Southeastern DX Club 50th Contest Logger

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Page 1 Version 1.9b Date: 09/20/2008

Southeastern DX Club 50th Contest Logger

Revised: September 20, 2008

DX50th was written specifically for the SEDXC 50th Anniversary Contest. DX50th is a DOS program that will run in window on any version of Windows. It’s not yet been tested on Vista but I’m confident it will run with it. I developed it on WinXP. DX50th is distributed as a .ZIP file.

Installing DX50TH

First, you create the folder c:\DX50th and then unzip the contents of

DX50TH.zip into that folder. You don’t have to use the c: drive but you MUST

put it into a folder named \dx50th off the root of some drive ; like c:\dx50th or d:\dx50th or e:\dx50th etc. AND_{if you don’t use c:, you have to edit the}

small (trex).cfg file in c:\dx50th to reflect the new drive letter on two lines. It’s better just to put it on c:, I’m thinking.

Copy the tiny DX50TH file (no suffix or .lnk or .pif suffix) to your desktop and double-click it. This icon will be the way you start the program (every time).

NOTE: If you chose to put the \dx50th folder on other than drive C:, you’ll need to edit the desktop icon to point to the drive letter you used. Right-click on the icon, click properties, choose the “Shortcut” tab and change the two instances of “c:” to the drive letter you chose when unzipping dx50th.zip above. This is in addition to editing (trex).cfg as mentioned above.

When you start DX50TH, you’ll see the logo screen (above); just press any key to proceed.

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Page 2 Version 1.9b Date: 09/20/2008 A few words about the T-Rex standard interface

The screen is divided into four separate areas that are used consistently from screen to screen and application to application. If you take a few minutes becoming familiar with the next few paragraphs, everything should go smoothly. The Title line contains the date in the upper left corner, the “screen name” in the upper right and the program title in the center.

The Display area is a 16-line area used to show information that the

programmer (me) thinks you’d like to see. It’s white on blue. As a convention, information displayed there is in yellow if it’s data that you entered or can change. “Bright white” and reverse type are sometimes used to get your attention.

The Entry/message line is where you communicate with the program. If the program needs information from you, the prompt will be displayed there. Sometimes a message is displayed there as well.

The “SPCL KEYS” (Special keys) line shows which of several defined

keyboard keys are displayed – when they are active. Special keys are always white on red, simulating key-tops. If displayed, pressing one causes a specific, consistent function to be performed. These are the keys that might be displayed there.

is the Enter key. After typing, you hand that info off to the program by pressing this key.

is the “go back a step without doing anything” key.

is the Help key; if shown, when you press it you should get a screen of help (in the Display area).

is the “panel accept” key. It’s used to safely finish up the application and return you to the Command Prompt window

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Page 3 Version 1.9b Date: 09/20/2008 Also, I use the “white-on-red key-top” thing in the Entry/message area to

indicate individual letters to press for program functions. More about this soon. DX50TH works both for members of the SEDXC (who are permitted to work any station) and non-members who work only SEDXC members. This is the first screen you’ll see:

You can press to get a screen of help. You can press to exit. If you are a member of SEDXC, you’d answer “y” for “yes” and see this confirming screen:

You’d confirm the “OK?” prompt by typing “y” and you’ll see two screens asking you to choose which logging method you want to use. In a minute, we’ll show you the screens that you’d see if you chose “I’m NOT a member of SEDXC”. But for now we’ll discuss the two different operating styles that DX50TH supports:

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Page 4 Version 1.9b Date: 09/20/2008 Choosing the operating mode

You have a choice regarding how much information you want to enter to record a QSO. To just use DX50th for scoring the Contest, you only need to enter

callsigns. But if you wish to import the resulting log file into your regular logging program, you may wish to also record the exchange. For this contest, the exchange is Signal Report and Name(handle).

DX50th gives you a choice of which Style you want to use. Style 1, entering only callsigns (which we’ll call “Contest Style”) is obviously much quicker; Style 2, entering callsign, report and name (which we’ll call “Logging Style”) captures more information but takes more operator effort.

Once you select an operating Style, that’s the way the program will work for the entire contest.

