[DXBase] additional features start paying of

2002年12月19日 10:07:18 -0600

Regarding sorting of bureau cards here is what the ARRL outgoing bureau says
on their web page:
"1) Presort your DX QSL's alphabetically by parent call-sign prefix (AP, C6,
CE, DL, ES, EZ, F, G, JA, LY, PY, UN, YL, 5N, 9Y and so on). NOTE: Some
countries have a parent prefix and use additional prefixes, i.e. G (parent
prefix) = M, 2E, 2I, 2M, 2W,.... When sorting countries that have multiple
prefixes, keep that country's prefixes grouped with the parent prefix in
your alphabetical stack. Addresses are not required. DO NOT separate the
country prefixes by use of paper clips, rubber bands, slips of paper or
envelopes."
So it would be the PFX field, not the WPX field. And you already properly
classify such calls as 2E as G as they wish.
There is a complication which they don't address..the issue of qsl managers,
for example M1XXX might be the manager for 5R8XX. But the ARRL's
instructions don't mention this, although it would seem sensible to sort
such a card via the G prefix. But I don't think you have the needed
information to do this sort. All the effort in determining a stations PFX
has already been done, but no such classification has been done on the QSL
managers. And keep in mind that sorting on the managers call will not do,
it would have to be the managers PFX which you don't deal with as yet. So I
would recommend overlooking this and instead do the sort on the stations PFX
and ignore the manager issue. The user can separate these out himself for
now, you will have done 95% of the work by sorting on the stations PFX as I
have described. I suppose you should use the actual call as the secondary
key so that F1ABC follows F1ABB in the F PFX group and M1AAA follows 2E1AAA
in the G PFX group. I have been chastised by the outgoing bureau for not
sorting alphabetically within a prefix.
While you are looking at this label issue I wish you would pass more
variables to the label design software. For example, I would like to be
able to get the QSL Via field. This would enable me to print this
information on the label. Currently you do allow us to send a label to a
distinct group number based upon the 9 different QSL Via fields, however to
take full advantage of this would require 9 different label designs. I
would like to be able to use the QSL Via information as a variable and print
a little symbol known only to me in the corner of the card so that I can
keep each type of qsl method in mind when I prepare for final mailing.
Additionally I would like to be able to pass my 'e-mail address' (as
currently provided in the Personal Options box). Actually you currently
allow (guessing here...30 characters for this field). I would actually use
it as a combined 'e-mail address' and 'comment field'. For example if I
were QSL'ing for the CQWWCW 2002 contest I would put CQWWCW 2002 in that
field and set up the label software to grab that information and put it on
the card. So be generous with the field length to increase it's usefulness.
All these issues were fresh in my mind when I was doing my direct print on
card label design (see http://www.dxspots.com) for a look at what I
accomplished in printing directly on the card's back. But time has passed
and some of my better ideas which could only be done with additional
variable information have been forgotten. Ill try to refresh my memory...I
would guess you are working on DXB2004, so I had better hurry!
And a comment to Phil. As you have discovered DXBase2003 is very
complicated AND very powerful. I recommend it to all my ham friends, but I
do warn them that all this power does come at a cost...they will require
some time and study to understand the program..but once they do they will be
very happy they chose this one rather than an easier one with all sorts of
shortcomings. So it looks like you are getting up to speed now. Of course
there are always extra things we will like, and Jack and Courtney are always
receptive to our ideas.
Ron N5IN
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack" <[email protected]>
To: "Phil ON4VP" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2002 8:00 AM
Subject: Re: [DXBase] additional features start paying of
> Thanks Phil,
>> We're glad to know that you are beginning to understand how many of the
> features in DXbase operate. There are a lot of smart folks monitoring
this
> reflector and I'm sure they can handle just about any questions that might
> come up.
>> A couple of questions for everyone:
>> 1. What if the label sorting used the WPX field to sort? Would that
help?
> It seems to us that this might solve the issue involving bureau's?
