Re: [Dx4win] Beware of an empty RST field in a QSO!

2021-12-01 Thread Mark Endorf via DX4WIN 
I have had a situation in WSJT-X where the reply to my report comes much,
much later. 
If I have cleared the right hand decode window prior to that, and then try
to log the contact, it has blanks in the RST field. I try to only clear the
right hand window, when all contacts have been confirmed, but if someone
comes back with a report four or five minutes later, then it's likely I have
cleared out the info. Maybe that is what happened?
Mark WA0MHJ

-Original Message-
From: dx4win-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:dx4win-boun...@mailman.qth.net]
On Behalf Of Jim Reisert AD1C
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2021 3:25 PM
To: Mike Cizek W0VTT
Cc: DX4WIN Reflector
Subject: Re: [Dx4win] Beware of an empty RST field in a QSO!

>
> Looking at my log, all of the VHF Contest mode QSOs with no signal 
> reports have 599 in the report fields in dx4win.  I don't see any 
> place in the settings for selecting a default RST, so that must be 
> built in to the program.  I think the real question is why are your RST
fields blank?
>

Mike, it was just that one QSO.  I don't know what happened. But finding it
ultimately saves me from sending a "duplicate" QSL to ARRL for VUCC credit.
If I had known earlier, I could have saved postage + SASE costs for
obtaining that QSL!

--
Jim Reisert AD1C, , https://www.ad1c.us

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Re: [Dx4win] Beware of an empty RST field in a QSO!

2021-12-01 Thread Jim Reisert AD1C 
>
> Looking at my log, all of the VHF Contest mode QSOs with no signal reports
> have 599 in the report fields in dx4win.  I don't see any place in the
> settings for selecting a default RST, so that must be built in to the
> program.  I think the real question is why are your RST fields blank?
>

Mike, it was just that one QSO.  I don't know what happened. But finding it
ultimately saves me from sending a "duplicate" QSL to ARRL for VUCC
credit.  If I had known earlier, I could have saved postage + SASE costs
for obtaining that QSL!

-- 
Jim Reisert AD1C, , https://www.ad1c.us

__
DX4WIN mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dx4win
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
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Re: [Dx4win] Beware of an empty RST field in a QSO!

2021-12-01 Thread Mike Cizek W0VTT 
Hello Jim,

Looking at my log, all of the VHF Contest mode QSOs with no signal reports
have 599 in the report fields in dx4win.  I don't see any place in the
settings for selecting a default RST, so that must be built in to the
program.  I think the real question is why are your RST fields blank?


73,
Mike Cizek W0VTT

-Original Message-
From: dx4win-boun...@mailman.qth.net  On
Behalf Of Jim Reisert AD1C
Sent: Wednesday, 1 December, 2021 12:45
To: DX4WIN Reflector 
Subject: [Dx4win] Beware of an empty RST field in a QSO!

Hi Folks,

I made an interesting discovery this morning.  It may be an issue in the
DX4WIN program.  There are two pieces to it.  Although the specific problem
I encountered was for the VUCC Award, this problem may affect other awards.
I have not tested that theory, however.

I have been chasing VUCC grids on 6 meters since moving to Colorado in 2007.
I use this program that I wrote to give me a visual representation of the
grids I still need:

https://dx4win.ad1c.us/VUCC/

My map told me that I needed grid DN80, and when N0LL announced he was going
to go there in October, I made sure to work him.  I received his QSL card
yesterday.  Because I have several QSOs with him, I searched my logbook for
the Grid (DN80) instead.  But what I found is that I had a prior QSO with
another station in that same grid on 6 meters!  Furthermore, it was
confirmed in Logbook of the World (LoTW).  And finally, it had already been
checked at ARRL (VUCC grid credit received)!

So why did my VUCC Needed Listing tell me that I still needed that grid?
It turns out that the rstR (RST Received) field in my DX4WIN log for that
QSO was empty (blank).  Here is part of the ADIF record from WSJT-X (
https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html) for that QSO that I
imported into DX4WIN:

AB0YM/R DN80 FT8  
20200913 012315

Notice that the length of both the rst_sent and rst_rcvd fields is zero
(":0").  That means there was no RST recorded for the QSO.  This QSO was
made using the digital mode FT8 in "NA VHF" mode in WSJT-X.  For this
"special operating activity", only grid squares are exchanged, not signal
reports.  Here is what the FT8 transcript looked like for my QSO with
AB0YM/R:

200913_21310050.313 Rx FT8-12  0.2 1376 CQ TEST AB0YM/R DN80
200913_21311550.313 Tx FT8  0  0.0  750 AB0YM/R AD1C DM79
200913_21313050.313 Rx FT8 -8  0.1  683 AD1C AB0YM/R R DN80
200913_21314550.313 Tx FT8  0  0.0  750 AB0YM/R AD1C RR73

The station answering the CQ sends his grid.  The CQing station sends an R
with his grid.  When the calling station receives that message, he sends
RR73.  Once the CQing station receives the RR73, he can go on to the next
QSO.

So the blank RST seems to be one problem.  However, there may be a second
problem.

A while back, maybe in Version 8, Paul added a feature to DX4WIN that
basically says that if the Award flag for the QSO is set to Checked (or
possibly Submitted), that the QSO is considered "confirmed" regardless of
the setting of the QSL, LoTW and/or eQSL Confirmed fields for the QSO.
Here is an example of how this feature is useful.  You can receive IOTA
(Island on the Air) credit if there is QSO match in Club Log, even if you
don't have a QSL card, even if the QSO is not confirmed in LoTW.  You can
submit this "confirmed" (matched) QSO from Club Log for IOTA credit.  Once
you set the IOTA Award flag for that QSO, DX4WIN will consider it confirmed,
so you will know that you do not need to work or confirm it again.

