DXLab Overview

Overview

DXLab is a freeware suite of eight interoperating applications that can be installed independently in any order. When multiple applications are running, they sense each other's presence and automatically interoperate to support your Amateur Radio DXing activities:

Transceiver control with bandspread - controls up to 4 Alinco, DZKit, Elecraft, FlexRadio, Hilberling, Icom, JRC, Kachina, Kenwood, TenTec, Yaesu transceivers, with frequency and mode tracking by an independent transceiver, receiver, SDR-based panadaptor, or skimmer Rotator control - AlfaSpid, ARSWIN, Heath, Hygain, M2, N1MM Rotor, Prosistel, SARtek, TIC, Trackbox, Yaesu Solar terminator display and prediction - shows grey line at any specified date and time Prefix, Region, IOTA, and Gridsquare lookup and display Language translation - displays translations of amateur radio words and phrases for languages used in a station's location World map display - beam heading, terminator, DX spots, VHF openings, auroral oval Callbook lookup - Buckmaster, RAC, or QRZ CDROMs, Hamcall.Online, or QRZ.com (both free and with data access subscription) Logging - supports both real-time logging, and recording completed QSOs from paper logs QSL card and label generation Logbook of the World and eQSL.cc support - automated bidirectional synchronization

Award tracking and submission - AJA, Canadaward, Challenge, DDFM, DOK, DXCC, Holyland, IOTA, JCC, JCG, Maidenhead Fields & Squares, Marathon, RDA, SRR,  TopList, VUCC, USA-CA, WAB, WAC, WAE, WAJA, WAIP, WAHUC, WAS, WAZ, WPX, WAJA, WITU QSL route discovery - provides access to more than 80 online sources PSK31, PSK63, PSK125 - monitors an entire band and displays heard callsigns RTTY - via the included MMTTY and 2Tone engines, with optional dual receive  using a TNC CW (generation only) and Phone voice keyer DX and WWV spot collection - up to 6 clusters including DX Summit and the Reverse Beacon Network, filtering, direct QSY with QSX Propagation prediction - provides a graphical view of openings by frequency and time using your choice of the included VOACAP, ICEPAC, and IONCAP forecasting engines Propagation monitoring - auto-QSY to monitor the IARU HF beacon network supports add-in applications interoperates with MultiPSK, MMSSTV, MMVARI, DM780, Fldigi, HRD, MixW($), DX Atlas($)

Xcvr_Control

• controls  frequency, mode, and receiver bandwidth for Alinco, DZKit, Elecraft, FlexRadio, Hilberling, Icom, JRC, Kachina, Kenwood, TenTec, and Yaesu radios

• provides 10 banks of 10 memories, each specifying frequency, mode, and receiver bandwidth

• provides a zoomable slide-rule dial with ranges from 1 kHz to 100 kHz

• switches among 4 transceivers with a mouse click, or automatically based on frequency

• provides frequency and mode tracking for an independent transceiver, receiver, SDR-based panadaptor, or skimmer

• displays frequency-dependent settings for amplifiers and tuners

• supports SO2R switching with microHam or OTRSP-compliant devices

• supports one-click execution of up to 32 transceiver-specific command sequences, each sequence containing up to 32 transceiver commands

• provides 16 user-defined slider controls that generate transceiver commands for controlling settings like RF gain, AF gain, RF output power, and keyer speed

• provides frequency and mode information to WinWarbler and DXKeeper

• enables WinWarbler to activate PTT via the transceiver control com port

• displays DX spots from SpotCollector on its Bandspread window and - when controlling an IC-7300, IC-7610,  IC-785X, or IC-9700 - on its Spectrum-Waterfall window

• enables PropView to QSY your transceiver to monitor specified IARU/NCDXF propagation beacons

 

DX_Info

• displays DXCC information, location information, and and country maps

  • accurately locates stations based on their callsign and, for US stations, from FCC station location data

  • displays translations of amateur radio words and phrases for languages used in a station's DXCC entity

  • provides the location of all grid squares and IOTA tags

  • identifies stations known to participate in Logbook of the World and displays their date of last upload

  • identifies stations that are Authenticity Guaranteed members of eQSL.cc

  • identifies stations that are members of designated clubs

• plots spots, QSOs, beam headings, solar position, and the solar terminator in real time on a world map

• computes sunrise and sunset times for a designated location and your QTH over a specified 30-day range

• displays auroral zone boundaries as a function of the current K index, supplied by SpotCollector

