[Dx4win] Uploading FT8 QSO's to LOTW

[Tom Hammond]

Greetings folks. Thought I'd share an experience that might help you, or,
someone might point out how to do this differently. 

 

I've made a handful of FT8 QSO's. Since DX4WIN doesn't have an FT8 mode
(YET!) I was selecting a similar mode of JT65. When the ARRL announced that
FT8 was now a supported mode on LOTW, I decided to export my FT8 QSO's and
upload to LOTW. 

 

So, in DX4WIN, I exported my QSOs creating an .adi file. I then edited this
file and changed all occurrences of JT65 to FT8. I saved the file and then
used TQSL to sign and upload my .adi file. However, TQSL said the "FT8 " was
an invalid mode. Wait, what? Maybe you already know where I went wrong. 

 

In the .adi file there are XML-like field names. My .adi file had
<MODE:4>FT8. Well, it turns out that "4" after MODE means that the mode is
4-characters long, BECAUSE, I had originally chosen JT65 as the mode which
IS 4-characters long. Once I figured this out, I changed the field heading
to <MODE:3>FT8 and saved the file. This time my file was signed and uploaded
with no errors. 

 

I've done similar search and replace from FSK441 to MSK144 but both of those
mode strings are 6 characters, so I didn't have to change the <MODE:6> field
heading. 

 

So, lesson to be learned here is, when selecting an alternative mode for
your FT8 QSO's, try to find a 3-character mode so that when you perform a
search and replace of your adi file, you also won't have to change each
occurrence of the <MODE:X> length character. 

 

There's got to be an easier way..

 

73, Tom

K8BKM