This release - corrects spot locations for Canadian callsigns (tnx to Ken W7TS): VE9 => NA-E VE0 => unknown (maritime mobile) VY0 => NA-E (Nunavut) VY1 => NA-W (Yukon) - provides the option to update each Spot Database Entry's DXCC entity and progress information by querying the currently-active log file (tnx to Jerry K3BZ and Laurent F1JKJ) - provides the option to specify start and end times for each band and filter accordingly, and the option to ignore all such specified start and end times (tnx to Lee VE7CC, Joe W4TV, and Rick W3ZJ) - provide the option to specify a maximum distance from the closest spotting station for each band and filter accordingly, and the option to ignore all such specified maximum distances (tnx to Joe W4TV) - provide an option that specifies whether distances are stored and displayed in miles or kilometers - enable the user to specify a QTH latitude and longitude so that a spot database entry's maximum distance from the closest spotting station can be computed - provide the option to not extract the spotting station's gridsquare from spot notes (tnx to Bill GM0VIT and Rich W3ZJ) - updates the ConfigurationDatabase.htm, ConfigurationGeneral.htm, DXClusterInteraction.htm, PacketClusterInteraction.htm, SourceConnection.htm, and SpotDatabase.htm online documentation files Recomputing Progress There’s now a Recomp button in the “Log file referenced for award progress” panel on the Config window’s “Spot Database” tab. Clicking this button directs SpotCollector to update each Spot Database Entry’s entity and progress information from the log file specified in this panel. Depending on the number of entries in your Spot Database, this operation can take a long time. Its only necessary to do this after accepting a new DXCC database that changes DXCC entity definitions, e.g when Montenegro’s DXCC prefix was changed. Expanded Band filtering This release significantly expands the Band Filter's capabilties if (and only if) you check the new "Enable Start/End & Max Origin DX Filtering" box in the Band Filter window's upper-right corner; if this box remains unchecked, then the features described below are disabled and there should be no significant increase in CPU or memory consumption over SpotCollector 4.0.7. Time Interval filtering With a Band's Enable box unchecked, you can specify a four-digit “Start UTC” time and a four-digit “End UTC” time for that band; when you then check the band’s Enable box, Spot Database Entries for that band will only be visible in the Spot Database Display if the current UTC time is later than the specified “Start UTC” time and earlier than the specified “End UTC” time. You must specify both a “Start UTC” and an “End UTC” to filter a band by time interval; if either of these textboxes is empty, no time interval filtering will be applied to the band’s Spot Database Entries. SpotCollector updates the Spot Database Display each minute, so Spot Database Entries will automatically appear and dissappear as the current UTC time changes. This new capability should be helpful to low-band DXers who wish to ignore spots of stations to which their can be no propagation during well-known time intervals (like on 160m during daytime). The Band filter's new Ignore panel provides a "Start & End times" box that, if checked, causes the Band Filter to act as if no “Start UTC” and “End UTC” times have been specified for any band. This lets you quickly disable "Start & End time filtering" without having to manually clear every “Start UTC” and “End UTC” textbox in the Band Filter window, and then quickly re-enable "Start & End time filtering" without having to re-enter the desired times. To implement "Start & End time filtering", I added a new field named BFA (for BandFilterActive) to the Spot Database. If this field's value is Y in a Spot Database Entry, then the current UTC time lies between the Start and Stop times specified for that Entry's band (or the "Enable Start/End & Max Origin DX Filtering" box is unchecked); if this field's value is N in a Spot Database Entry, then the current UTC time is later than the Stop time but earlier than the Start time specified for the band. Maximum Distance to Closest Spotting Station filtering With a Band's Enable box unchecked, you can specify a maximum distance to the closest spotting station for that band -- "Max Origin DX" -- in either miles or kilometers as selected on the new "DX Unit" panel on the Config window's General tab. When you then check the band’s Enable box, a Spot Database Entry for that band will only be visible in the Spot Database Display if the distance from your QTH to the closest spotting station for that Entry is less than or equal to the maximum distance you’ve specified for that band. If you leave a band's "Max origin DX" textbox empty, there will be no maximum distnace to closest spotting station filtering for that band. This new capability is helpful to VHF and UHF DXers who need more fine-grained control over Spot Origin than can be accomplished with the continent-oriented Origin filter. To use this feature, you must specify your Latitude and Longitude in the new textboxes in the "Operator location" panel on the Config window's General tab; if you have DXView installed, these textboxes will be automatically initialized to the location of your QTH specified in DXView. Double-clicking either the Latitude or Longitude textbox prompts you to enter a gridsquare, the center of which will be used to set the Latitude and Longitude. SpotCollector computes the distance to the spotting station by using the Spot Database Entry's OriginGrid field. The OriginGrid field contents are either extracted from spot