WinWarbler Logging

WinWarbler Online Help Contents

WinWarbler can log QSOs as ADIF records in a text file, referred to as the Minilog; you can select the file to be used for this purpose. WinWarbler can also log QSOs in real time to DXKeeper, a full-functioned logging program that records and manages QSOs, tracks progress towards DXing objectives, prints QSL cards and QSL labels, submits QSOs to Club Log, and synchronizes with both eQSL.cc and the ARRL's Logbook of the World (LotW).

At the top of its Main window, WinWarbler's QSO Info panel provides up to 11 rows of textboxes and selectors with which to specify items to be logged.  After capturing a callsign with DXKeeper running, this panel can also display a twelfth row that shows the number of already-logged QSOs with that callsign, and the details of the most recent QSO with that callsign. You can expand the height of the QSO Info panel to display another row by clicking the button in the panel's upper right corner. When the last row is visible in the QSO Info panel, the surface of this button changes to ; clicking the button in this state reduces the height of the QSO Info panel to display the first three rows of textboxes and selectors, and changes the button surface back to . Row-by-row control over the information displayed in the QSO Info panel is provided by the QSO Info Layout window, which appears when you click the Arrange Items button at the bottom of the QSO Info panel on the Configuration window's Log tab. The QSO Info Layout window will also appear if you depress the CTRL key while clicking the or  button in the Main window's QSO Info panel.

The transceiver's Receive and Transmit frequencies are displayed in the Xcvr Freq panel's RX textbox and TX selector, respectively; these frequencies are combined with audio offsets to compute the actual receive and transmit frequencies displayed in each mode's Receive and Transmit panels, and logged with QSOs. If Commander is running, these frequencies are updated automatically; if not, you must set them manually.

Some information can be directly captured from decoded data by double-clicking on received words in a PSK receive pane or RTTY receive pane. Double-clicking a received callsign, for example, will place that callsign in the QSO Info panel's Call textbox, and initialize many items:

• if clear QSO Info on callsign capture is enabled, all QSO info panel textboxes except the callsign textbox will be cleared

• the TX Pwr textbox is set from the default value specified in the Configuration window's PSK tab, RTTY tab, CW tab, or Phone tab

• the QSL Msg textbox is set from its default value specified in the Default Settings panel on the Configuration window's Log tab; you can type in a new value, or select one of the eight Candidate QSL Messages

• if Contest Mode is enabled

  • the Contest selector is set to the contest named in the Configuration window's Contesting panel

  • the rst S and rst R textboxes are set to 59 or 599 as a function of the current mode

• if Contest Mode is disabled

  • the Contest selector and the TX#, and RX# text boxes are disabled if the Don't log contest, TX#, or RX# if contest mode is disabled option is enabled

  • if the Log button is clicked, values for Contest, TX#, and RX# will not be recorded with the QSO

• if initialize RST items to 59/599 is enabled, the rst S and rst R textboxes are set to 59 or 599 as a function of the current mode

• if Audio Recording is enabled with the Automatically start and stop recording option also enabled, audio recording will be initiated and the audio filename will be included with the logged QSO

• if DXKeeper is running and Automatic Lookup is enabled, then

  • DXKeeper will display all previous QSOs with the callsign, perform a callbook lookup (if installed and enabled), and perform a DXCC database lookup

  • information logged in previous QSOs, found in the selected callbook, or found in the DXCC database is used to set the  DXCC selector, to set the Grid 1, Via, QTH, IOTA, CQ, ITU, State, County, and Province textboxes, and to record the Country Code and Continent

  • the Call textbox's caption will indicate the number of previous QSOs with this callsign

  • details of the most recent QSO with this station are displayed in the expanded QSO info panel

  • the Call textbox's font and background colors will be set, depending upon whether SpotCollector is installed and the use SpotCollector's callsign colors option is enabled

• if the log currently open in DXKeeper specifies User-defined items that are to be initialized with default values, the QSO Info panel's User-defined items will be so initialized

• if DXKeeper is not running but DXView is running, then DXView will perform a DXCC database lookup to set the DXCC selector, to set  the IOTA, CQ, ITU, and State textboxes if they can be unambiguously determined from the callsign, and to record the Country Code and Continent