>> 2. In the last few days, we examined the Kenwood documentation for the
> TS2000 regarding the VFOb mode. Based on that documentation, DXbase is
> sending the correct command for setting VFOb. We can only conclude that
the
> eprom for the TS2000 is broke, or there are errors in the Kenwood
> documentation. Can someone who owns a TS2000 contact Kenwood Technical
> Support and ask the following questions:
>> A. What is the set of commands necessary to set VFOb? ( the docs only
list
> the MD command and no reference to it being VFO specific. For the TS940,
> this works fine, but not in the TS2000 although the documentation is
> identical).
>> B. Are there any commands that must be sent to the radio before attempting
> to use the MD command to set VFOb?
>> Thanks,
> Courtney
>> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Phil ON4VP" <[email protected]>
> To: <[email protected]>
> Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2002 3:12 AM
> Subject: [DXBase] additional features start paying of
>>> Hi all,
>> Over the last few weeks I had several issues and therefore I made my
> desision on what DXBase 2003 ment for me.
> Maybe some think that I tried to downgrade the package but nothing like
that
> is true.
>> I like to admit pubicly that I made some stupid mistakes and therefore the
> program did not function at 100 %
> But as a customer I still have the rights to be critial about things.
>> After taking the time to digg in to the manuals, +the help from Jack and
> some users, I know can tell that DXBase is a fine piece of software
> engineering.
> Still some small issues exists and perhaps the future will solve things
out
> but I would like to chair that most of the things now working like :
>> - grid beam headings and distance calculations (error in grid setup)
> - rig QSY'ing with exact mode (error while using the auto mode)
> - QSL printing without 'via' on the label (if-then statement changed)
> - error when exiting program (com port locked) solved (first quiting
> internet window before quiting program)
>> Minor issues not solved :
>> - when QSX is different than RX freq, the ts2000 still uses wrong mode
(but
> TX offset is set ok)
> - cw keying won't work, even after installing 'correct' drivers and
followed
> website support drivers and reg entries
> - Label printing order still seems odd to me concerning all US-calls
>> Perhaps those minor issues will be solved later on, for now, the program
> does most like I want it to.
> I still have to sort my US-labels all manually but I got it down to aprox
1
> hour work every time.
>> For me the things I really appreciate and what is better than most other
> programs :
>> - Label designer is best in what I've ever seen.
> - Powerfull database reporting on awards or other reports
> - Log entry order and field selection in setup with different startup
> possibilities
> - Internet lookup station info
> - DX info summary for many categories (grids, countries, dxcc, awards,
> etc...)
> - Beam heading and rotator controlling
> - Telnet cluster info and spotting
> - automatic population of fields regarding station info from cdrom into
> logbook (depending on cdrom type)
> - Program window layout
>> Now the things a guy like me would like in future releases (yes I'm a
> auto-freak):
>> - second rig controlling (two or more rigs at the same time)
> - antenna offsets (if a 40 beam is 90� off on the tower, the program
knows
> that rotating the beam is 90� to)
> - incorporated maps for grid visualisation (worked, needed) instead of
using
> 3th party software (dxatlas)
> - setup for sorting the label printing
> - Auto population of dx manager taken from internet source (like QSL
manager
> field in qrz pages)
> - easy SWL labeling (lookup the log entry, click "SWL label" and voila,
> label is set for printing)
> - visual band map (spots) a la commcat or N1MM logger
> - a demo version (limited or not) to get the feeling of DXBase before
> purchasing
>> These ofcourse are extra personal suggestions.
> Anyway, I now start enjoying working with DxBase2003 and I like again to
> appologise for my 'negative' mood when first trowing all kinds of issues
> into this group. I also like to thank everyone that took the time to help
me
> out, these help was very welcome and made me understand DXBase better now.
>> My best wishes for 2003
> 73 Phil ON4VP
>>>> --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
> multipart/alternative
> text/plain (text body -- kept)
> text/html
> The reason this message is shown is because the post was in HTML
> or had an attachment. Attachments are not allowed.
> Please post in Plain-Text only.---
> _______________________________________________
> DXBase Reflector - Please visit us on the web at www.dxbase.com
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> To UNSUBSCRIBE please visit:
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase
>>> _______________________________________________
> DXBase Reflector - Please visit us on the web at www.dxbase.com
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> To UNSUBSCRIBE please visit:
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase
>