Setting CQ DX Marathon Award Objectives
The CQ DX Marathon award administered by CQ Magazine has four possible objectives:
- Mixed
- Any one specified Band
- Any one specified Mode
- Challenge (80m, 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, and 10m)
At the end of the year, you can make a submission for only one of these objectives, but aggressive competitors can pursue multiple objectives during the year and then decide at the end of the year which for which objective to generate a submission.
On the Awards tab of DXKeeper's Config window, checking the Realtime Award Progress box in the Marathon Bands & Modes panel enables realtime award tracking. With this box checked, boxes in the Marathon panel specifies which objective(s) you are pursuing, which in turn determines
the active DX stations SpotCollector highlights as needed and announces audibly, with a M in the Needed column for a needed CQ Marathon country and and an N in the Needed column for a needed CQ Marathon zone
the callsigns highlighted as needed in DXKeeper's Main and Capture windows, in WinWarbler's QSO Info panel (via bold red font), and in the WSJT-X Band Activity panel
- the newly-imported QSOs DXKeeper reports as working needed CQ Marathon zones and countries
In the Marathon Bands & Modes panel,
check the Mixed box to pursue the Mixed objective
check the Band box for each single-band objective you are pursuing
check the Phone, CW, and/or Digital boxes for each single-mode objective you are pursuing
check the Challenge box if you are pursuing the Challenge objective; doing so will check the panel's 80m, 40m,30m,20m,17m,15m,12m, and 10m boxes
set the Max TX Power box to the highest transmit power (in watts) for the objective(s) you're pursuing
The CQ DX Marathon Rules state that "Contacts through repeaters or satellites are not allowed for credit, nor are contacts with maritime or aeronautical mobile stations. All contacts must be made entirely over amateur radio frequencies – i.e., Echolink-type contacts do not count." To prevent QSOs made via non-terrestrial means such as EME, repeaters, or satellites from being considered when tracking Marathon award progress or generating a Marathon submission, DXKeeper ignores QSOs whose propagation mode items don't specify a terrestrial propagation mode. QSOs that do not specify a propagation mode item will thus be ignored for Marathon tracking and submission unless you enable the Marathon Bands & Modes panel's Include QSOs with no prop option. Note that you can specify a default propagation mode to be logged with each QSO via the Defaults tab on DXKeeper's Configuration window.
After making any changes to settings in the Marathon Bands & Modes panel, click the Recompute button on DXKeeper's Main window's Check Progress tab. After DXKeeper completes the Recompute operation, then if you are using SpotCollector, open the the Spot Database tab of SpotCollector's Config window, and click the Recomputation panel's Recompute button.
In the Filter panel at the bottom of the SpotCollector's Main window, check the Mrthn box so that Spot Database Entries "needed" for Marathon will be highlighted with the appropriate font color. Early in the year, the large number of Spot Database Entries "needed" for Marathon can obscure Spot Database Entries needed for other awards; you can temporarily uncheck the Mrthn box to remove the highlighting from entries "needed" for Marathon; be sure to check the Mrthn box after you're done.
Clicking the Progress button in the CQ DX Marathon panel on the Main window's Check Progress tab will generate and display a progress report for each of the Marathon objectives you're pursuing.
To specify the one objective for which you wish to generate a submission, click the Year, Class, & Category button in the the Marathon Bands & Modes panel on the Configuration window's Awards tab. In the Marathon Year, Class, Category, and Submission Information window that appears,
specify the Current year
specify your Callsign
specify your Name (first name and last name)
in the Class panel, select the Class for which you are generating a submission; if you select Marathon, leave the Category panel with nothing selected
if you are generating a submission for the Mixed objective, click the Category panel's Mixed button
if you are generating a submission for a single band or single mode objective, select that band or mode in the Category panel
specify your Street, City, State/Province, Country, Postal Code, CQ Zone, Email Address, Club Name (if any), Overlay, and Comments (if any)
To generate a submission for the Marathon objective specified in the Marathon Year, Class, Category, and Submission Information window, click the Submission button in the CQ DX Marathon panel on the Main window's Check Progress tab. DXKeeper will generate two files it DXKeeper's Reports folder:
a Submission file in XML format that you can upload using the online Marathon Submission Tool
- a Submission file in text format that shows
- the claimed score for the submitted objective
- the lowest risk of each submitted country and zone (for Challenge class, by band)
- the QSO submitted for each country and zone
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