• if DXView is running

  • DXView's Info and World Map windows will display the callsign's location

  • the station's local time will be displayed in the QSO info panel's upper-right corner

  • the Az box and Path selector will be updated from DXView's most recent antenna heading

  • directs PropView to generate a propagation forecast for the station's location using the TX frequency 

• if DXView is not running, Path will be set to the default Path

• if Pathfinder is running, it is directed to perform a QSL route search for the callsign

• if SpotCollector is running, its Outgoing spot panel will be populated with the callsign (in case you wait to spot the callsign until after your log it)

Manually keying a callsign into the Call textbox and then striking the Enter or Tab keys will also perform the above actions; if the Ctrl key is depressed while striking the Enter key, all QSO info panel textboxes except the callsign textbox will be cleared.

If DXKeeper is running, a ? button will be present to the right of the Call textbox's caption. Clicking this ? button invokes the Lookup operation, which performs several actions referencing the station whose callsign is shown in the Call textbox:

• directs DXKeeper to filter its Log Page Display to show previous QSOs with the station

• directs DXKeeper to perform a callbook lookup (if enabled)

• populates the QSO info panel textboxes with DXCC, Grid 1, Via, QTH, IOTA, CQ, ITU, State, County, Province, Continent and Country Code information obtained from previous QSOs, found in the selected callbook, or found in the DXCC database 

• if log Special Callsign Tags is enabled, appends Special Callsign Tags reported by DXView to the  QSO info panel's Comment textbox

• display's the station's local time in the QSO info panel's upper-right corner

• if Contest Mode is disabled, updates the Prev QSOs box to display the number of previous QSOs with the callsign specified in the Call textbox, and displays the word Dup! if one or more of these previous QSOs were made in the current mode in the current band

• if Contest Mode is enabled, updates the Prev QSOs box to display the number of previous QSOs with the callsign specified in the Call textbox in the current contest, and displays the word Dup! if one or more of these previous contest QSOs were made in the current mode in the current band

• uses the Call textbox's font color to indicate progress towards the award objectives specified in DXKeeper, employing a color scheme governed by the use SpotCollector's callsign colors setting

• uses the Call textbox's background color to indicate participation in Logbook of the World (LotW) and Authenticity Guaranteed (AG) membership in eQSL.cc, employing a color scheme governed by the use SpotCollector's callsign colors setting

• displays details of the most recent QSO with the station in the expanded QSO info panel

• directs Pathfinder to perform a QSL route search for the station

• if DXView and PropView are both running and automatic propagation forecasting is enabled, directs PropView to generate a propagation forecast for the station's location using the TX frequency

Double-clicking the Comment textbox will display WinWarbler's Comment Editor window, which makes it easy to capture and/or edit lengthy notes. Anything you type in the Comment Editor window will be placed in the Comment textbox (though it may not all be visible), and vice versa.

Double-clicking a textbox's caption will direct DXKeeper (if running) to filter its log page display to show only QSOs that match the textbox's value, and underline that caption for 1 second. For example, double-click the word QTH in the QSO Info panel when the QTH textbox contains Miami will direct DXKeeper to filter its log page display to show only QSOs whose QTH is Miami. 

You can enable or disable Contest Mode via the Configuration window's Contest tab or via the Test box on the last row of the Main window's fully-expanded QSO info panel.

To indicate that a QSO has started, click the QSO info panel's Begin button; the start time will appear in the panel caption. If set QSO start when RST received is enabled, entering a received signal report in the rst R textbox will automatically set the QSO's start time (if not already set), whether this is done via keystroke or, by double-clicking on a received signal report. Executing a macro containing the <RSTsent> or <TX_serial_number> command will also set the QSO's start time. To update the QSO's start time, click the Begin button again.

To indicate that a QSO has ended, click the QSO info panel's End button; the end time will appear in the panel caption.

Double-clicking or striking the Enter key in the Grid 1 textbox directs DXView to display the specified gridsquare's location.  Depressing the Ctrl key while double-clicking the Grid 1 textbox directs DXView to display the specified gridsquare's location and rotate the antenna to the short-path heading; depressing the Alt key while double-clicking the Grid 1 textbox directs DXView to display the specified gridsquare's location and rotate the antenna to the long-path heading.