• updates the DXCC, station location, IOTA, and LotW databases with a single mouse click

• commands AlfaSpid, Heath, Hygain, M2, Prosistel, SARtek, TIC, TrackBox, and Yaesu rotator controllers

• interoperates with the ARSWIN, LP-Rotor, and N1MM rotor control applications

• plots WinWarbler QSOs

• supports DXKeeper progress reporting and plotting

• plots spots captured by SpotCollector

• supplies spot frequency and mode to Commander for 1-click QSY from plotted spot

• enables PropView to rotate your antenna to monitor specified IARU/NCDXF propagation beacons

• uses Pathfinder for QSL route lookup

• optionally interoperates with DX Atlas, an Electronic World Atlas that provides rectangular, azimuthal, and global projections that are resizable and zoom-able

 

Logging

• records and manages QSOs

• tracks progress towards DXing objectives (AJA, Canadaward, Challenge, DDFM, DOK, DXCC, Holyland, IOTA, JCC, JCG, Maidenhead Fields & Squares, Marathon, RDA, SRR,  TopList, VUCC, USA-CA, WAB, WAC, WAE, WAJA, WAIP, WAHUC, WAS, WAZ, WPX, WAJA, WITU)

• extracts address information from the Radio Amateur's Callbook, HamCall, and/or QRZ callbooks

• extracts address information from the HamCall Online and QRZ.com web services

• prints QSL cards and labels

• prints QSL cards for SWL reports

• prints envelopes and address labels

• provides real-time upload to eQSL.cc, and updates logged QSOs to reflect confirmation status downloaded from eQSL.cc

• prepares batch uploads for the ARRL's Logbook of the World (LotW), and updates logged QSOs to reflect confirmation status downloaded from LotW

• identifies confirmed QSOs to be submitted for DXCC credit, prepares submission paperwork, and ensures consistency between log and DXCC desk credit statistics

• can download DXCC credits and update logged QSOs to reflect the granting of a DXCC credit (screenshot)

• logs WinWarbler RTTY, PSK, CW, and Phone QSOs with accurate QSO frequencies

• logs QSOs in realtime from MultiPSK, MMVARI, MMSSTV, MMTTY, MixW, Fldigi, and DM780   

• uses Commander for transceiver control

• uses DXView for progress reporting and plotting

• uses Pathfinder for QSL route lookup and for direct access to callbook information from QRZ.com

 

Digimodes

• conducts PSK31, PSK63 or PSK125 QSOs, with simultaneous three-channel decoding and display

• monitors all PSK31, PSK63 or PSK125 QSOs in a 3.5 kHz band, displaying extracted callsigns in a "Station's Heard" list

• conducts RTTY QSOs using the included MMTTY and 2Tone engines, enabling simultaneous decoding of a RTTY station working split and stations in its pileup

• generates CW via a serial port modem control signal, a WinKey interface, or an external TNC like a KAM or PK-232

• includes a phone voice memory keyer

• provides macros and a comprehensive set of substitution commands

• includes a GPS interface and macro commands for transmitting current location, course, and speed

• plots QSOs on DXView's world map

• logs QSOs to ADIF files, or to DXKeeper with accurate QSO frequencies

• uses Pathfinder for QSL route lookup

• uses Commander for control of transceiver frequency, mode, and RX-TX switching

• uses Commander to generates CW via via CAT-capable transceivers like the Kenwood TS-480 and TS-2000, and the Elecraft K2 and K3

• uses SpotCollector to post RTTY and PSK spots with accurate frequencies

 

QSL_Info

• locates QSL information from more than 80 web-accessible sources

• extracts address information from the Radio Amateur's Callbook

• provides DXKeeper with direct access to callbook information from QRZ.com

 

DX_Spots

• collects and aggregates spots from up to six sources -- including Telnet, packet, and DX Summit  -- to create a local database of active DX stations that you can display, sort, and filter in real time

• consults your current DXKeeper log and highlights active stations with whom you need a QSO to to advance your DXCC, IOTA, Leaderboard, Marathon, VUCC, WAS, WAZ, and WPX award progress

• displays band openings graphically in real time

• highlights stations known to participate in Logbook of the World

• highlights stations that are Authenticity Guaranteed members of eQSL.cc

• highlights stations that are members of designated clubs

• computes spot statistics by band and by continent

• collects and displays a 31-day graphical record of solar parameters (SFI, A, and K)

