Computing Each QSO's Distance and Azimuth
In order to compute the distance and azimuth your signals traveled in a QSO, DXKeeper needs three items of information:
- your location
- your QSO partner's location
- an indication of whether your signals took the short path or the long path to your QSO partner
Your Location
If a QSO specifies a my QTH ID for a my QTH that specifies a valid latitude and longitude, then this latitude and longitude is used as "your location". Otherwise, DXKeeper uses the QTH Latitude and QTH Longitude specified on the Configuration window's Defaults tab.
Your QSO Partner's Location
DXKeeper can record your QSO partner's grid square and a latitude and longitude with each QSO. If you record a grid square, DXKeeper automatically computes and records the latitude and longitude, and vice versa. While the grid square displayed by DXView after it performs a callsign or prefix lookup is accurate enough for aiming an antenna, it is not accurate enough for distance calculations or for award tracking -- and so is not automatically recorded by DXKeeper. A grid square returned by a callbook lookup, manually typed into the Capture window or Main window's Log QSOs tab (from information received over the air), or imported from a record in an ADIF file is considered sufficiently accurate for this purpose and will populate the QSO's Grid, Latitude, and Longitude items.
Azimuth and Antenna Path
If you are using DXView to control a rotatable antenna, DXKeeper will automatically record the last antenna azimuth sent to the rotator, as well as whether the antenna was rotated to a short path or long path heading. If you aren't using DXView to to rotate your antenna, you can enable DXView's Report computed short path heading when disabled or on unsupported band option, and set the default Antenna Path selector to S on the Defaults tab of DXKeeper's Configuration window.
you can manually record the antenna path via DXKeeper's Capture window or its Main window's Log QSOs tab; you can also manually record the antenna azimuth, but that's not required for a distance calculation (because if the path is not short or long, there's no way to accurately compute the distance short of measuring the transit times with a high-precision clock). You can also set a default antenna path of the Defaults tab of DXKeeper's Configuration window.
Updating Already Logged QSOs
If you have been logging QSOs without recording their antenna path, you can use DXKeeper's Advanced Sorts, Filters, and Modifiers window's Modify QSOs panel to set the the antenna path items of your QSOs to S en masse; just be sure to make a log backup beforehand by clicking the Backup button on the Configuration window's Log tab. After manually correcting the antenna path items of any known long path QSOs to L, you can then use the Modify QSOs panel to
compute the distance item for each QSO by setting the Item ADIF field name selector to DISTANCE and by setting the Item new value to <COMPUTE> before clicking the Mod button
compute the antenna azimuth item for each QSO by setting the Item ADIF field name selector to ANT_AZ and by setting the Item new value to <COMPUTE> before clicking the Mod button