The program walks you through these choices:

You may type “1” for the high-speed, callsign only “Contest Style” or “2” for the “callsign, report and name “Logging Style”. First we’ll show what happens if you choose “1”:

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Page 5 Version 1.9b Date: 09/20/2008 You see the above confirming screen; you’d reply “y” to accept and move on. If you’d typed “2” on the screen above, you’d see this:

Typing “y” would confirm those responses. Either way, you’ll next see this screen:

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Page 6 Version 1.9b Date: 09/20/2008 This is where you provide a file name for your log file. Note that the Title line shows “(Member)” reminding you of your choice. We’ll come back to this, but first let’s see what happens if you answered “n”o to the “Are you a SEDXC member?” question on the earlier screen:

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Page 7 Version 1.9b Date: 09/20/2008 If you type “y”es to the “OK?” prompt you’ll see:

Note that the Title line shows “(Non-Member)” reminding you of your choice. We’ll stay in non-member mode for a few screens.

Choosing a file name:

The file name for your log file It can be anything you like (up to eight letters or numbers, NOT case-sensitive). I suggest using your callsign.

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Page 8 Version 1.9b Date: 09/20/2008 Using DX50TH:

For this example, I’ll type w4gkf and press :

The next screen asks you to confirm the file name you chose:

Press “y” to accept, “n” to reject or to provide another. Once you’ve chosen the file name and approved it, you’ll see this:

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Page 9 Version 1.9b Date: 09/20/2008 Notice the file name you chose is now seen in the Title area.

Here are four screens further describing the information displayed:

In the upper-left corner are seven counters which hold the number of Qs for each band. They are dynamically updated as you enter Qs:

Directly beneath the band counters is a grid showing which bands and modes for which you’ve earned multipliers. When you work at least one QSO for a

band/mode, the letter “Y” will appear at the junction of band and mode. This grid is updated dynamically as you enter Qs:

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In the upper-right corner are three counters which hold the number of Qs for each mode. They are dynamically updated as you enter Qs:

Beneath the mode counters are counters holding total number of SEDXC member QSOs worked (based on them signing “/50”), total Qs, total multipliers and total score. They are dynamically updated as you enter Qs:

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In the Entry/message area you’re being asked to enter the band you’ll be starting on:

The SEDXC DX50th Contest uses 6, 10, 15, 20, 40, 80 and 160 meters only. We’ll start on 20M by typing 20 and pressing :

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Notice the band is now shown at the bottom-left corner of the Display area. Now you’ll choose your mode. DX50th permits CW, Phone and RTTY or any of the digital modes (all treated the same). Type c to pick CW, press :and you’ll see this screen:

Notice the mode is now shown at the bottom right corner of the Display area. Since we chose “Contest Style” earlier, the above is the working screen you’ll be using from now on; you’ll only see the Band or Mode change screen when you elect to, well, change Band or Mode (duh!).

In the Entry/message area you can type callsign or one of the letters that selects another function. Here are your choices:

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Press the letter b to change band

Press the letter d to do a pre-logging dupe-check Press the letter m to change mode

Press the letter s to show the contacts you’ve logged so far

Note: If you ever have to delete a QSO that you’ve just entered, the letter xxxx will also appear on this line to let you view the “L”ast deleted record.

In the heat of the contest, you may not remember what these letters mean. You could always refer back to the manual – but if press the key, the

program will show you a help screen with the definitions. Like this:

A bit later we’ll show how this screen is different if you chose “Logging Style”. Since we’re using (Non-Member) mode, you can only type callsigns that end with “/50”. Callsigns are edited to make sure that there is at least one number and one letter in the entry and that it is at least four characters long; it does NOT further edit the callsign. If you enter all letters or all numbers, the program will beep and ask for another entry.

Since we’re in “Contest Style” now, all we’ll be entering are callsigns.

Let’s work N4NX/50 as our first contact. You never have to worry about upper or lower case, either way works and the program translates to uppercase for you. Type n4nx/50, press and you’ll see:

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Since N4NX/50 is a new callsign on this band and mode, the QSO has been logged and we’re ready for the next QSO. Easy, huh?