• plots active DX stations on DXView's world map

• supplies frequency and mode to Commander for 1-click QSY,  initializing both VFOs for split operation when appropriate

• supplies the solar flux (SFI) and geomagnetic K-index to PropView

• uses Pathfinder for QSL route lookup

 

Propagation

• uses DXView to specify locations via point-and-click on a world map

• uses the included VOACAP, ICEPAC, and IONCAP propagation prediction engines to predict minimum and maximum usable frequencies between specified locations

• illustrates open bands graphically as a function of time and probability

• obtains the current solar flux (SFI) and geomagnetic K-index readings from SpotCollector

• creates schedules for monitoring IARU/NCDXF propagation beacons -- by band, by location, or by bearing

• uses Commander to to QSY your transceiver to monitor beacons per the current schedule

• uses DXView to rotate your antenna to monitor beacons per the current schedule

 

Management

• displays the version of each DXLab application installed on your PC, and displays newer versions available for upgrade

• installs new DXLab applications, and upgrades already installed DXLab applications to available newer versions

• starts or stops a group of installed DXLab applications with a single mouse click

• minimizes or restores the main windows of all running DXLab applications with a single mouse click

• starts, minimizes, restores, or stops individual DXLab applications

• can start specified non-DXLab applications before starting DXLab applications and after starting DXLab applications

• displays the state of all DXLab applications

• saves the settings of all DXLab applications to a specified Workspace, and restores settings from a designated Workspace

Documentation

• Getting Started with DXLab explains how best to learn about DXLab, and provides step-by-step instructions for common functions:

 

• Reference Documentation in HTML describes each application's functionality; it's available via Help buttons in the applications, as well as via these links:

 

• Reference Documentation in PDF assembles all of an application's reference documentation in a single file, which facilitates both searching and printing:

 

• Release Notes describe the changes made in each publicly released version of an application:

 

• Articles and Presentations
  

• What Makes DXLab Different?
  

• Annual Reports
  

• Building Applications that Interoperate with DXLab Applications

Getting Started

The DXLab Suite is a free set of applications that support DXing activities. You can use them individually, but when multiple DXLab applications are running they detect each other's presence and interoperate automatically. One benefit of this approach is that you can learn applications individually. It doesn't matter where you begin, or what sequence you choose: start with one application that satisfies an interest or need, and get comfortable with it: these introductory topics will help get you going:

• DXing with DXLab

• Summary of Capabilities

• Video Introduction to DXLab by Fred AB1OC

• Logging

• QSLing

• Discovering QSL Routes

• Pursuing DXCC Awards

• Pursuing AJA, Canadaward, Challenge, DDFM, DOK, Holyland, IOTA, JCC, JCG, KDN, Marathon, RDA, SRR, TopList, USA-CA, VUCC, WAB, WABP, WAC, WAE, WAHUC, WAIP, WAJA, WAS, WAZ, WIA, WITU, and WPX  Awards

• Operating in PSK

• Operating in RTTY

• Identifying and Analyzing Active DX Stations

• Predicting Propagation

DXLab applications run on Windows, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10 in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. Some DXLab applications can be individually run on Windows 95, 98, and 98SE. Using virtual machines, DXLab applications can also be run on Linux and Macintosh.

The DXLab Launcher automates the installation and upgrading of DXLab applications and helps you manage their execution once installed.

• If you've never installed any DXLab application on your PC, then download and install the Launcher

• If you've installed one more more DXLab applications on your PC and wish to install another, direct the Launcher to install the application

• If you've installed one more more DXLab applications on your PC and wish to upgrade one of them, direct the Launcher to upgrade the application

If you installed a DXLab application at some time in the past but haven't kept up with subsequent releases, directing the Launcher to upgrade that application will obtain all subsequent defect repairs and enhancements.

You can configure the Launcher to automatically check for new application releases at startup and daily thereafter; if releases are available that are newer than what you have installed, a "new app upgrades" message will appear on the Launcher's Main window. On the Launcher's Configuration window, available DXLab application releases that are newer than what's installed on your PC are highlighted in red font. Double-clicking any version number will display the Release Notes for that version.

New releases of DXLab applications are also announced on the DXLab Group, an open forum that you are encouraged to join This reflector plays a major role in driving the development of DXLab -- suggestions are refined, alternatives are considered, and releases are critiqued; the result is a powerful flow of ideas whose implementation benefits all participants. At your option, messages posted to the reflector can be delivered via email -- either individually, or in a daily digest.