Clicking the Log button also ends the QSO, and checks the information contained in QSO info panel's textboxes and selectors. Errors or omissions are flagged by flashing the offending item's caption  in red font; the flag invalid callsigns and require DXCC options are considered when identifying errors and omissions. If no errors or omissions are found, the information to be logged is recorded in the minilog and sent to DXKeeper, if running. If Contest Mode is disabled and the don't log contest, TX#, or RX# if contest mode setting is disabled, values from the Contest selector and the TX#, and RX# textboxes are not recorded with the QSO. Depressing the Ctrl key while clicking the Log button directs DXKeeper to immediately upload the information to eQSL.cc ; alternatively, checking the upload to eQSL.cc when logging box directs DXKeeper to upload each QSO as it is logged. Checking the upload to LotW when logging box directs DXKeeper to upload each QSO to LotW as it is logged. Checking the upload to Club Log when logging box directs DXKeeper to upload each QSO to Club Log as it is logged.  To prepare for the next QSO, WinWarbler then clears all QSO info items except Freq and, if Contest Mode is enabled, TX#.

If you click the Log button with Audio Recording enabled,

• if the Shift key was depressed when the Log button was clicked or if Automatically start and stop recording is enabled,

  1. the word Audio in the recorded audio filename is replaced with the Call specified in the QSO info panel, e.g. P5DX-2016-04-01 01:02:03

  2. the recorded audio filename is logged via the ADIF App_DXKeeper_AudioFile field

• if the Alt key was depressed when the Log button was clicked, any recorded audio or audio file is discarded

Callsigns not containing at least one letter and one number are considered invalid unless flag invalid callsigns is disabled.

Clicking the X button in the QSO info panel's upper right corner will clear all items in the QSO info panel. If Audio Recording is enabled with the Automatically start and stop recording option also enabled, clicking this button will also stop audio recording and abandon the recorded audio file.

When operating PSK31 or PSK63, WinWarbler provides three receive panes, each capable of decoding an independent PSK signal. WinWarbler therefore independently records QSO information for each receive pane. The QSO info panel shows the information associated with the currently active receive pane, and the active receive pane is identified by number in the QSO info panel's caption. Making another receive pane active causes the QSO info panel to display information for the QSO being decoded in the newly-activated receive pane. This allows you to accumulate information captured from multiple signals, separately retaining each signal's information until a QSO is completed and logged.

When operating RTTY with both soundcard RTTY and an external modem both enabled, WinWarbler provides two receive panes, each capable of decoding an independent RTTY signal. By tuning both receive panes to the same signal, you can employ diversity decoding to more reliably capture information under difficult conditions. WinWarbler can thus be configured in two ways:

1. Independently record QSO information from the soundcard RTTY and external modem receive panes. In this case, the QSO info panel shows the information associated with the currently active receive pane and the active receive pane is identified by number in the QSO info panel's caption. Making the other receive pane active causes the QSO info panel to display information for the QSO being decoded in the newly-activated receive pane. This allows you to accumulate information captured from two different RTTY signals, separately retaining each signal's information until a QSO is completed and logged.

2. Merge QSO information from the soundcard RTTY and external modem receive panes, in which case the QSO info panel shows information captured from either receive pane. With both panes tuned to the same RTTY signal, this enables you capture information from whichever pane provides the best copy on a word-by-word basis.

The choice between these two configurations is governed by the RTTY Transmit panel's QSO Selector, which only appears when operating RTTY with both soundcard RTTY and an external modem both enabled. When the QSO Selector is set to S or X, QSO information captured from the two receive panes is merged; otherwise, QSO information is maintained independently for each receive pane.

To allow operation without removing one's hands from the keyboard, WinWarbler provides keyboard shortcuts for navigating among QSO info items and the Transmit Pane, and for invoking functions like starting or logging a QSO.

Macros can be invoked from QSO info text boxes and selectors by striking the appropriate Function key. Macro substitution commands are available for many QSO info items.

