Checking Award Progress

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In DXKeeper reporting award progress and tracking award progress involve two different mechanisms. 

Reporting is accomplished by scanning each QSO in the Log Page Display to generate a classic Progress Report, which can be viewed and saved to a file for future reference. This approach is flexible because the Log Page Display can be filtered before generating the report, for example  to contain QSOs made during a particular time interval, or from a particular location, or on a particular band, or in a particular mode. DXKeeper can generate progress reports for all supported awards. However, scanning the Log Page Display takes time proportional to the number of QSOs present. Even the few seconds required to scan a small log is too long when the goal is to determine whether an incoming DX spot is needed.

To provide a way of instantaneously indicating whether a QSO is needed for an award, DXKeeper provides realtime award tracking for the ARRL DXCC, Top List,  and CQ Worked All Zones (WAZ) families of awards. This service requires DXKeeper to take into account any modification to a already-logged QSO that might alter an award's progress. Updating award progress by scanning every QSO in the log -- referred to as recomputation -- is a lengthy process. To avoid recomputation whenever a an already-logged QSO is modified, DXKeeper employs a technique known as automatic recomputation in which only the relevant subset of all logged QSOs is scanned; this is usually fast enough to be invoked automatically rather than require explicit invocation by the user. None-the-less, DXKeeper can be directed to temporarily disable automatic recomputation when the user intends to make many progress-affecting changes to logged QSOs, after which award progress can be updated with a single  recomputation. When a log is created, realtime award tracking for the ARRL DXCC and TopList awards is automatically provided. By default, realtime award tracking for CQ Worked All Zones (WAZ) awards is not provided in a newly-created log, but the user can direct DXKeeper to provide it; the user can later direct DXKeeper to remove realtime award tracking for WAZ awards if desired. 

Realtime award tracking information can be viewed and queried in DXKeeper's Realtime Award Tracking window; its DXCC, Challenge Top tab displays this information for the ARRL DXCC and Top List awards, and its WAZ tab displays this information for the CQ WAZ awards,

The awards for which DXKeeper provides progress reporting have differing requirements as to which items must be recorded with a QSO in order to properly determine credit. A table describing the requirements for each supported award is provided here.

The Main window's Check Progress tab provides the ability to

Generating Award Progress and Submission Reports

DXKeeper can generate a wide variety of award progress and submission reports. The format of all dates used in these reports is specified via the Date Format panel on the Config window's Reports tab. Generated reports are placed in files in DXKeeper's  Reports sub-folder with filenames constructed from your callsign, the report name, and the report date, e.g.

Generated reports are saved as text files unless otherwise noted to produce files in HTML or CSV (comma-separated values) formats. After generating a progress report file, DXKeeper will display the report using the default viewer application for the file type assigned in Windows; typically, this assignment is

You can alter these assignments using the File Types tab in the Folder Options window, which appears when you click the Folder Options... item in Windows Explorer's Tools menu.

Most reports consider only QSOs in the Log Page Display, thereby enabling you to produce band-specific, mode-specific, or timeframe-specific reports by appropriately setting the Log Page Filter. If you have operated from more than one location, filter the Log Page Display to contain only QSOs made from locations valid for the award whose progress is being reported. The Card Aging reports consider all QSOs in the Log Page Display regardless of filter.

 

The Main window's  Check Progress tab provides panels from which reports can be generated for families and groups of awards:

DXCC, DXCC Challenge, & TopList 

If you have more than one DXCC account, or if invoking the Verification function produces a "Downloaded DXCC Verification file specifies no linkage to DXCC record" message, you can determine the correct DXCC Account Number by using this procedure

  1. Using your web browser, navigate to https://p1k.arrl.org/lotwuser/awards?awg_id=&ac_acct=

  2. Log in with your  LotW username and password

  3. Click the Awards tab

  4. Under the Your LotW ARRL DXCC (DX Century Club) Account(s) heading on the left, use the "pulldown" selector to choose a DXCC account, and then click the Select DXCC Award Account button beneath the selector.

  5. Your browser will display a table summarizing your DXCC Account Status

    • If a hyperlink named View Award Credit Matrix appears beneath this table, then examine the URL your browser is displaying; it will look like

    https://p1k.arrl.org/lotwuser/awardaccount?awardaccountcmd=status&awg_id=DXCC&ac_acct=n

    Where the above URL shows n, the selected DXCC account's account number will appear. Specify this DXCC account number in the Log Settings panel on the Config window's Log tab.

    • If a hyperlink named View Award Credit Matrix does not appear beneath this table, then you must first link your LotW account to your DXCC record before you can proceed further:

      • Click the Link Account hyperlink in the Notes section to the left of the Account Status table

      • Your web browser will display a Link Account page, in which you must specify the current callsign and any past callsigns associated with your DXCC record

      • After specifying the appropriate current and past callsigns, click the Request linking hyperlink

      • Your link request will be submitted to the ARRL; when you receive notification that this request has been processed, repeat steps 1 through 5 above to determine the DXCC Account number to specify in the Log Settings panel on the Config window's Log tab.

