Generating a DXCC Submission with QSL cards or LotW Confirmations
DXKeeper can automatically choose the minimal set of confirmed QSOs to submit to the ARRL DXCC desk in pursuit of your DXCC award objectives. As of April 2, 2012, hybrid DXCC applications containing both QSL cards and LotW confirmations cannot be submitted; DXKeeper enables you to create and manage a QSL card submission and a separate LotW submission. DXKeeper can also generate an ADIF file containing your QSL card submission for uploading via the ARRL's Online DXCC.
If you're planning to generate and submit both a QSL card submission and a separate LotW submission and your preference when there's a choice is to submit a QSL card, then direct DXKeeper to generate the QSL card submission first, followed by the LotW submission. If your preference when there's a choice is to submit an LotW confirmation, then then direct DXKeeper to generate the LotW submission first, followed by the QSL card submission.
In preparation for generating a submission, verify that your award objectives are properly specified, and backup your log by clicking the Backup button in the Configuration window's Log tab.
The procedures below that assume that any QSOs to which DXCC credit has already been granted have their QSL Rcvd or LotW QSL Rcvd items set to V (for verified). If this isn't the case, you can direct DXKeeper to download your DXCC Credits and update your logged QSOs to which DXCC Credit has been granted.
Generating a QSL Card Submission
To generate a QSL card submission, display the DXCC Submission window by clicking the Submission button in the DXCC, Challenge, TOP panel on the Main window's Check Progress tab; in this window,
check the QSL Cards box, and uncheck the LotW Confirmations box
assemble a submission by clicking the Assemble Submission button; DXKeeper will inspect each of your confirmed QSOs, and promote those to be submitted by setting their QSL Rcvd items to S.
create a planning report by clicking the Create Planning Report button; this report is sorted in Entity Prefix order, which is convenient for review, but is not the order in which QSL cards will be submitted - so wait to assemble your QSL cards until step 7 below
review the planning report; if necessary, you can manually remove a QSO from the submission -- for example, a QSO with a station not yet approved by the DXCC desk -- by changing its QSL Rcvd item back to Y. If you perform any manual modifications, return to step 2 before proceeding.
if you have QSL cards confirming more than one QSO, assign each multi-QSO QSL card a unique number (unique among all other multi-QSO QSL cards in this submission), and record this number in the QSL# item of each QSO confirmed by that card.
a QSO's QSL# item is accessible via the QSL panel on the Main window's Log QSOs tab
- doing this ensures that QSOs confirmed by the same QSL card are adjacent in the generated card record sheet so that your QSL cards can be placed in matching order for presentation to a card checker or submission to the ARRL
generate a card record sheet by clicking the Create Card Record Sheet button
- select and sort your QSL cards in the order shown on the card record sheet.
- either
send your card record sheet(s), cards, and DXCC award application to the ARRL DXCC desk or present them to a local field checker
orclick the Export Card ADIF File button to produce a file you can upload as described in step 2 of Online DXCC, and follow the step-by-step instructions provided there
when you receive a response from the ARRL, check to see if any of the QSLs you submitted were rejected; if so, manually change the associated QSOs' QSL_RCVD items to I (for invalid).
click the "DXCC Submission" window's Verify Submission button to promote the rest of the QSOs in your submission to verified.
Generating an LotW Submission
There are two ways to select confirmed QSOs to be submitted to LoTW for DXCC Award Credit: submit the QSOs that LoTW chooses, or let DXKeeper choose the QSOs and modify LoTW's selection to match DXKeeper's.
Submit the QSOs that LoTW chooses
As described here, LoTW automatically selects a set of confirmed QSOs to submit for DXCC Award Credit.
LoTW's suggestion is not optimal, meaning that it may select more QSOs for submission than are necessary, increasing the cost
Updating your logged QSOs to reflect DXCC Award Credit granted must either be done manually, or by downloading your DXCC Award Credits and then linking them to your logged QSOs
Let DXKeeper choose the QSOs and modify LoTW's selection to match DXKeeper's
Alternatively, you can direct DXKeeper to generate an optimal LoTW submission; after DXCC Award Credit is granted, you can update your logged QSOs to reflect DXCC Credit granted with a single button click. However, the process of modifying LoTW's automatic submission to match the optimal submission generated by DXKeeper is a tedious manual process - because LoTW does not provide the application programming interface (API) required to automate it.
To generate an LotW submission, display the DXCC Submission window by clicking the Submission button in the DXCC, Challenge, TOP panel on the Main window's Check Progress tab; in this window,
uncheck the QSL Cards box, and check the LotW Confirmations box
assemble a submission by clicking the Assemble Submission button; DXKeeper will inspect each of your confirmed QSOs, and promote those to be submitted by setting their LotW QSL Rcvd items to S.
create a planning report by clicking the Create Planning Report button
review the planning report; if necessary, you can manually remove a QSO from the submission -- for example, a QSO with a station not yet approved by the DXCC desk -- by changing its LotW QSL Rcvd item back to Y. If you perform any manual modifications, return to step 2 before proceeding.
generate an LotW record sheet by clicking the Create LotW Record Sheet button.
when you receive a response from the ARRL, check to see if any of the QSLs or LotW credits you submitted were rejected; if so, manually change the associated QSOs' LOTW_QSL_RCVD items to I (for invalid).
click the "DXCC Submission" window's Verify Submission button to promote the rest of the QSOs in your submission to verified.