[Dx4win] Proposal to change UA9F,G,X prefix mapping in DX4WIN

[Jim Reisert AD1C]

Hi Folks,

NOTE: If you have never submitted QSLs or LotW confirmations for DXCC
credit, you can skip this long message and go do something fun
instead!  Otherwise....


In late 2011, the ARRL announced that callsigns beginning with UA9F,
UA9G and UA9X (and related prefixes like R9X) would be counted as
European Russia, not Asiatic Russia like other UA9 callsigns.  This
change would be effective from the start of the DXCC award.  A version
of the announcement can be found here:

    http://cqww.com/blog/special-case-of-ua9-scoring/

The ARRL also stated that they would NOT retroactively change people's
DXCC credits for these prefixes, for QSOs made before the announcement
date.  Therefore, for example, the UA9FGR QSO I made in January 1998,
and for which the ARRL granted me 80m band credit for Asiatic Russia,
stands.

In order to avoid DX4WIN users losing DXCC credit(s) for callsigns
like this, I made the decision to have the continent change take
effect in the country file starting 1 December 2011.  I did this
because no one could submit such a callsign for DXCC credit with
Asiatic Russia after this date, and it would leave old DXCC credits
intact in your DX4WIN logbook.

I recently discovered what I thought was an error in my master
database of Russian prefixes, affecting UA9F and UA9G callsigns.  The
error does not affect DX4WIN users.   However, to simplify fixing the
database error, I would like to change the transition of UA9[FGX]
calls from Asia to Europe, starting 21-Jan-2010.  I chose this date
because it was the date of a major overhaul in the Russian prefix
system.  Also at this time, they decided to merge UA9G, Komi
Permyatsky district, into UA9F, Permskaya Region.  In other words,
there would only be one region (oblast) with two different prefixes.
Multiple prefixes for the same region/oblast is not uncommon in
Russia.

***** But before I make this change, which could potentially change
someone's DXCC credits, I would like to know if anyone has received
DXCC credit for Asiatic Russia, using a callsign beginning with UA9F,
UA9G or UA9X, for a QSO dated between 21-Jan-2010 and 30-Nov-2011.
Here is how to find these in your log:

- make sure that in your QSO preferences, Callsign searching is set to
"Substring"
- using F8, search for both 9F (or 9G or 9X) in the callsign field,
and UA9 in the prefix field

You could also make sure that date searching in your preferences is
set to "Range", and use a starting date of January 21, 2010 and and
ending date of November 30, 2011 as part of your F8 search.  But I
consider that overkill for this exercise.

Now bring up the Logbook window, and using the Report Editor, move the
DXCCbnd, DXCCmix and DXCCmod fields from the left (Available) to the
right (Report) column.  In addition, make sure you have both the
Callsign and Date fields in the Report column.  Now you can quickly
see if there are any DXCC submissions or credits in the DXCC columns
of the Logbook report, for those callsigns.

The other way to do this is to get a country file with this change,
generate a DXCC listing, then use the "Compare DX4WIN to LoTW" program
to see if any of your DXCC credits changed.  But you would need a
modified country file for that, or you would have to hand-edit a LOT
of prefixes, which I do not recommend.

So if you have any DXCC credits for UA9 (Asiatic Russia), for QSOs
made between January 2010 and November 2011, with callsigns beginning
with a UA9[FGX] prefix, please let me know.  If you do NOT, there is
nothing for you to do.  If I don't hear from anyone within a week or
so, I will go ahead and make this change in my master database, and
ultimately the DX4WIN country file.

Thanks & 73 - Jim AD1C

-- 
Jim Reisert AD1C, <jjreisert at alum.mit.edu>, http://www.ad1c.us