If DXKeeper is running, changes to items in WinWarbler's QSO info panel are immediately reflected in DXKeeper's Capture window; this allows you to begin logging a QSO in WinWarbler and complete it in DXKeeper's Capture window, should you desire to do so. However, changes to items in DXKeeper's Capture window are not reflected in WinWarbler's QSO info panel. If Contest Mode is enabled, logging a QSO via DXKeeper's Capture window will increment the Capture window's TX# textbox, but will not increment WinWarbler's TX# textbox; thus when switching from "logging from DXKeeper" to "logging from WinWarbler" in the middle of a contest, you must manually update WinWarbler's TX# textbox at the time you switch.

The Minilog

The Minilog is a text file whose simple name is the operator's callsign (with any forward slashes or back slashes replaced by hyphens) and whose suffix is .adi; the Minilog resides in the folder whose pathname is specified in the Minilog panel's pathname textbox. 

Every time you log a QSO, an ADIF record is appended to the Minilog's contents, whether or not DXKeeper is running. You can load the information contained in a Minilog into any logging application capable of importing standard ADIF. After importing the Minilog's contents into a logging application, you may wish to clear the contents of the Minilog; you can do so by clicking the Clear button on the Config window's Log tab.

If you will be importing the Minilog into the logging program DXbase, select export for DXbase in the Minilog panel on the Log tab of the Configuration window; this ensures that frequencies are represented in a format acceptable to DXbase.

User-defined Items

By fully expanding the QSO Info panel, you can log up to 8 user-defined items with each QSO. DXKeeper provides the ability to specify a caption, style, alignment, and default value for each user-defined item; you can choose from among 11 styles, including a list style that lets you choose from among a pre-specified set of values. If DXKeeper is not running, WinWarbler's QSO Info panel displays these 8 items with the names user-defined 0 through user-defined 7, and accepts all alphanumeric characters. If DXKeeper is running, the QSO Info panel displays the these 8 items with the captions specified on the User Items tab of DXKeeper's Configuration window, and enforces the constraints imposed by each item's style.

A user-defined item whose caption is POTA will be populated with the contents of a double-clicked Spot Database Entry's POTA field.

A user-defined item whose caption is WWFF will be populated with the contents of a double-clicked Spot Database Entry's WWFF field.

Capturing Information from Decoded Data

To facilitate logging, WinWarbler provides several mechanisms for copying information from decoded data into textboxes in the QSO info panel.

• Right-clicking in a receive display pane in which one or more contiguous characters have been selected produces a window with buttons that let you choose a destination textbox in the QSO info panel into which those characters are copied.

• Selecting one or more contiguous characters in a receive display pane 

  • while not depressing the Alt key, copies those characters to the Windows Clipboard

  • while depressing the Alt key,

    • if the selected characters are a valid gridsquare, copies those characters to the Grid 1 textbox

    • if the selected characters are a URL, directs the selected browser to navigate to that URL

    • otherwise, copies the selected characters to the QTH textbox

  • while depressing the Alt and Ctrl keys with Contest Mode disabled, copies those characters to the Comment textbox

  • while depressing the Alt and Ctrl keys with Contest Mode enabled, copies those characters to the RX# textbox

• Double-clicking on a word in a receive pane with neither Alt nor Ctrl depressed copies that word to the appropriate QSO info textbox:

  • if the word contains both letters and digits, it is assumed to be the station's callsign and placed in the call textbox; the following actions are taken:

    • the TX Pwr and QSL Msg textboxes are set from their default values in the Configuration window's Log tab's Default Settings panel

    • if Contest Mode is enabled

      1. the Contest selector is set to the contest ID named in the Configuration window's Contest tab

      2. the rst S and rst R textboxes are set to 59 or 599 as a function of the current mode

    • if initialize RST items to 59/599 is enabled, the rst S and rst R textboxes are set to 59 or 599 as a function of the current mode

    • if DXKeeper is running and Automatic Lookup is enabled, then

      1. DXKeeper will display all previous QSOs with the callsign, perform a callbook lookup (if installed and enabled), and perform a DXCC database lookup