If your PC is not directly connected to the internet, you can configure DXKeeper to prompt you to download the required web page from an internet-connected PC and copy the resulting file to a specified location on your PC.

CQ WAZ

 

CQ WPX

 

IOTA

 

CQ DX Marathon

 

CQ DX

 

WAC reports

 

VUCC reports

 

Maidenhead reports

 

North American progress reports

 

JARL progress reports

Other progress reports

 

SRR Russian Oblast reports

 

RDA Russian District reports

Additional Reports and Functions

filter Band='160m'
report us_states c:\program files\dxlab suite\dxkeeper\reports\us_states_160.txt

filter Band='80m'
report us_states c:\program files\dxlab suite\dxkeeper\reports\us_states_80.txt

filter Band='40m'
report us_states c:\program files\dxlab suite\dxkeeper\reports\us_states_40.txt

filter Band='20m'
report us_states c:\program files\dxlab suite\dxkeeper\reports\us_states_20.txt

filter Band='15m'
report us_states c:\program files\dxlab suite\dxkeeper\reports\us_states_15.txt

filter Band='10m'
report us_states c:\program files\dxlab suite\dxkeeper\reports\us_states_10.txt

 

Generating and Processing a DXCC Submission

In the DXCC, Challenge, TOP panel, clicking the Submission button displays the DXKeeper DXCC Submission window, from which you can assemble a DXCC Submission -- a set of confirmed but unverified QSOs to be submitted to the ARRL's DXCC desk -- and generate the required DXCC Record Sheet to accompany your award application. A QSO is considered to be included in your DXCC Submission if either its QSL Rcvd or LotW Rcvd items are set to S. You can manually add a QSO to your DXCC Submission by setting either of these items to S using the Main window's QSO panel or Online QSO panel; you may find filtering the Log Page Display (especially with the Advanced Logs Sorts, Filter, and Modifiers window) and generating Log Reports helpful in choosing QSOs to be submitted. Alternatively, the Assemble Submission function described below automatically expands your DXCC Submission to include all confirmed QSOs whose verification would advance your DXCC progress on the bands and modes selected in the DXCC/TOP Bands & Modes panel, choosing between QSL cards and LotW credits as directed by settings in the DXCC Submission panel. Note that the View Submission, Create Planning Report, Create Card Record Sheet, Create LotW Record Sheet, Verify Submission, and Reset Submission functions can all be used whether you assembled your submission manually, or by invoking Assemble Submission.

 

Realtime Award Tracking for DXCC and TopList

Realtime award tracking information for the ARRL DXCC and TopList award families is displayed on the Realtime Award Tracking window's DXCC, Challenge, Top tab. This information consists of by-mode and by-band progress for each DXCC entity based on every QSO in the current log file. Confirmations via QSL card  and LotW (in QSL_Rcvd and Lotw Rcvd respectively) are both considered in determining progress; if you check the Include eQSL.cc confirmations... box, confirmations via eQSL.cc will also be considered in determining progress.

The Award Progress panel displays a Progress Grid with one entry per DXCC entity; its Progress Details sub-panel displays a Progress Details Grid for the currently-selected Progress Grid entry. Cells in the Progress Grid contain codes showing the confirmation status of the entity, bands, and modes; cells in the Progress Details Grid contain codes showing the confirmation of band-mode combinations. The codes used in both grids are identical:

If either of a QSO's QSL_Rcvd or LotW Rcvd items are set to I, then the QSO is considered invalid for award tracking purposes. If both of a QSO's QSL_Rcvd and LotW Rcvd items are set to X, the QSO is considered to be unconfirmable and thus treated for award tracking purposes as if it did not occur. If the Include eQSL.cc confirmations... box is checked, then an I or X in the QSO's eQSL Rcvd field has an equivalent effect. 

If the DXCC award objectives indicate that a mode is sought, but there are no confirmed QSOs with the currently-selected Progress Grid entry in that mode, then the background of that mode's cells in the Progress Details Grid will be white rather than the window's background color. Similarly, if the DXCC award objectives indicate that a band is sought, but there are no confirmed QSOs with the currently-selected Progress Grid entry on that band, then the background of that band's cells in the Progress Details Grid will be white rather than the window's background color.

If you change the  Include eQSL.cc confirmations... setting, the Progress Grid, Progress Details Grid, and other reports will not reflect the change until you invoke the Recompute function.

Note that RTTY mode progress includes credit for PSK31 QSOs. RTTY mode progress also includes QSOs in any other digital modes designated as eligible for DXCC RTTY credit via DXKeeper's user-defined mode mechanism. 

