[Dxbase] ( NEW!! ) ARRL Diamond DXCC Challenge -- Jan 1, 2012 thru Dec 31, 2012

Sun Jan 1 20:45:51 EST 2012

Joe has indicated it would be a royal PITA to develop a good report to track 
progress on the ARRL Diamond DXCC Challenge and after viewing the Entity 
List I would have to agree with him. However, printing out the full 12 page 
pdf Entity List and trying to manually keep up with making paper entries 
doesn't thrill me. Also, at some point in time, hopefully, I will have to 
make a submission to ARRL for the award. This one doesn't require either 
LOTW or paper cards be submitted, but rather relies upon the "honor" system 
and a paper list of the contacts made in pursuit of the award. After 
looking at the latest update of the Entity List released 30Dec2011 by ARRL 
I've come up with the following idea that I thought I'd share for anyone 
interested in tracking progress for this award.
First, I downloaded a copy of the DXCC75 Entity List TABLE_12302011.pdf from 
the ARRL web site to my computer. When I open it with Adobe Reader V10 I 
notice two icons in the tool bar at the top of the page. One adds a Sticky 
Note to the document, the other Highlights Text in yellow like a marker pen. 
I worked 4 new countries last night in the SARTG HNY RTTY contest, US, 
Canada, Japan and Norway. By using CTL+F in Adobe Reader I can Find each 
country in the list quickly. Then I use the Highlight icon to mark the 
little check box and the country name in the pdf document. Then I click 
next to the country name and click the Sticky Note icon and add a short note 
to the country name - Date, Time, Call, Freq, Mode. That's it. Now when I 
move the mouse over the little sticky note symbol it pops open a little note 
window that shows me the details of the contact with this country. Adobe 
Reader will save these modifications to the pdf file so that next time it is 
opened you can see all the mark ups you've made.
Second, in DXB I made an entry in the Notes field for these countries - 
Diamond DXCC. I then went to the List Designer in DXB and opened up the 
list called "Log in ARRL Paper Format.lst". I changed the header slightly 
and saved it as "ARRL Diamond DXCC Challenge log.lst". I then used the 
Wizard to filter my log for Notes = Diamond DXCC and QSO Date > 20111231 and 
set the Output Type to Reports. When run the Wizard extracts my Diamond 
DXCC contacts and the ARRL Diamond DXCC Challenge log report shows the 
details. The nice thing about this log is at the end after the last entry 
it gives a count of the entries in the log. I may modify the column order 
or add/delete some columns to the log later, but for right now it is 
functional.
So by using Adobe Reader to mark my progress on the Entity List and by using 
the Notes field and a User Designed List in DXB I think I've got a pretty 
good handle on keeping track of my progress toward the Diamond DXCC 
Challenge award throughout the rest of the year.
73,
Gary AL9A
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe WA6AXE" <wa6axe at hotmail.com>
To: <dxbase at mailman.qth.net>; <dxbase at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: December 25, 2011 7:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Dxbase] ( NEW!! ) ARRL Diamond DXCC Challenge -- Jan 1, 2012 
thru Dec 31, 2012
ALL:
Sorry -- but, this one can not be done nicely enough to even be a good 
report/listing.
Since this Silver Anniversary of the DXCC is only one year and since the 227 
entities that
make up the listing are just not programmable (with any degree of 
certainty) -- I am
not going to continue with my efforts to make a report for this one ..
The ARRL has a NICE pdf webpage that you can print-out and use it as your 
listing/check-off..
This webpage is at:
http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Diamond%20DXCC/2012%20ARRL%20Diamond%20DXCC%20Challenge%20Entity%20List%20TABLE.pdf
73 Joe wa6axe
> From: wa6axe at hotmail.com
> To: dxbase at mailman.qth.net; dxbase at yahoogroups.com
> Date: 2011年12月23日 22:54:20 -0600
> Subject: [Dxbase] ( NEW!! ) ARRL Diamond DXCC Challenge -- Jan 1, 2012 
> thru Dec 31, 2012
>>> ALL:
>> Got a heads-up from Ed AB4IQ about a brand new award from the ARRL - just 
> announced
> on the ARRL website today - it is called the ARRL Diamond DXCC 
> Challenge
>>> The Announcement webpage is at:
>> http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-diamond-dxcc-challenge
>>> The Rules for this Award are at:
>> http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Diamond%20DXCC/ARRL%20Diamond%20DXCC%20Challenge%20Rules%20and%20Explanation%2023%20dec%2011.pdf
>>> and the Check-off List/Entity List of the 227 countries/entities for this 
> award is at:
>> http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Diamond%20DXCC/2012%20ARRL%20Diamond%20DXCC%20Challenge%20Entity%20List%20TABLE.pdf
>>> NOTE! :: The above URL's are very long - so pse be sure and copy/paste ALL 
> of the webpage address (URL) when you want
> to visit that webpage ...
>>> I will TRY to make a report for this 75th anniversary of the ARRL’s DXCC 
> Award called the ARRL Diamond DXCC Challenge ..
> But, this baby is going to be a tough one to program around.. But, I will 
> try ...
>>> Just a heads-up to everyone!!
>>> 73 Joe wa6axe
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