      2. information logged in previous QSOs, found in the selected callbook, or found in the DXCC database is used to set the  DXCC selector, to set the Grid 1, Via, QTH, IOTA, CQ, ITU, State, County, and Province textboxes, and to record the Country Code and Continent

      3. the Call textbox's caption will indicate the number of previous QSOs with this callsign

      4. details of the most recent QSO with this station are displayed in the expanded QSO info panel

    • if DXKeeper is not running but DXView is running, then DXView will perform a DXCC database lookup to set the DXCC selector, to set  the IOTA, CQ, ITU, and State textboxes if they can be unambiguously determined from the callsign, and to record the Country Code and Continent

    • if DXView is running, it will display the location of that callsign

    • if Pathfinder is running, it is directed to perform a QSL route search for the callsign

    • if SpotCollector is running, its Outgoing spot panel will be populated with the callsign (in case you wait to spot the callsign until after your log it)

  • if the word contains only letters, it is assumed to be the operator's name and placed in the name textbox

  • if not in Contest Mode and the word contains two or three digits, it is assumed to be a signal report. If the word is in received text, it is placed in the rst R textbox;  ff the word is in transmitted text, it is placed in the rst S  textbox

  • if in Contest Mode and the word contains only digits, it is assumed to be a serial number and is placed in the RX# textbox

• Double-clicking a word in a receive pane while depressing the Alt key copies that word to the QTH textbox unless the word is a valid 4-character or 6-character Maidenhead gridsquare identifier, in which case it is placed in the Grid 1 textbox and DXView, if running, is directed to display that grid square's location. If the DXCC selector is set to K, KH6, or KH7 and the word is a valid US State abbreviation, then the State selector will be set accordingly; similarly, if the DXCC selector is set to VE and the word is a valid Canadian Province abbreviation, then the Province selector will be set. 

• Double-clicking a word in a receive pane while depressing the Ctrl key copies that word to the Via textbox. 

• Double-clicking a word in a receive pane while simultaneously depressing the Alt and Ctrl keys

  • with Contest Mode is disabled, appends that word to the Comment textbox

  • with Contest Mode is enabled, copies that word to the RX# textbox

Summary of QSO info destinations when double-clicking a decoded word in a receive pane

If, when you click the Log button, one or more QSO info panel textboxes contain invalid information, their labels will blink in red font until you correct their contents and again click the Log button; callsigns not containing at least one letter and one number are considered invalid unless the flag invalid callsigns box is unchecked. Log entries are appended to a file that WinWarbler creates in its application folder; this file's simple name is your callsign, and its file extension is .ADI -- e.g. AA6YQ.ADI. 

If you are using a ADIF-compatible logging application other than DXKeeper, you can import the log entries in this file into your logging program; this can be done while WinWarbler is running. After successfully importing these entries, click the Clear button in the Minilog panel on the Log tab of WinWarbler's Configuration window  to delete all log entries from WinWarbler's log file.

Information Logged

The following table lists all information logged with a QSO, macro substitution commands and  ADIF tags for each. The QSO info panel column indicates whether the item is always visible in the QSO info panel, only visible when the QSO info panel is expanded, or never visible:

Notes:

1. striking the Enter or Tab keys after keying in a callsign is equivalent to clicking the ? button - the Lookup operation is invoked

2. if the callsign begins with an exclamation point or ends with an /am or /mm suffix, WinWarbler will not check it for validity and DXKeeper will ignore it from an awards tracking perspective

3. the State and Country items will appear when the DXCC selector is set to K, KH6, or KL7

4. letting the mouse cursor hover over the contents of the DXCC selector will display an explanatory popup bearing the full name of the selected DXCC entity

5. WinWarbler logs the actual receive frequency -- the transceiver receive frequency modified by specified offsets in CW, Phone, and FSK RTTY modes, and modified by the audio offsets in PSK and AFSK RTTY modes 

6. the Comment and QSL msg items share space; to toggle between them, click the ~ button to the right of the currently-visible item

7. the Province item appears when the DXCC selector is set to VE

8. the Mode is primarily determined by the Main window's Mode panel; if Phone is selected, the Mode is determined by the Phone Xcvr Mode setting