Both the Progress Grid and the Progress Details Grid are live -- you can navigate among them and your log by selecting entries or double-clicking cells:

The Award Progress panel's Award Progress Filter panel contains a set of controls that let you filter the Progress Grid to show what's unworked, what's worked but not requested, what's requested but not confirmed, what's confirmed but not verified, and/or what's verified -- on any band and mode, or on specific band-mode combinations. You can also choose whether or not to include DXCC entities that are no longer current. Only Progress Grid entries that match the criteria set in these controls are visible; the number of matching entries is shown in the Award Progress panel's caption. 

Note that filtering the Progress Grid has no impact on DXKeeper's ability to track awards progress; such progress will be accurately tracked whether all DXCC entities are visible in the Progress Grid or not.

The Progress Grid and Progress Details Grid are incrementally updated when

When enabled, DXKeeper will automatically update the Progress Grid and Progress Details Grid when you 

This update is accomplished by reviewing all QSOs with the DXCC entity of the deleted or modified QSO; this is generally much faster than clearing the Progress Grid and rebuilding it by scanning every QSO in the log, as performed by the Recompute function. DXKeeper displays a small dialog box with a progress bar whenever it is recomputing progress for a specific DXCC entity. If you plan to delete or modify several QSOs, however, it may be faster to disable automatic progress recomputation, make the changes, and then perform a Recompute to rebuild the log's Progress Grid.

The Summary button in the Award Progress panel computes and displays a summary of progress towards the ARRL DX Century Club award (DXCC), the ARRL DX Century Club Challenge award , and the Top List award; this summary considers both QSL card  and LotW  confirmations. The results appear in a separate DXCC Summary window, within which

 

Realtime Award Tracking for CQ WAZ

Realtime award tracking information for the CQ Worked All Zones award family is displayed on the Realtime Award Tracking window's WAZ tab. This information consists of by-mode and by-band progress for each CQ zone based on every QSO in the current log file. Confirmations via QSL card  and eQSL.cc (in QSL_Rcvd and eQSL Rcvd respectively) are both considered in determining progress, but eQSL.cc confirmations only count if they come from an Authenticity Guaranteed member.

The WAZ Award Progress panel displays a WAZ Progress Grid with one entry per CQ zone; its CQ Zone Progress Details sub-panel displays a  Progress Details Grid for the currently-selected Progress Grid entry Cells in the Progress Grid contain codes showing the confirmation status of the CQ zone, bands, and modes; cells in the Progress Details Grid contain codes showing the confirmation of band-mode combinations. The codes used in both grids are identical:

If a QSO's WAZVerified item is set to I, then the QSO is considered to be invalid for WAZ awards. If a QSO's QSL_Rcvd or eQSL_QSL_RCVD item is set to X, the QSO is considered to be unconfirmable and thus treated for WAZ award tracking purposes as if it did not occur.

Both the Progress Grid and Progress Details Grid are live -- you can navigate among them and your log by selecting entries or double-clicking cells:

The WAZ Award Progress panel's WAZ Award Progress Filter panel contains a set of controls that let you filter the WAZ Progress Grid to show what's unworked, what's worked but not requested, what's requested but not confirmed, what's confirmed but not verified, and/or what's verified -- on any WAZ band, or in any WAZ mode. Only WAZ Progress Grid entries that match the criteria set in these controls are visible; the number of matching entries is shown in the WAZ Award Progress panel's caption. To generate a report showing all CQ zones shown by the specified filter, click the WAZ Award Progress Filter panel's Report button; to reset the filter so that all WAZ Progress Grid entries are visible, click the All button. Note that filtering the WAZ Progress Grid has no impact on DXKeeper's ability to track awards progress; such progress will be accurately tracked whether all CQ zones are visible in the WAZ Progress Grid or not.

 

DXCC Database

DXKeeper includes a comprehensive DXCC database, which it uses to lookup DXCC prefixes and country codes, and to initialize log file progress grids -- when a log file is first created, or when you click the Recompute button. You can always obtain an up-to-date DXCC database by downloading www.dxlabsuite.com/dxview/DXCC.exe  and extracting its contents (the file DXCC.mdb) into your DXKeeper Databases subfolder. The pathname and version of the DXCC database currently in use is displayed in the DXCC Database panel on the Configuration window's Databases tab.

You can maintain your own DXCC database using the application DXView, a freeware application that displays DXCC info and country maps, and plots spots, beam headings, solar position, and the solar terminator on a world map. If, when DXKeeper starts, it finds DXView installed on your PC, DXKeeper uses DXView's DXCC database, ignoring its own. Thus DXCC database updates you make with DXView are accessible to DXKeeper with no further action on your part.

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