[Dxbase] Thoughts on DX Base 2006

[Peter Dougherty]

I bought the upgrade yesterday and spent a few hours in front of the screen 
getting everything "just so."

Initial thoughts: LOTS of marvelous goodies this time around! It seemed the 
last two years were more focused on LoTW and digital modes than increasing 
usability for more traditional DX, and I felt disappointed on the whole. 
Not this year...many of the improvements I'd begged for (as did others) 
finally showed up and they look to have been "done right." My personal 
favourite is a little one, the DX time field. Thank You, Jack!

I'm also very glad to see the end of that awful column order utility, but 
the new one isn't as friendly as I'd like to have seen. Additionally, at 
least on my own installation, the new .CO utility crashed when I tried to 
save a DX Base .CO file from 2005's version, so I had to re-do all of my 
.COs again, but hopefully for the last time!

Oh, and can the "white text on yellow" in the utility app be changed to 
black on yellow or anything actually readable?

I love the new update-data-fields-only-if-needed option; I didn't 
understand it at first, but once I turned it on and saw it in action the 
thought came to mind that it should be on by default.

The resizeable windows for label projects, previous QSOs, etc....THANK YOU!

Some disappointments, though, too:

Still not a painless install (I had to re-do my .CO files as mentioned), 
and I like to keep custom colours as well. I had about 40 keyboard 
shortcuts that all had to be re-done (what a pain in the rump *that* was, 
but I'm now used to it....shouldn't have to be). Had to re-organize my 
toolbars too. Still better than it had been, if memory serves, but I'd 
rather it have gone smoother. Ideally, I was hoping the app had gotten to 
the point that an upgrading user just installs over the top of the previous 
one and that's that. Nice if I I didn't have to copy/paste my custom label 
files, custom folders, etc.

I had a really nice hosts file. Had being the operative word. It re-wrote 
the file on installation of the upgrade. I thought it only did that to 
virgin hosts files, not to already customized ones. That was a nasty little 
surprise.

Still can't scroll with a scroll wheel in the active window if a 
highlighted line is visible on the screen. Needs mouse-up/down to hide the 
line, then scroll away. This is very annoying.

Can't clear "announce" messages except by closing the app and re-opening. 
That would be a nice right-click or context-menu button option.

Can't auto-reconnect to the cluster if connection is lost. No biggie to me 
since I connect through ve7cc's magnificent AR Config utility, but still.

STILL can't key CW using a RigBlaster interface. This is now old, mature 
technology that works with just about every other logger....why not DX Base?

Was really hoping for a direct interface to MMTTY and MMSSTV! Maybe next year?

Wish the time field was *easily* configurable with 4-character being the 
default, but 6 available to those who need it. Might make re-doing my 
custom labels a pain.

Well, that's it, really. A terrific upgrade, WELL worth the money and time 
spent re-configuring everything. Lots of marvellous new goodies but a few 
groans as well. In all, though, yeoman's work and deserving of a hearty 
CONGRATULATIONS. Thank You, Jack.



- pjd

W2IRT