Importing ADIF and Tab-delimited Files

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The Import QSOs tabbed dialog enabled you to import QSOs from standard ADIF files: 

You can also import QSOs from non-standard ADIF files, and from tab-delimited files.

The ADIF specification precludes characters whose code is less than 32. Importing a file containing a character whose code is less than 32 can prematurely terminate the import process, preventing all QSOs in the file from being imported. If there is any possibility that the file you are importing contains characters with codes less than 32, enable the Ignore tags with binary data option, which will pre-scan the file to remove fields containing character codes less than 32.

When DXKeeper accepts a Log QSO command from another application, it is being imported and thus is subject to the Import Options described below unless stated otherwise. DXKeeper will initialize missing fields in such QSOs to default values.

To make it easy to view QSOs newly imported from a file, DXKeeper provides the option to automatically set the Select  item of each imported QSO to Y.  Before starting the import operation, however, you should set the Select  item of all existing QSOs to N by clicking the Import QSO tab's  Clear Select button.  After the import operation is complete Invoke the Sel filter to see only the imported QSOs in the Log Page Display.

If SpotCollector is running when an import operation completes, DXKeeper will direct it to automatically update the entries in the Spot Database to reflect advances in award progress. If you are planning to import several files, it will be more efficient to unchecked the Enable automatic updates box box in the Recomputation panel on the the Spot Database tab of SpotCollector's Config window, perform the imports, click SpotCollector's Recomp button, and then check the Enable automatic updates box box.

When importing a QSO record that does not specify an azimuth or distance field, DXKeeper computes these items if the QSO specifies sufficient information, including information obtained from a callbook lookup.

When importing a QSO record for a station in the United States, Alaska, or Hawaii, DXKeeper corrects frequent county misspellings, e.g. IL,Du Page => IL,DuPage. It also replaces counties that specify an independent city name with the name of the surrounding county, e.g. VA,Frankin => VA,Southampton.

Import Options  

Options available on this tab allow you to prevent the importing of duplicate QSOs,  import from non-standard ADIF files produced by other applications, recover or insert missing information, save errors to a file, and/or display a report showing any advances in award progress attributable to the imported QSOs:

General Options


Duplicate Checking

Duplicate checking prevents the importing of QSOs from a file that are already present in your log, but significantly reduces the rate at which QSOs are imported. If you are importing QSOs into an empty log file, or are certain that the file to be imported contains no duplicate QSOs, then uncheck the Check Duplicates on Import box. Note duplicate checking is only performed on imported files; it is not performed on QSOs received from other applications via DDE or TCP.

If you are importing into a populated log and wish to prevent the importing of duplicate QSOs, check the Check Duplicates on Import box.

 

Substitution Options

If the file you are importing contains QSOs that may be missing Station Callsign, Operator Callsign, Owner Callsign, or myQTH ID fields, use the options in this panel to populate missing items with the default values you've specified. These options only applies to QSOs imported from a file; they does not apply to QSOs logged in response to a Log QSO command from another application.

Note that

Replacement Options

if you are importing a contest log file, the following options may be useful. These options only apply to QSOs imported from a file; they does not apply to QSOs logged in response to a Log QSO command from another application.

ADIF Style

While there exists a formal ADIF specification, some applications export ADIF files that are not fully compliant in ways that require foreknowledge on DXKeeper's part in order to successfully import information. QSOs logged in response to a Log QSO command from another application are always considered to be "Standard ADIF", independent of the ADIF Style panel's setting.

