IdentifyLogClubMembers - DX Lab Suite Wiki

Identifying and Logging QSOs with Club Members, Callsigns with Leaderboard Competitions, and other Special Callsigns

SpotCollector's Special Callsign List enables you to

identify callsigns that when spotted should be flagged and considered for announcement as a Special Callsign, and that when logged via the Capture window are highlighted with Magenta font color
specify one or more tags that should be associated with each Special Callsign that
- can be displayed when DXView performs a lookup of that callsign
- govern how SpotCollector decides to highlight and announce that callsign
- can prevent the pruning of Spot Database Entries for that callsign, allowing accumulation of a long operating history
- can be appended to the Comment item of QSOs logged with that callsign by DXKeeper or by WinWarbler (DXView must be running)

Configuration

on the Audio Alarm tab of SpotCollector's Configuration window, check the Announce special callsigns box in the Audio Alarm trigger panel
on the General tab of DXView's Configuration window, check the Query Special Callsign Database box
on the General tab of DXKeeper's Configuration window, check the Log Special Callsign Tags box
on the Log tab of WinWarbler's Configuration window, check the log Special Callsign Tags box

Adding Callsigns to the Special Callsign List

Each entry on the Special Callsign List specifies a callsign, and a Tag List containing Tags separated by commas. A Tag is a word of your choosing typically used to indicate why the callsign is special -- the name of a club, for example, or a membership number like EPC-2640, or simply friend. The absence of any Tag means ignore all spots of this callsign so if that's not your intent, be sure to specify at least one Tag.

If a callsign is participating in a Leaderboard Contest,create a Special Callsign List entry for the callsign with Leaderboard its a tag. When a Spot Database Entry is created for such a callsign, SpotCollector will highlight it as needed for Leaderboard and announce it as a special callsign if you haven't logged a QSO with the callsign on the entry's band (160m, 80m, 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, 10m, 6m, 2m) and in the entry's mode (phone, CW, digital).

If a callsign is participating in an award program you're pursuing, create a Special Callsign List entry for the callsign with the award program name as its a Tag. When a callsign is member of one or more clubs with whom you seek QSOs, create a Special Callsign List entry for the callsign with each membership number as a Tag.

You can manually enter callsigns and Tags in the Special Callsigns List, or you can populate the Special Callsigns List from a text file that specifies a callsign and its Tags on each line. Files containing membership lists for popular clubs can be obtained from these sources:

Ham Clubs (070, DMC, FH, 1010, FISTS, SKCC, FOC, NAQCC, FPQRP, HSC, OQRS Users, ClubLog DXPeds, Special Event Stations, ILLW), maintained by David KJ4IZW
SKCC Downloads
DXLab Special Callsign Lists

To manually create a Special Callsign List entry,

select the Special Callsigns tab of SpotCollector's Configuration window
in the Special Callsign List panel,
1. if necessary, scroll the Special Callsign List so that its last row is visible; this row contains an asterisk in its left-most column
2. type the callsign into the Callsign column of the last row of the Special Callsign List; this will create a new row with a pencil icon in it's left-most column
3. type one or more tags, separated by commas, into the Tag List column of the newly-created row of the Special Callsign List
4. strike the Enter key

After adding one or more new entries to the Special Callsign List or modifying existing entries, you can update SpotCollector's Spot Database to reflect those changes by clicking the Recompute button along the right edge of SpotCollector's Configuration window's Spot Database tab.

Predefined Tags

Tag	Meaning
	spots of the callsign will be ignored
`BadSource`	with the the Check Spotting station callsigns for BadSource tags option enabled, spots of the callsign are ignored, and spots sourced by the callsign are ignored
`Leaderboard`	track the callsign for a Leaderboard competition
`NoPrune`	when pruning the Spot Database, retain Spot Database Entries for the callsign
`PredictSNR`	with the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and Probability Prediction setting enabled, creation of a Spot Database Entry for the callsign will initiate an SNR & Probability prediction

Displaying a callsign's Tags

To see the Tags associated with a callsign, enter that callsign in DXView's Main window and strike the Enter key; the callsign's Tags will appear in the Special Callsign Tags panel on DXView's Main window. Typing a callsign into DXKeeper's Capture window and then striking the Enter or Tab key will also direct DXView to display the callsign's Tags.

Filtering the Spot Database Display to Show Active Stations with Specified Tags

If you're using a set of tags -- say QWCA, TenTen, and EuroPSK -- to identify club members, you can setup a filter to quickly identify all active stations with a specific tag, e.g.

TAGS LIKE '*TenTen*'

or one of several specific tags, e.g.

(TAGS LIKE '*QWCA*') or (TAGS LIKE '*EuroPSK*')

Logging a callsign's Tags

With DXView running, DXKeeper will log the Tags associated with a callsign by appending them to the QSO's Comment item if DXKeeper's Log Special Callsign Tags box is checked the Options panel on its Configuration window's General tab.