9. the proper Country Code is automatically set whenever a DXCC entity prefix is selected

10. striking the Enter or Tab keys after typing a grid square into the Grid 1 item directs DXView, if running, to display the location of that grid square

11. if the transceiver is operating split, WinWarbler logs the actual transmit frequency -- the transceiver transmit frequency modified by specified offsets in CW Phone and FSK RTTY mode, and modified by the audio offsets in PSK and AFSK RTTY modes

12. the receive frequency is taken from the frequency displayed in the Main window's Receive panel for the currently active mode

13. the transmit frequency is taken from the frequency displayed in the Main window's Transmit panel for the currently active mode

14. double-clicking in the Comment textbox displays the Comment Editor window

15. typing Ctrl-1 through Ctrl-9 with the cursor in the rst R or rst S textboxes will set the signal report to 51 through 59 if the Main window's Operating Mode panel is set to phone, or to 519 through 599 if the Operating Mode panel is not set to phone
    

DXCC Entity Prefixes

The QSO info panel's DXCC selector contains an entry for each current DXCC entity. If DXKeeper is running and Automatic Lookup is enabled or if DXView is running, then entering or capturing a callsign will trigger a DXCC database lookup that sets the DXCC selector to the DXCC prefix associated with the callsign's DXCC entity; otherwise, the user must manually set the DXCC selector to the appropriate DXCC prefix.

On startup, the DXCC selector is populated with prefixes obtained from the file DXCC.txt. If DXView is installed, WinWarbler will preferentially reference the file DXCC.txt found in DXView's Databases folder, as this file will be maintained automatically by future versions of DXView. If DXView is not installed, or if its Databases folder does not contain a DXCC.txt file, then WinWarbler populates its DXCC selector with prefixes from the file DXCC.txt in its own Databases folder. When DXCC entities are added or deleted, the file DXCC.txt being used by WinWarbler should be updated accordingly.

Recording Audio

You can initiate and terminate the recording of an audio file in .wav format at 6K bytes per second.

• the audio file's name will be Audio-YYYY-MM-DD-HH-NN-SS.wav (where YYYY-MM-DD-HH-NN-SS is a date-and-timestamp specifying the moment at which recording began)

• the audio file will be saved in the folder MyDocuments\DXLab\QSOAudio, which will be automatically created if it does not yet exist; clicking the Audio Recording Configuration window's Display button will direct Windows Explorer to display the contents of this folder

The Main window's Log QSOs panel provides an Audio button between its Begin and  Log buttons. The icon present on this button indicates the current state of audio recording, and the action that will be taken when the button is next clicked:

Audio button icon	current state	action when clicked	action when CTRL-clicked	action when Shift-clicked	action when Alt-clicked
	Disabled		display the Audio Recording Configuration window
	Ready	start recording, new state: Recording	display the Audio Recording Configuration window	start recording, new state: Recording	start recording, new state: Recording
	Recording	stop and save audio to file, new state: Recorded	stop and save audio to file, new state: Recorded	stop and save audio to file, new state: Ready	stop and discard, new state: Ready
	Recorded	start playing the last recorded audio file	stop playback	new state: Ready	discard recorded audio file, new state: Ready

To enable audio recording,

1. depress the CTRL key while clicking the QSO Info panel's button.

2. In the Audio Recording Configuration window that appears, check the Enable box; this will set the state of audio recording to Ready, replacing the QSO Info panel's button with its button.

In the Recording or Recorded states,

• Shift-clicking the QSO Info panel's Log button will log the QSO and

  1. replace the word Audio in the recorded audio filename with the Call specified in the QSO Info panel, e.g. P5DX-2016-04-01 01:02:03

  2. convey the recorded audio filename in the App_DXKeeper_AudioFile field of the ADIF record saved in the Minilog; if DXKeeper is running, the recorded audio filename is placed in the logged QSO's audio file item, accessible via the Details panel on DXKeeper's Main window's Log QSOs tab

• Alt-clicking the QSO Info panel's Log button will log the QSO and discard any recorded audio or audio file

Enabling the Audio Recording Configuration window's Automatically start and stop recording option will automatically record each QSO's audio and include the audio filename with the logged QSO:

