEGIN_DATE - standard date formats like YYYY-MM-DD are accepted in addition to the ADIF standard YYYYMMDD (be careful when using MM/DD/YYYY and DD/MM/YYYY, as these are ambiguous)

   • TIME_ON and TIME_OFF - colon-delimited formats like HH:MM and HH:MM:SS are also accepted in addition to the ADIF standard HHMMSS

   • QSO_BEGIN_TIME - expects times to specified in the format HHMMZ, e.g.. 2345Z

For some users, creating a spreadsheet will be the fasted way to digitize paper logs. Before embarking down this path, set up the spreadsheet's header row, record a few test QSOs, generate a tab-delimited file, import that file into your DXKeeper log, and verify that all QSO data is being properly captured. Then large number of QSOs can be digitized with the confidence.

Interactions with other configuration settings

• If the Initialize QSL Sent to 'R' for each imported QSO box is checked, then each imported QSO's QSL Sent item will be set to 'R' unless the imported value is 'Y'

• If the WPX box is checked, the Import operation computes a WPX prefix for imported QSOs for which one is missing.

• If the Initialize eQSL Sent to 'R' box is checked, imported QSOs will have their eQSL sent field set to R. 

• If the Initialize LotW Sent to 'R' box is checked, imported QSOs will have their LotW sent field set to or R.

Other considerations

• If an imported QSO contains an ARRL Section and its DXCC Entity is specified, but is missing a US State or Canadian Province, the State or Province will be determined from the ARRL Section and DXCC Entity if the relationship is unambiguous. For example, an ARRL Section of EMA with a DXCC Entity of USA will automatically set the State to MA.

  If an imported QSO specifies a DXCC entity that formally defines a set of Primary Administrative Subdivisions and specifies a Primary Administrative Subdivision code or abbreviation in its STATE tag and if the Subdivisions box is checked on the Config window's Awards tab, then DXKeeper will

  • correct common misspellings in that primary ode or abbreviation

  • determine whether that code or abbreviation is valid. If valid, then the QSO's PrimaryInvalid item will be set to N, if invalid, then the QSO's PrimaryInvalid item will be set to Y and an error will be noted in the Progress panel. 

• If an imported QSO specifies a DXCC entity that formally defines a set of Primary Administrative Subdivisions and formally defines a set of Secondary Administrative Subdivisions specifies a Primary Administrative Subdivision code or abbreviation in its STATE tag, and specifies a Secondary Administrative Subdivision code or abbreviation in its CNTY tag, and if the Subdivisions box is checked on the Config window's Awards tab, then DXKeeper will

  • correct common misspellings in those primary and secondary codes or abbreviations

  • determine whether the secondary code or abbreviation is valid for the specified DXCC entity and primary code or abbreviation. If valid, then the QSO's SecondaryInvalid item will be set to N, if invalid, then the QSO's SecondaryInvalid item will be set to Y and an error will be noted in the Progress panel. 

• If an imported QSO specifies a DXCC entity that does not formally define a set of Primary Administrative Subdivisions, then its PrimaryInvalid item will be set to N no matter what is imported in the STATE tag; similarly, if an imported QSO specifies a DXCC entity that does not formally define a set of Secondary Administrative Subdivisions, then its SecondaryInvalid item will be set to 'N' no matter what is imported in the CNTY tag. The Broke filter can be used to filter the Log Page Display to show QSOs whose PrimaryInvalid or SecondaryInvalid items are set to Y.

• If the Secondary Administrative Subdivision imported with a QSO is inconsistent with that QSO's DXCC Entity and/or Primary Administrative Subdivision, an import error will be reported and the QSO's SecondaryInvalid item will be set to Y. You can use the Broke filter to identify such QSOs after the import operation is complete.

• The following conversions are performed automatically during import:

  • Frequencies containing two decimal points, like those exported by DXBase, will be correctly interpreted

  • the mode PSK will be imported as PSK31

  • the mode BPSK will be imported as PSK31

  • the mode BPSK31 will be imported as PSK31

  • the mode BPSK63 will be imported as PSK63

  • the mode MFSK will be imported as MFSK16

  • the modes USB and  LSB are imported as SSB.

• Information imported with a Prop_Mode tag that exceeds the field-width (8) will be appended to the Comment field. 

• When an imported ADIF record contains an APP_DXKEEPER_MY_QTHID tag, the associated QTH identifier is placed in the imported QSO's myQTH item. If the log contains no QTH definition with this QTH identifier, then a new QTH definition is created, and assigned this QTH identifier. If the imported ADIF record contains any of the following ADIF 2.0 tags, their associated data is used to populated the newly-created QTH definition: MY_CITY, MY_CNTY, MY_COUNTRY, MY_CQZONE, MY_GRIDSQUARE, MY_IOTA, MY_ITUZONE, MY_LAT, MY_LON,  MY_POSTAL_CODE, MY_STATE, and MY_STREET.

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