[Dx4win] LoTW from DX4WIN(6.02)

[G3KWK at aol.com]

hI,

There appears to be a serious misconception of the way that ARRL intended 
Logbook of the World to be used. This misconception is enhanced by the 
availability of the buttons in DX4WIN enabling the user to select a particular contracts 
for confirmation. 

The concept of LoTW is that the complete logs of stations are stored in the 
database. This then permits any amateur to have his log checked to for 
confirmations and these confirmations made available for him to use in ARRL award, and 
in the future, other awards.  The one-sided approach of only submitting the 
contact that the user of DX4WIN requires will defeat the whole object of the 
ARRL program.

In my case, I was very pleasantly surprised to find over a dozen rare DX 
Confirmations from years ago; confirmations that I had directly QSLed with green 
stamps or via a manager without receiving a card in return.  Also, on 6 metres, 
I found a number of squares I did not know I had worked and as a result of 
information from LOTW, my  total towards a 5BWAS has increased by 13 states.

LoTW keeps a record of the submissions that you have made to the wed site. As 
time goes by and the more contracts are added to your log, you only need to 
submit the new contracts. This is done easily in DX4WIN (Version 6.02) by using 
Filter and entering start Date of the next submission to LoTW followed by '
enter.'

The above action filters every contact from that date to the end of the log.  


Now click Window/Logbook.  What now appears in the window is this selection 
from your chosen start date.

To save this selection to an ADIF file for submission to LoTW, go to the 
DX4WIN startup window probably in the top left corner of your screen and click 
File then Export.

This opens up the Import/Export Filters Window.  The cursor will be in the 
ADIF exchange format selection.  This is what you want, don't move it.

In this same Import/Export Filters window, click File/Export

This opens the familiar Save directory.

The first time you do this, it is worth deciding where you are going to store 
your LoTW  Uploads and, possibly creating another folder for LoTW Downloads.  
The files can be saved in the DX4WIN Save directory but my Save directory 
gets congested so I separate them.

To create the ADIF file ready for signing by LoTW TQSL and submitting to 
LoTW, the file name must be YOUR CALLSIGN.ADI.

Incidentally, the Report of your confirmations that you download from LoTW is 
in .HTML format.  To convert to ADIF, open the file in a Text only Word 
Processor, e.g. Wordpad and then save it as a .TXT file then rename it to an .ADI 
file.

To see what goodies you collected, create a new logbook and import the ADIF 
file into it.  You can then examine the results using Report/DXCC/Listing/OK 
and comparing it with one from your complete logbook.  I recommend printing the 
charts and comparing printouts.  I get lost on the screen.

Good Dxing and 73

Roger, G3KWK
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