• inserting a character into the QSO Info panel's Call item, either directly or by capturing the callsign from decoded text, will start audio recording and set the audio recording state to Recording

• invoking the QSO Info panel's Log function by button click, macro command, or keyboard shortcut will log the QSO and

  1. replace the word Audio in the recorded audio filename with the Call specified in the QSO Info panel

  2. convey the recorded audio filename in the App_DXKeeper_AudioFile field of the ADIF record saved in the Minilog; if DXKeeper is running, the recorded audio filename is placed in the logged QSO's audio file item, accessible via the Details panel on DXKeeper's Main window's Log QSOs tab

  3. set the audio recording state to Recorded (so the most recently recorded audio file can be played)

• invoking the QSO Info panel's Clear function by button click, macro command, or keyboard shortcut abandons the recorded audio file

To display the Audio Recording Configuration window, depress the CTRL key while clicking the QSO Info panel's   or   buttons, or click the Audio Recording button at the bottom of the Configuration window's General tab.

Generating DX Spots

If SpotCollector is running and configured to generate outgoing cluster spots, clicking the QSO info panel's Spot button will generate an outgoing spot for the station designated by the call textbox on the current receive frequency; if the Spot button is disabled ("grayed out"), then either SpotCollector is not running, or its running but not configured to generate outgoing cluster spots. You can specify default spot notes; if no default spot notes are specified, the outgoing spot note will indicate the QSO's mode. 

If you want SpotCollector to generate a local spot rather than one sent to all clusters, depress the Alt key or the Shift key while clicking the Spot button. 

Depressing the Ctrl key while clicking the Spot button will display WinWarbler's Outgoing Spot window, which enables you to specify spot notes and a Propagation Indicator .

• the Propagation Indicator is included in outgoing spot notes for stations operating on 50 MHz or above when the SpotGrid<P>DXGrid format is selected

• notes you specify in the Outgoing Spot window take precedence over any default spot notes you've specified

•  the Outgoing Spot window displays in bold blue font the complete spot notes that will be conveyed when you click its Cluster or Local button, with this information sequenced left-to-right:
  • operating mode
  • text you've specified
  • split
  • grid square(s)

If the  Transmit and Receive panel's frequencies are different and the spot split frequency option is enabled, the difference will be included in the spot notes as a split if

• the operating mode is CW, RTTY, or Phone and the split is greater than 300 Hz

• the operating mode is PSK31 and the split is greater than 31 Hz

• the operating mode is PSK63 and the split is greater than 63 Hz

• the operating mode is PSK125 and the split is greater than 125 Hz

If the QSO frequency is 50 MHz or higher

• if the QSO Info panel's grid box contains a valid grid square, it will be included as the "DX grid square" (DXGrid) in the spot notes

• if the Position and Vector Configuration window's position panel specifies a grid square, or if DXKeeper is running and specifies the operator's grid square, it will be included as the "spotter grid square" (SpotterGrid) in the spot notes; a grid square specified on the Position and Vector Configuration window takes precedence over the operator's grid square specified by DXKeeper. 

• if a valid DX grid square (DXGrid) and a valid spotter grid square (SpotterGrid) are both available, then settings in the Outgoing Spots panel on the Configuration window's General tab govern the Spot Notes format:

• If the Spotter <P> DX format is selected, and both a valid DX grid square (DXGrid) and a valid spotter grid square (SpotterGrid) are both available, the Propagation Indicator, e.g. <ES>, is specified in the Outgoing Spot window.

You can configure WinWarbler to automatically generate a local spot when a callsign is acquired.

Keyboard Shortcuts

To allow operation without removing one's hands from the keyboard, WinWarbler provides keyboard shortcuts for navigating among the QSO Info items, Xcvr Freq items, and the Transmit Pane, and for initiating actions. Keyboard shortcuts can be used whenever the mouse cursor resides in a QSO Info item or the Transmit pane.

Typing Ctrl-1 through Ctrl-9 with the cursor in the rst R or rst S textboxes will set the signal report to 51 through 59 if the Main window's Operating Mode panel is set to phone, or to 519 through 599 if the Operating Mode panel is not set to phone.