One might think that this feature would take care of my VUCC problem, but
it's not enough.  DX4WIN also has a feature where having a blank RST, or a
value of "0" in the RST field, means that this QSO is invalid for awards.
Apparently, having the Award flag set to Submitted or Checked is not enough
to override this, and I think this might be a bug in DX4WIN.  If you have
received award credit for a QSO, then that QSO can not be invalid for the
award, regardless of the RST field(s).  In other words, it can't be both
valid and invalid at the same time!  DX4WIN already has a way to mark a QSO
as invalid for a particular award, by setting the Award Flag to 'I'
(Invalid).  So it seems to me that DX4WIN should disregard the RST field(s)
once the QSO has an Award Flag set for it.

Note that a QSO is also invalid if the RST field is '0' (zero).  It is
*not* invalid if the RST field is "+0" (0 dB) which is a typical report
received on the digital modes that WSJT-X supports.

Fortunately, there is a way to find QSOs that have a blank RST field.
Using F8 to begin a search, enter this two-character string into one of the
RST fields and then type :

!*

(that's an exclamation point, immediately followed by an asterisk).  The '*'
means "anything" and by putting the '!' in front of it, the resulting search
is for "not anything", or an empty field.

Sorry for the long-winded explanation, but you may find missing award

[Dx4win] Beware of an empty RST field in a QSO!

2021-12-01 Thread Jim Reisert AD1C 
Hi Folks,

I made an interesting discovery this morning.  It may be an issue in the
DX4WIN program.  There are two pieces to it.  Although the specific problem
I encountered was for the VUCC Award, this problem may affect other
awards.  I have not tested that theory, however.

I have been chasing VUCC grids on 6 meters since moving to Colorado in
2007.  I use this program that I wrote to give me a visual representation
of the grids I still need:

https://dx4win.ad1c.us/VUCC/

My map told me that I needed grid DN80, and when N0LL announced he was
going to go there in October, I made sure to work him.  I received his QSL
card yesterday.  Because I have several QSOs with him, I searched my
logbook for the Grid (DN80) instead.  But what I found is that I had a
prior QSO with another station in that same grid on 6 meters!  Furthermore,
it was confirmed in Logbook of the World (LoTW).  And finally, it had
already been checked at ARRL (VUCC grid credit received)!

So why did my VUCC Needed Listing tell me that I still needed that grid?
It turns out that the rstR (RST Received) field in my DX4WIN log for that
QSO was empty (blank).  Here is part of the ADIF record from WSJT-X (
https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html) for that QSO that I
imported into DX4WIN:

AB0YM/R DN80 FT8 
 20200913 012315

Notice that the length of both the rst_sent and rst_rcvd fields is zero
(":0").  That means there was no RST recorded for the QSO.  This QSO was
made using the digital mode FT8 in "NA VHF" mode in WSJT-X.  For this
"special operating activity", only grid squares are exchanged, not signal
reports.  Here is what the FT8 transcript looked like for my QSO with
AB0YM/R:

200913_21310050.313 Rx FT8-12  0.2 1376 CQ TEST AB0YM/R DN80
200913_21311550.313 Tx FT8  0  0.0  750 AB0YM/R AD1C DM79
200913_21313050.313 Rx FT8 -8  0.1  683 AD1C AB0YM/R R DN80
200913_21314550.313 Tx FT8  0  0.0  750 AB0YM/R AD1C RR73

The station answering the CQ sends his grid.  The CQing station sends an R
with his grid.  When the calling station receives that message, he sends
RR73.  Once the CQing station receives the RR73, he can go on to the next
QSO.

So the blank RST seems to be one problem.  However, there may be a second
problem.

A while back, maybe in Version 8, Paul added a feature to DX4WIN that
basically says that if the Award flag for the QSO is set to Checked (or
possibly Submitted), that the QSO is considered "confirmed" regardless of
the setting of the QSL, LoTW and/or eQSL Confirmed fields for the QSO.
Here is an example of how this feature is useful.  You can receive IOTA
(Island on the Air) credit if there is QSO match in Club Log, even if you
don't have a QSL card, even if the QSO is not confirmed in LoTW.  You can
submit this "confirmed" (matched) QSO from Club Log for IOTA credit.  Once
you set the IOTA Award flag for that QSO, DX4WIN will consider it
confirmed, so you will know that you do not need to work or confirm it
again.

One might think that this feature would take care of my VUCC problem, but
it's not enough.  DX4WIN also has a feature where having a blank RST, or a
value of "0" in the RST field, means that this QSO is invalid for awards.
Apparently, having the Award flag set to Submitted or Checked is not enough
to override this, and I think this might be a bug in DX4WIN.  If you have
received award credit for a QSO, then that QSO can not be invalid for the
award, regardless of the RST field(s).  In other words, it can't be both
valid and invalid at the same time!  DX4WIN already has a way to mark a QSO
as invalid for a particular award, by setting the Award Flag to 'I'
(Invalid).  So it seems to me that DX4WIN should disregard the RST field(s)
once the QSO has an Award Flag set for it.

Note that a QSO is also invalid if the RST field is '0' (zero).  It is
*not* invalid if the RST field is "+0" (0 dB) which is a typical report
received on the digital modes that WSJT-X supports.

Fortunately, there is a way to find QSOs that have a blank RST field.
Using F8 to begin a search, enter this two-character string into one of the
RST fields and then type :

!*

(that's an exclamation point, immediately followed by an asterisk).  The
'*' means "anything" and by putting the '!' in front of it, the resulting
search is for "not anything", or an empty field.

Sorry for the long-winded explanation, but you may find missing award
credits in your logbook as a result of this.

-- 
Jim Reisert AD1C, , https://www.ad1c.us
__
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