Hi Folks, I will be releasing a new major version of the DX4WIN Data Update sometime in the next couple of weeks. This message is partially an announcement of my plans, as well as a solicitation for other suggestions.
Only these three data files will be affected: 1. Calendar 2. Master callsign database 3. Membership list This update will also add more integrated support for the ARRL National Parks on the Air program. Part of what is driving these changes is to reduce my own workload, both in releasing updates, as well as a little post-update work I have to do on my own computers. For example, running the new Updater will download the latest sources to build the Membership list, so there will be no need to wait for me to package a list and release it. I believe the changes will benefit most users. The downside is that I will no longer provide Master Callsign or Membership List databases that you can download from a web page. You *must* use the Updater to get the latest versions of these databases. *** If this is going to be a huge impact to you, let me know ASAP, it's possible I could design this differently. *** As the DX4WIN Data Updater does today, your original files are saved in a BACKUP directory before the updater runs, so there is a way to recover from a problem. Here is a more detailed description of each change: 1. Calendar Rather than downloading a calendar that you still have to import into DX4WIN, the DX4WIN Data Updater will import the calendar automatically. It will merge the calendar(s) you have selected into your existing calendar, so all past events, as well as any events you have added yourself will be preserved. The Updater will provide two sources of calendars. You can choose one or both: - 425 DX news calendar from http://www.ariscandicci.it/dx4win.php - ARRL NPOTA 10-day calendar from https://npota.arrl.org/nps-events.php (only this calendar will be supported, not the full calendar) Remember that the DX4WIN calendar has a feature to cleanup (remove) expired events. This is left up to the user to decide, it will not be part of the Updater. If there is another calendar source you have been using, please let me know and I will add it to the list. Because this is a merge and not and over-write, there could be issues with data corruption. I will do my best to minimize this, but sometimes the only recourse will be to delete your existing calendar and build a new one from scratch. 2. Master callsign database The DX4WIN Data Updater will download and import the most recent database(s) directly from its source. The Updater will always over-write any existing master callsign database you already have. I am proposing two sources of this data, from which you can choose one or both: - Club Log, updated weekly, see: http://clublog.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/54907-super-check-partial-files-scp- - Super Check Partial for contesters, updated monthly, see: http://www.supercheckpartial.com/ 3. Membership list This will be the biggest change. There will be at least five sources of data for the membership list, from which you can select any combination. Many of these sources are updated on a daily basis: - ARRL LoTW users from http://www.hb9bza.net/lotw/lotw1.txt - eQSL Authenticy Guaranteed users from http://www.eqsl.cc/qslcard/DownloadedFiles/AGMemberList.txt - OQRS (on-line QSL request) users from http://hamclubs.info/lists/OQRS.txt - ARRL NPOTA callsigns from https://npota.arrl.org/nps-events.php - a custom list specified by the user If you want other sources added, let me know and I will try to include them. For example, FOC, CW Ops, etc. Preference will be given to lists that can be found on the hamclubs.info web site. There will be a new menu from which you can pick the various membership list sources, as well as the 'Id' to assign to each one. This 'Id' shows up in the Memb column of the DX Spots window. For example, your membership list might contain only NPOTA callsigns, with an Id of '@' meaning they get highlighted in the DX Spots window like an all-time-new DXCC entity. You can use the same 'Id' for multiple lists if you want. The default setup will be like it is today, but you can configure it the way you want. Any existing membership list you have in DX4WIN before the update will be over-written, after being backed up. I am also going to allow you to include a custom membership list, a simple text file you create, containing one callsign per line. This is useful because the Callsign Alert list in the DX4WIN preferences is limited in length. For example, my list contains my own call (AD1C), my father's call (W1JR) and the current years list of Bulgarian Saints (see https://www.qrz.com/db/LZ1012SGM). You could have your friend's callsigns, upcoming DXpeditions, etc. Your custom membership list can contain only full callsigns, not prefixes or wildcards like VP8*. The biggest problem with this change is that some of the source data files may be unreachable (eQSL tends to be unreachable a lot). In that case, the Updater will use the last one it was able to download. If you have any other suggestions for the DX4WIN Data Updater, please let me know. It will probably take me a week or two to put out an initial release, then probably an update or two as people find issues that I need to fix. The longer-term benefit is that if there is another event like NPOTA, or another membership list that is popular, it should be relatively to add to the Updater (once I get over thsi hump). 73 - Jim AD1C -- Jim Reisert AD1C, <jjreis...@alum.mit.edu>, http://www.ad1c.us ______________________________________________________________ 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