notes -- which as we've recently discussed does not always produce reliable results -- or captured from the spotting station gridsquare appended to spots by clusters running DX Spider software to which a SET/DXGRID command has been sent. You can enable this by placing the SET/DXGRID command in the "Initial Cluster command" textbox on the Config window's "Spot Sources" tab. My Initial Cluster command looks like this: SH/WWV 36<13><10>SH/DX 100<13><10> SET/DXGRID Its okay to send the SET/DXGRID command to clusters not running DX Spider software; they will respond with an error message in their cluster window, which SpotCollector will ignore. The spotter gridsquare provided by DX Spider cluster software is determined via callbook lookup, and thus should be accurate. In this release, a new "Extract Spotter Gridsquare" checkbox in the General panel on the Config window's General tab lets you disable the extraction of spotting station grid squares from spot notes, relying only on spotting station grid squares provided by DX Spider clusters. If you do have the "Extract Spotter Gridsquare" box checked, then a spotting station gridsquare extracted from spot notes will take precedence of a spotting station gridsquare supplied by a DX Spider cluster (as was the case in all recent versions of SpotCollector). The Band Filter window's new Ignore panel provides a "Max origin DX" box that, if checked, causes the Band Filter to act as if no Max origin DX constraints have been specified for any band. This lets you quickly disable "max distance to closest spotting station" filtering without having to manually clear every "Max origin DX" textbox in the Band Filter window, and then restore them to their previous values after you're done. To implement "max distance to closest spotting station" filtering, I added two new fields to the Spot Database: ODX (for Origin Distance), and OMDX (for Origin Maximum Distance). When a new Spot Database Entry is created, SpotCollector computes the distance from your QTH to the center of the spotting station's grid square, and places that distance in the ODX field; if no spotting station grid square is available, the ODX field is set to -1 (which appears in the Spot Database Display as a blank). When an existing Spot Database Entry is updated by a new spot, SpotCollector computes the distance from your QTH to the center of the spotting station's grid square, and updates the entry's ODX field if its smaller than the current value; thus a Spot Database Entry's ODX field should always contain the distance to the closest station to have spotted the Entry's DX station. A Spot Database Entry's OMDX field contains the maximum distance to spotter specified for that Entry's band, as specified in the band's "Max origin DX" textbox in the Band Filter window; if this textbox is empty, OMDX is set to the earth's circumference, which prevents any "distance to closest spotting station" filtering for that band. Thus the SQL expression ODX<=OMDX can be used to filter the Spot Database Display to show only those entries whose distance to closest spotting station is less than the specified maximum; the Band Filter does this automatically unless "the Ignore" panel's "Max origin DX" box has been checked. When you change a band's "Max origin DX" textbox in the Band Filter window, SpotCollector updates the OMDX field of all existing Spot Database Entries for that band when you check the band's Enable box. If you change the distance units from miles to kilometers or vice versa, SpotCollector automatically converts the ODX and OMDX field contents in all Spot Database Entries, and all Band Filter “Max origin DX” textbox contents. Important Note: If you enable “Maximum distance to closest spotting station” filtering, enable audio announcements of needed spots, and connect to multiple clusters -- some of which run DX Spider software and some of which do not -- then be aware of the following scenario: 1. a new spot for a needed Entity-Band arrives from a cluster not running DX Spider software, so no "spotting station gridsquare" is available. A Spot Database Entry is created, and its OMX field is set to -1. Since the Entity-Band is needed, an audio annoucement is made 2. shortly thereafter, the same spot arrives via a cluster running DX Spider software -- but with a spotting station gridsquare that's further away than your specified "maximum distance to closest spotting station". The existing Spot Database Entry is updated; in particular, its OMX field is set to the computed distance. Since this distance exceeds your specified maximum, the Spot Database Entry no longer appears in the Spot Database Display. Hearing an audio announcement of needed DX with no corresponding Entry in the Spot Database Display can be disconcerting unless you keep this scenario in mind. At present, the only way to avoid it is by only connecting to clusters running DX Spider software. Eventually, SpotCollector will offer the option of performing a local callbook lookup on spotting stations that arrive without spotting station gridsquares. Here are the host addresses and ports for four clusters around the world that run DX Spider software and thus provide spotting station gridsquares -- typically for about about half of the spots they convey: cluster.dx-central.com (port 23) gb7djk.dxcluster.net (port 7300) dxc.ve7cc.net (port 23) jk1zrw.dyndns.org (port 7300) Special thanks go to Joe W4TV, Rich W3ZJ, Juergen DL8LE, and Ken W7TS for their contributions to extended Band Filtering included in this release. SpotCollector 4.1.2 is available via the DXLab Launcher, and via http://www.dxlabsuite.com/download.htm . 73, Dave, AA6YQ