The 20M Q and CW Q counts have been updated and the Band/Mode Multiplier grid has been updated to show that you now have 20M/CW multiplier credit. Total Qs, multipliers and score are updated as well. And, since N4NX is a SEDXC member, the SEDXC Member count has been updated.

Notice that entire log entry is displayed as “Last logged” in the Display area (so if you look away and then back, you’ll see where you were).

If you had typed only n4nx (and not n4nx/50), the program would have beeped and refused to accept the entry. Remember that in (Non-Member) mode, only SEDXC members may be worked.

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Let’s work a few more. We’ll work K4DLI/50:

The 20M and CW Q counts are updated as are Total Qs and score and SEDXC Member Qs. Multiplier count didn’t change as we already had credit for

20m/CW.

Changing bands:

There are two ways to change bands: The first way:

Type b, press and you’ll see:

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Notice the now-active band appears in the lower-left corner of the Display area:

The Second way to change bands:

Since we’re moving to 10M, you could have typed b10 and and the band change happens in a single step.

Changing modes:

Changing modes works just like changing bands. You can type m and then either c, p or r and -– or you can type mc or mp or mr and to do it in a single step.

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More about entering QSOs:

To show that a given callsign will count on each band, we’ll type n4nx/50 again. When you do, you’ll get this screen:

Notice that the all the counts advanced and we now have credit for another band and another multiplier. It’s OK to work the same station up to 21 times; once for each band and mode.

Checking your progress:

You can check your logged entries at any time by pressing s (for “s”how log) and then . You’ll get a prompt asking if you want to see just the last 15 contacts; useful as a memory refresher of what just happened.

Your other choice is to view the log from the beginning with the ability to page forward (only) through the QSOs. In the example shown below, we’ve only worked three stations so the “N”ext option isn’t available:

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DX50TH will display fifteen contacts per page and you can use “N”ext to go through them. Press when you’re done viewing.

What about catching duplicates?

What if you enter a contact that would be a duplicate on this band/mode? Let’s see.

Type n4nx/50 and . When you do, you’ll see this screen:

The computer beeps and the message disappears after a second or two and you’re back at callsign entry.

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Can I dupe-check before trying to log an entry?

When you’re deep into the contest and run up on a pileup, you’ll want to know whether its worth waiting around to work the station – only to find that you

already have him on this band and mode. The program lets you “test” a callsign before actually working it if you wish. Here’s how:

At the regular callsign prompt,

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Type the callsign (with or without the “/50” if used) and the program will let you know if the call is already in your log for this band and mode. Type n4nx and you’ll see this:

..because N4NX has already been worked on 10M CW. Type a callsign that hasn’t been worked (type: w4gkf) and you’ll see:

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That’s it (with Contest Style selected)!

That’s about all that DX50TH does. Here’s the main entry screen again:

You can continue making contacts, changing bands and changing modes at will. Using DX50th with Logging Style selected

In “Contest Style” typing a callsign and pressing is all you do to use

DX50TH. Here’s how it would work if you had chosen “Logging Style” when you initialized DX50th:

Once you choose an operating Style, that’s the way DX50th works for the entire contest. Let’s go back to the first screen you’d see if you were using “Logging Style”. You’ve just selected your initial band (20M) and your initial mode (CW): If you were in “Logging Style”, it would look like this:

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The principle difference between the two Styles is how the Entry/Message area looks. In “Logging Style”, since we need more room for entry, we use the second line in the Entry/Message area for reminders of other keys you can press.

For those familiar with other logging programs, when you’re using “Logging Style” you will type callsign followed by one or more blanks, report followed by one or more blanks and the contact name – and then press .

With “Logging Style” chosen, you’re expected to enter up to three pieces of information for each QSO –- but you can omit report and name if you wish. If you omit the report, the program will assume “59 or “599” depending on Mode. Here are some examples of acceptable entries:

N4NX/50 599 Bill (a complete entry) N4NX/50 599 (name will be blank)

N4NX/50 Bill (report will be 59 or 599 depending on mode) N4NX/50 (report will be 59 or 599, name will be blank)

Remember that the above applies ONLY if you’re using DX50th set for “Logging Style” rather than for “Contest Style”. With “Contest style” you only enter

callsigns.