 

Option Effect
Standard ADIF
non-compliant ADIF
  • compensates for reported defects in the ADIF files generated by some applications
DX4WIN v7
  • extracts LotW confirmation from COMMENT tags

  • extracts receive frequencies from  NOTES tags

  • extracts name and QTH from NOTES tags

DX4WIN v8
  • extracts LotW confirmation from COMMENT tags

  • extracts receive frequencies from  NOTES tags

DXBase5
  • imports QSOs exported from DXBase version 5 using Btrieve and DXBconvt

  • extracts Name, Frequency, Gridsquare, CQ zone, and IOTA information from COMMENT tags

DXBase
  • sets the DXCC entity for each imported QSO from information in the DXBPFX tag

  • acquires LotW QSL sent information from the DXBQSL_SENT tag

  • acquires LotW QSL received information from the DXBQSL_RCVD tag

  • acquires the LotW  QSL received date from the DXBLOTWR tag

  • acquires DXCC verification information from the DXBAWD tag

  • if a DXVAL tag is present and specifies the value 0, marks the QSO as invalid for DXCC awards by setting the imported QSO's QSL_RCVD item to I

  • acquires primary and secondary subdivision information from the SPEC1 tag in QSOs with stations in Japan, Ogasawara, or Minami Torishima; this tag is expected to contain JCCnnnn or JCGnnnnn respectively (City or Gun codes)

  • acquire the QSX frequency specified in the first word of a comment it matches the QSO frequency's band

  • Note: if a QSO's DXBAWD tag indicates that its been approved for DXCC, and its confirmed via both QSL card and LotW, then DXKeeper sets its QSL_RCVD item to V

Hamlog
  • imports text files exported by Hamlog version 5.18 and earlier, which cannot export ADIF files
Logger16 
  • all but the first word of each imported NAME tag is relocated to the COMMENT tag

LOGic
  • ignore any tags containing binary data

  • acquires LotW QSL sent information from the LotW_Sent tag

  • acquires LotW QSL received information from the LotW_Rcvd tag

  • interprets DXCCSUB: in a COMMENT  tag to mean that the QSO has been verified by the DXCC desk; if the QSO is confirmed via both QSL card and LotW, then DXKeeper sets its QSL_RCVD item to V

MMTTY
  • extracts transmit and receive contest sequence numbers from the RST_SENT and RST_RCVD tags respectively

N3FJP
  • converts a  MODE of PH to SSB

SWISSLOG
  • converts a value conveyed by the non-standard QSL_ACTION tag to the ADIF standard  QSL_SENT_VIA tag, which is placed in the QSO's Sent Via item

  • places the contents of the non-standard P_SUB_REGION tag into the QSO's Region item

  • places the contents of the non-standard L_QSL_CARDNR tag into the QSO's QSLNumber item

  • places the contents of the non-standard  REGION tag into the QSO's State item

  • converts non-standard  VE_PROV values to ADIF standard Canadian province abbreviations

  • converts values conveyed by the non-standard L_LOTW_STATUS, L_LOTW_SEND_DATE, L_LOTW_RECEIVED, and   L_LOTW_RECEIVED_DATE tags to values conveyed by ADIF standard LotW tags, and places these in the QSO's LotW status items

  • places the contents of the non-standard  MY_EVENT tag into the QSO's ContestID item; the value  DX  is ignored

TurboLog v3, v4
  • extracts US State and CQ Zone information from IOTA tags

  • extracts "via Buro" and "via Direct" information from QSL_SENT tags

  • replaces a leading * in the CALL tag with a !

  • interprets <TL4_QSL_ACCEPTED:1>Y to mean "verified - DXCC Credit Granted", and sets the QSO's QSL_RCVD item to V

WinLog32
  • imports information from  WL_REMARKS tags into comment items, and ignores information associated with COMMENT tags (which contain country names)

  • an imported <QSL_SENT:1>N will clear the imported QSO's QSL_SENT item

Writelog
  • correctly interprets Writelog's DXCC prefixes in PREF tags, ensuring that each imported QSO is assigned to the correct DXCC entity 

tab-delimited file
  • assumes an tab-delimited file whose first line is a header, and whose values are consistent with those specified in ADIF (a few exceptions are permitted, as described below)

If the file you are importing contains tags that specify binary data, you must either check the Ignore tags containing binary data box or select Logic in the ADIF Style panel; otherwise, DXKeeper will not properly import the file.

