[Dx4win] Beware of an empty RST field in a QSO!

[Jim Reisert AD1C]

Hi Folks,

I made an interesting discovery this morning.  It may be an issue in the
DX4WIN program.  There are two pieces to it.  Although the specific problem
I encountered was for the VUCC Award, this problem may affect other
awards.  I have not tested that theory, however.

I have been chasing VUCC grids on 6 meters since moving to Colorado in
2007.  I use this program that I wrote to give me a visual representation
of the grids I still need:

    https://dx4win.ad1c.us/VUCC/

My map told me that I needed grid DN80, and when N0LL announced he was
going to go there in October, I made sure to work him.  I received his QSL
card yesterday.  Because I have several QSOs with him, I searched my
logbook for the Grid (DN80) instead.  But what I found is that I had a
prior QSO with another station in that same grid on 6 meters!  Furthermore,
it was confirmed in Logbook of the World (LoTW).  And finally, it had
already been checked at ARRL (VUCC grid credit received)!

So why did my VUCC Needed Listing tell me that I still needed that grid?
It turns out that the rstR (RST Received) field in my DX4WIN log for that
QSO was empty (blank).  Here is part of the ADIF record from WSJT-X (
https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html) for that QSO that I
imported into DX4WIN:

    <call:7>AB0YM/R <gridsquare:4>DN80 <mode:3>FT8 <rst_sent:0>
<rst_rcvd:0> <qso_date:8>20200913 <time_on:6>012315

Notice that the length of both the rst_sent and rst_rcvd fields is zero
(":0").  That means there was no RST recorded for the QSO.  This QSO was
made using the digital mode FT8 in "NA VHF" mode in WSJT-X.  For this
"special operating activity", only grid squares are exchanged, not signal
reports.  Here is what the FT8 transcript looked like for my QSO with
AB0YM/R:

    200913_213100    50.313 Rx FT8    -12  0.2 1376 CQ TEST AB0YM/R DN80
    200913_213115    50.313 Tx FT8      0  0.0  750 AB0YM/R AD1C DM79
    200913_213130    50.313 Rx FT8     -8  0.1  683 AD1C AB0YM/R R DN80
    200913_213145    50.313 Tx FT8      0  0.0  750 AB0YM/R AD1C RR73

The station answering the CQ sends his grid.  The CQing station sends an R
with his grid.  When the calling station receives that message, he sends
RR73.  Once the CQing station receives the RR73, he can go on to the next
QSO.

So the blank RST seems to be one problem.  However, there may be a second
problem.

A while back, maybe in Version 8, Paul added a feature to DX4WIN that
basically says that if the Award flag for the QSO is set to Checked (or
possibly Submitted), that the QSO is considered "confirmed" regardless of
the setting of the QSL, LoTW and/or eQSL Confirmed fields for the QSO.
Here is an example of how this feature is useful.  You can receive IOTA
(Island on the Air) credit if there is QSO match in Club Log, even if you
don't have a QSL card, even if the QSO is not confirmed in LoTW.  You can
submit this "confirmed" (matched) QSO from Club Log for IOTA credit.  Once
you set the IOTA Award flag for that QSO, DX4WIN will consider it
confirmed, so you will know that you do not need to work or confirm it
again.

One might think that this feature would take care of my VUCC problem, but
it's not enough.  DX4WIN also has a feature where having a blank RST, or a
value of "0" in the RST field, means that this QSO is invalid for awards.
Apparently, having the Award flag set to Submitted or Checked is not enough
to override this, and I think this might be a bug in DX4WIN.  If you have
received award credit for a QSO, then that QSO can not be invalid for the
award, regardless of the RST field(s).  In other words, it can't be both
valid and invalid at the same time!  DX4WIN already has a way to mark a QSO
as invalid for a particular award, by setting the Award Flag to 'I'
(Invalid).  So it seems to me that DX4WIN should disregard the RST field(s)
once the QSO has an Award Flag set for it.

Note that a QSO is also invalid if the RST field is '0' (zero).  It is
*not* invalid if the RST field is "+0" (0 dB) which is a typical report
received on the digital modes that WSJT-X supports.

Fortunately, there is a way to find QSOs that have a blank RST field.
Using F8 to begin a search, enter this two-character string into one of the
RST fields and then type <ENTER>:

    !*

(that's an exclamation point, immediately followed by an asterisk).  The
'*' means "anything" and by putting the '!' in front of it, the resulting
search is for "not anything", or an empty field.

Sorry for the long-winded explanation, but you may find missing award
credits in your logbook as a result of this.

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