[Dx4win] How much QSL manager data is useful?

[Wayne]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for doing this work. We all appreciate the work you do here.

The size of the manager data seems immaterial to the need for the 
most accurate data. My own feeling is after 10 yrs a lot of things 
change. With the average age of Hams being what it is, anything 
longer than a ten year history will become suspect anyway.

I like others find if DX4WIN agrees with other sources, I'm much more 
confident of having a good return on the cards.

A lot of times if I see a spot and it has a US manager, I will work 
harder at making the contact than if there is no QSL information at 
all. I am more apt to work the station for a band/mode for this 
reason also. Of course a new country is worked regardless of what 
information is immediately available. WFWL

I've also just discovered VE7CC's cluster software will mark a spot 
where the spotted station is a confirmed LOTW user.

As long as you enjoy doing this work, you need to make the decision 
on how to do it. I certainly appreciate the work you do and will 
gladly accept what ever decision you make on this.

Thanks again Jim for all you work on this.

73,

Wayne   WA1PMA

At 12:25 PM 3/13/2006, Jim Reisert AD1C wrote:
>Hi Folks,
>
>Before I started working on the DX4WIN QSL manager database, there were about
>6,600 records.  Today it's getting close to 30,000 records.
>
>Some people sent me their DX4WIN.CTY files so I could merge the data into the
>master file.  Some of them had over 100,000 QSL manager records.  I 
>assume they
>loaded one of the databases like ON6DP or OZ7C (I think there was an Italian
>one floating around as well).  I threw these records out.  I tend not to trust
>the BIG databases because they tend to have a high error rate (on the order of
>10%).
>
>I just did a little experiment with the ON6DP database:
>
>In my log of over 70,000 QSOs (going back to 1975), about 1/2 the DX (non-USA)
>QSOs (not calls) do not have QSL managers listed.  If I remove the calls
>unlikely to have managers (i.e. fixed stations like G3, OH2, SM5, etc.), this
>reduces to 7,760 QSOs with possible unknown managers.  I then assigned QSL
>managers from the ON6DP database, and found that 2,500 QSOs had 
>managers listed
>that are NOT listed in the DX4WIN QSL manager database.
>
>What does all this mean?  Based on my log alone, the database needs to grow
>another 10% in order to assign missing QSL managers to my log.
>
>Where is all this leading:
>
>- Do you want a large QSL manager database in DX4WIN or a smaller one?
>
>- Is quality or quantity more important?  If you're unsure if the route is
>good, you could always look it up somewhere else?
>
>- Do you want only recent managers (i.e. going back to the last 10 years), or
>something that goes back 20 or 30 years or even more?
>
>- Do you not even care, because you use the GOLIST or QRZ.COM or another means
>for finding QSL manager information?
>
>Just some things to think about.
>
>73 - Jim AD1C
>