This release - no longer allows audio and email alerts to be incorrectly suppressed by Band filter settings when you depress the CTRL key while clicking the Filter panel's X button (tnx to Joe W4TV) - provides Realtime Award Alerting for IOTA, VUCC, WAS, and WPX awards when referencing a DXKeeper log that contains progress tables for these awards (DXKeeper 11.4.5 is the first public release that can do this) - tracks the source of each Spot Database Entry's DX Grid square [override, spot, USAP database, or DXCC database] and provides a new "Grid Sources for VUCC" panel on the Configuration window's General tab that enables the user to determine which sources can generate VUCC alerts - when displaying a popup explanation for a Spot Database Entry's Needed cell, explain the meaning of the characters present in this cell, rather than list all possible characters and their meanings - while recomputing entries in the Spot Database, the Main window's Outgoing Spot panel is replaced with a Recomputing panel that contains a progress display - the Realtime Award Tracking window displays the full name of CQ Marathon countries - updates the CollectingSpots.htm, ConfigurationGeneral.htm, ConfigurationOverrides.htm, Prerequisites.htm, and SpotDatabase.htm documentation files SpotCollector 6.6.9 is available via the DXLab Launcher, and via Notes: 1. The following 25 new fields, all but two of which are tiny, have been added to the Spot Database: - IotaProg - IotaWB4 - DXGridSource - GridBandProg - GridBandWB4 - GridBandEn - StateProg - StateWB4 - StateEn - StateBandProg - StateBandWB4 - StateBandEn - StateModeProg - StateModeWB4 - StateModeEn - WPX - WPXProg - WPXWB4 - WPXEn - WPXBandProg - WPXBandWB4 - WPXBandEn - WPXModeProg - WPXModeWB4 - WPXModeEn For an explanation of each of these fields, see 2. By default, only DX Gridsquares generated by an override or extracted from incoming spots generate VUCC need alerts. DX Gridsquares sourced by the DXCC database never generate VUCC alerts, but you can individually enable VUCC alerts for DX Gridsquares sourced from an override, sourced from incoming spots (notes, and information appended by the spot source), or sourced from the USAP database: use the new "Grid Sources for VUCC" panel on the Configuration window's General tab. 3. As in previous versions of SpotCollector, there is a hierarchy of the methods for determining why a Spot Database Entry has been colored as needed: 3a. make the Needed field visible as a column in the Spot Database Display, and refer to the letter it contains in the Entry's Needed cell - D means the entry's DXCC entity is needed for a DXCC or TopList award - G means the entry's Gridsquare is needed for a VUCC award - I means the entry's IOTA Group is needed for an IOTA award - M means the entry's CQ Country is needed for a Marathon award - N means the entry's CQ Zone is needed for a Marathon award - P means the entry's WPX Prefix is needed for a WPX award - S means the entry's US State is needed for a WAS award - Z means the entry's CQ Zone is needed for a WAZ award 3b. since the above list is getting long, you can let the mouse cursor hover over the Entry's Needed cell, and an explanatory popup will appear 3c. right-click the Entry and select the Display Award Tracking menu command; SpotCollector's "Realtime Award Tracking" window will be displayed, showing in detail why the Entry is needed 3d. leave the "Realtime Award Tracking" window on screen, and click on a Spot Database Entry to see in detail why the Entry is needed 4. This release includes temporary WPX and Gridsquare audio announcements; the Joe DX team is now working to provide professional versions. This release creates an empty States folder in SpotCollector's Sounds folder; if you want Joe DX to announce US States needed for the WAS award, 4a. download the self-extracting zip archive from 4b. run the self-extractor, and direct it to extract its contents into the States folder in SpotCollector's Sounds folder 5. Configuring DXKeeper 11.4.5 (or later) to enable Realtime Award Tracking for additional awards will increase the load that SpotCollector imposes on your CPU, since more information must be acquired when a Spot Database Entry is created or updated. Doing so will also increase the time it takes SpotCollector to perform a full Spot Database Recompute operation; on my 2.4 Ghz dual-core Intel 6600 with 3.5 Gbyte of RAM running Windows XP3 and a fast hard drive (Velociraptor) and the rest of the Suite and Outlook and Chrome with multiple tabs all running, the time required for SpotCollector to recompute 5300 Spot Database Entries increased from 15 seconds (DXCC only) to 101 seconds (DXCC, IOTA, Marathon, VUCC, WAS, WAZ, and WPX). 6. Many thanks to Joe W4TV, Iain N6ML, and Jim K7EG for their help in testing the many versions of SpotCollector that led to this release. 73, Dave, AA6YQ