 

QSOs logged in response to a Log QSO command from another application

As noted above, the following Import Options do not apply to QSOs logged in response to Log QSO command from another application:

When importing a QSO logged in response to Log QSO command from another application that does not specify one of these items, DXKeeper will import that item with a default value if one has been specified:

 

Item Configuration tab Setting
Ant_Path Defaults Antenna Path
MS_Shower Defaults Meteor shower
MyQTHID Log default myQTH ID
Operator Defaults Operator callsign
Owner Callsign Defaults Owner callsign
Prop Mode Defaults Propagation mode
QSLMsg Defaults QSL msg
Sat_Name Defaults Satellite name
Sat_Mode Defaults Satellite mode
Station Callsign Defaults Station callsign
TX_Power Defaults Transmit power by Band

Transmit power by Mode

Transmit power

 

 

Application-specific ADIF tags

The ADIF specification enables applications to define their own tags. With the ADIF Style set to Standard ADIF, DXKeeper recognizes the application specific tags of certain other applications, as described below:

 

Tag Effect
APP_DXLOG_RCVD

APP_DXLOG_RECINFO

APP_DXLOG_RECINFO2

APP_DXLOG_RECINFO3
sets the QSO's rx info item
  • APP_DXLOG_RCVD has the highest priority
  • APP_DXLOG_RECINFO has the 2nd-highest priority
  • APP_DXLOG_RECINFO2 has the 3rd-highest priority
  • APP_DXLOG_RECINFO3 has the 4th-highest priority
APP_LOGGER32_CNTY sets the QSO's Cnty item
APP_LOGGER32_eQSL if Y sets the QSO's eQSL_Sent item to R
APP_LOGGER32_EQSL_QSL_SENT if Y or N, sets the QSO's eQSL_Sent item
APP_LOGGER32_EQSL_QSL_RCVD if Y or N, sets the QSO's eQSL_Rcvd item
APP_LOGGER32_LAT sets the QSO's Lat item
APP_LOGGER32_LNG sets the QSO's Lon item
APP_LOGGER32_LoTW if Y sets the QSO's LotW_Sent item to R
APP_LOGGER32_LOTW_QSL_SENT if Y or N, sets the QSO's LotW_Sent item
APP_LOGGER32_LOTW_QSL_RCVD if Y or N, sets the QSO's LotW_Rcvd item
APP_LOGGER32_QSL if Y sets the QSO's QSL_Sent item to R
APP_LOGGER32_STATE sets the QSO's State item
APP_N1MM_HQ sets the QSO's rx info item
APP_N1MM_EXCHANGE1 sets the QSO's rx info item
APP_WRITELOG_IOTA sets the QSO's DXCC item
APP_WRITELOG_PREF sets the QSO's Iota item

Note that these application-specific tags take precedence over any standard ADIF tag that may be present in the same record. For example, importing an ADIF record containing <SRX_STRING:3>foo <APP_N1MM_EXCHANGE1:3>bar will set the QSO's rx info item to bar.

Importing tab-delimited files

To import a tab-delimited file by set the ADIF Style panel to tab-delimited file before initiating the import operation. Tab-delimited files are easily created by spreadsheet applications; each row in the spreadsheet produces a line in the file, and each column in the spreadsheet is represented by a tab-delimited field in each line. For DXKeeper to successfully import a tab-delimited file,

  1. the first line must contain a caption for each field, where a caption is either a valid ADIF tag, or one of the following

  2. the following fields must be present

  3. subsequent lines must contain fields whose values comply with the ADIF specification, e.g. frequencies are represented in megahertz with the period character as a decimal separator; the following exceptions are supported

For some users, creating a spreadsheet will be the fastest way to digitize paper logs. Before embarking down this path, set up the spreadsheet's header row, record a few test QSOs, generate a tab-delimited file, import that file into your DXKeeper log, and verify that all QSO data is being properly captured. Then large number of QSOs can be digitized with confidence.

 

User-defined Items

Each of the eight user-defined items logged with each QSO can be imported 

Enabling a user-defined item's ADIF option enables that item to be both imported or exported using its Caption as the field name - in both ADIF and tab-delimited files.

 

Interactions with other configuration settings

 

Other considerations

 

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