Let’s type: n4nx/50 599 bill:

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As with “Contest Style’ you see the “Last Logged: entry as a reminder that you did it and are ready for the next QSO.

Notice that even though you didn’t put an initial cap on Bill’s name, DX50th did it for you.

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Not only did DX50th put an initial cap on Jim’s name, it provided the default report of 599 -- even though you didn’t enter one!

As in our examples previously used with “Contest Style” above, we’ll change to 10M and work N4NX/50 again, this time omitting his name but providing a 459 signal report:

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Notice no name is shown on the Last Logged line; we didn’t’ provide one. If you press s to “Show log” with “Logging Style” it looks like this:

That’s fine for non-members, how does it work for SEDXC members? It’s just about exactly the same – except that SEDXC members may enter any callsign, not just those ending in “/50”

Is my log safe?

All Qs are written to disk immediately when you press ; you have no worries about a power failure losing your data. If you believe (as I do) in “belt and suspenders”, you can force a backup of your data any time you wish.

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Making a Backup

We’ve discussed all the options except the key. When you press it,

DX50TH will create a time-stamped backup of your data and then exits. DX50TH remembers just where you were and brings you back to the same place when you start DX50TH again.

Each time you use the key to exit the program, DX50TH saves a copy of all your data files. These backups are stored in a folder beneath your operating folder (like: c:\DX50th\backup) and the files are uniquely named with two digits of the date, two digits of the hour, two digits of the minute and two digits of the seconds (like 11113003.dat which was created on the 11th of the month at 11:13:03). You can choose any of the backup files to go back to by renaming the file to your real file name (like: w4gkf07.dat) and copying it into the operating folder.

Terminating the program

When/if you want to shut DX50TH down for awhile, you can either press as mentioned above, or you can press and get this prompt:

Type q to quit; DX50TH will make a backup and exit. We’ll discuss the “Remove the last QSO” function next.

Fixing an error

What if you enter a QSO and immediately discover it was a mistake? You have a couple of options. If you discover a bad Q before you enter another, you can remove the last Q easily. On the main entry screen (above) press and you’ll see:

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If you press r and , the last Q will be removed. If you’ve removed at least one Q but you can’t remember whether you removed the last contact or not, just press l (letter “el” for “Last Removed Contact”) on the main entry screen and it will be shown to you for a few seconds:

But what if you discover a Q was entered improperly some time ago? Fixing an error II

DX50TH maintains your log data in a .dat file in the \DX50TH folder. In my case, the log file is named c:\DX50th\w4gkf.dat.

You can use Notepad or any other text editor to modify this file at will. Be sure you exit DX50TH before attempting to edit the log file.

When you bring your current log file into Notepad it will look like this:

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in “Logging Style.

The layout should be obvious; the fields are comma-delimited and are callsign, date, time, band, mode, report and name; the mode is abbreviated C for CW, P for Phone and R for RTTY/Digital.

You can delete a record, change it or add one manually.

Note: Don’t delete the little symbol at the end of the file. That’s an end-of-file marker.

Save the edited file when you’re done, start up DX50TH again and you’ll be golden.

Other functions

For shortcuts, you can type these other things at the callsign prompt: q or quit same as F10

band same as “b” last same as “l” mode same as “m” show same as “s” version same as “v”

sum same as “summary” adif to create an ADIF export Last removed contact

If you’ve removed at least one contact, on the callsign prompt, you can type l (el) or last to show (briefly) the “L”ast contact removed:

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Version

To check the version of DX50TH you’re using, type v or version at the “type callsign” prompt and the version info will be displayed in the Entry/message area. Press to return to the program.

How can I stop my playing with DX50th and get ready of the contest? Or, put another way:

What if I totally messed up and want to start over again?

It’s possible to throw away your log entries and start all over again. You will probably want to do this if you’re experimenting with the program before the contest and want to reset for the contest. It’s easy.

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..just type reset and in the callsign field; you’ll see:

To be sure you really want to do this, you’ll have to respond with “YES” all in uppercase followed by to proceed. If you do, you’ll see:

..another warning (just to be sure). Type “YES” (again, all uppercase) again and press . The files will be discarded and DX50TH will start again at the beginning.

