[Dx4win] DX4WIN.CTY #36 release notes

[Jim Reisert AD1C]

Hi Folks,

I hope to release DX4WIN.CTY #36 later this week.  You can see the current
release notes here:

    http://www.country-files.com/dx4win/history.htm#36

The release notes are up-to-date with the exception of a couple QSL manager
changes.

A few things that won't be obvious from the release notes:

1.  In Release #35, I *thought* I had updated the QSL Bureau flags.
    In reality, I edited the wrong file, and never released the changes.
    In my own log, I had 357/1967 QSLs that were to countries not
    served by QSL bureaus.  When I used my latest country file with
    the correct QSL Bureau flags, this number went down to 24/1967.

2.  VU7RG has three different QSL managers depending on your geographic
    region: N2OO, DL4KQ (GDXF) and JA3UB.  DX4WIN will not allow you to
    pick the correct QSL manager (I think DL4KQ comes up first because
    it's first alphabetically).  If you want, you can edit the QSL manager
    database yourself (File -> Database -> QSL Manages) and remove the
    two QSL managers that are not serving your region.

3.  This release will have a huge QSL address database.  I got a file
    of about 4000 addresses from K4UTE that is in DX4WIN format.  It
    only increases the uncompressed file size by 200K or so, much less
    when the file is compressed.  The current DX4WIN.CTY file has but
    three addresses: KK4HD, W3HNK and YASME.

Please get any last-minute changes into me ASAP.

I'm also working on a couple of "midnight projects" (in my "spare" time!):

One is to parse the QSL manager information out of the 425 DX Bulletins.  Well,
that part is easy, but there are lots of mistakes, as well as managers for
stations that never got on the air.  Most of the cross-checking is by-hand. I
don't want to increase the "garbage quotient" of the current database.

The other project involves back-filling missing QSL managers into my logbook,
which goes back to late 1974.  Using the ON6DP and OZ7C databases, I have
identified just over 3000 DX callsigns that potentially have QSL managers, DX
stations which are NOT already listed in the DX4WIN QSL manager database.  Of
those, I was able to cross-confirm just over 1000 of them with the GOLIST (i.e.
GOLIST has the same manager listed as the ON6DP and/or OZ7C database).  That
leaves another 2000 DX stations where the GOLIST either didn't find the DX
station, or the GOLIST has a different manager listed than the ON6DP and/or
OZ7C databases.

I do not have a schedule as to when any of this additional QSL manager data may
appear.  Since the cross-checking needs to be mostly by-hand, it will still be
a while yet.

73 - Jim AD1C


--
Jim Reisert AD1C, 7 Charlemont Court, North Chelmsford, MA 01863
USA +978-251-9933, <jjreisert at alum.mit.edu>, http://www.ad1c.us