After the Contest

DX50TH keeps its data in a comma-delimited format. All you have to do is to fill in your contest summary form. If you want to post to the 3830 reflector

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(http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/), the information on the Summary form will have all the info you need to do the job.

To create your summary sheet to submit for the contest, just type sum or summary at the callsign prompt and follow directions.

If you want to create an ADIF file either for import into another logging program or for LoTW, just type adif at the callsign prompt and follow directions.

The next two pages represent the contest rules and the entry summary form. You can use the DX50TH entry screen to get the numbers to post to the entry form or simply use the “summary” entry at the callsign prompt.

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SEDXC 50

th

Anniversary Celebration Contest

To help celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Southeastern DX Club, we are sponsoring an international operating contest with significant awards that can be earned by both SEDXC club members and the rest of the world.

During the twelve hours of total operation, SEDXC club members are encouraged to work stations on as many bands and modes as possible world-wide. Non-SEDXC members work SEDXC members only. SEDXC members will be signing their call sign with "/50" appended (like: W4NT/50). Only a log summary sheet will be required for scoring. We hope that all 200+ members of the SEDXC and thousands of amateurs from around the world will be on the air for this event!

Dates:

Saturday and Sunday Sept 20-21, 2008 Activity period:

Saturday 1200 - 1800UTC (8:00am - 2:00pm EDT) Sunday 1800 - 2400UTC (2:00pm – 8:00pm EDT Categories

Single Operator only Bands

160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10 and 6m Modes

CW, Phone and RTTY/Digital only. Use one mode, two or all three for more QSOs. Exchange:

Signal report, name Scoring:

Non-SEDXC club members: One point per QSO with SEDXC members signing their callsign + "/50".

SEDXC club members: One point per QSO with any station.

You may work the same station on multiple bands and modes for point credit. Multipliers:

One multiplier per band, per mode. You work a minimum of any one station per band/mode to earn the band/mode multiplier(s).

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Page 33 Version 1.9b Date: 09/20/2008 Example:

If you work at least one station on these bands/modes:

160 CW, 80 CW, 80 Phone, 40 CW, 40 RTTY, 20 Phone, 15 Phone, 10 Phone

..your multiplier total would be eight. If you had 100 total Qs, your score would be 800. Maximum multipliers: 21 (seven bands, three modes)

Recommended frequencies:

160 1.810-1.820 CW, 1.850-1.860 Phone 80 3.530-3.540 CW, 3.810-3.820 Phone 40 7.030-7.040 CW, 7.185-7.195 Phone 20 14.030-14.040 CW, 14.240-14.250 Phone 15 21.030-21.040 CW, 21.310-21.320 Phone 10 28.030-28.040 CW, 28.410-28.420 Phone

6 50.085-50.095, 50.130-50.140 Phone *RTTY/Digital contacts on conventional frequencies Awards:

Non-club members: Overall winner, all modes CW winner

Phone winner RTTY/Digital winner Club members: Overall winner, all modes

CW winner Phone winner RTTY/Digital winner No participant may win more than one award Log Submission:

Summary sheet below; entrants will email their summary sheet or the info contained thereon to [email protected]. Entries must be received by October 1, 2008.

Operating:

Members call “CQ SEDXC” Members sign their call + “/50” Members may work other members

Packet spotting of contest participants is encouraged.

Operators may use the maximum power allowed for their license class in their country or 1500W, whichever is less.

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Contest Submission Summary Sheet

Callsign: ________

Name: ______________________________

Address: ______________________________

City, State, Zipcode ______________________________

Country _____________

Email address: ______________________________________

Bands and Modes used (maximum of 21 multipliers):

160 80 40 20 15 10 6 Total

CW

Phone

RTTY/Digital Total QSOs

Enter the number of QSOs in each box above and total for each mode and band in the total column. We’ll use that information to figure mode winners.

Total Multipliers: ________ (one for each band/mode box

with an entry)

Total Score: ________ (Total QSOs x Total Multipliers)

Please email this information to: [email protected] or

snail-mail to WB4SQ, 730 Wickerberry Knoll, Roswell GA 30075 You don’t have to use this form, just include the requested information. Remember this information must be received no later than October 1, 2008 to be considered.