[Dxbase] Combined LOTW/Card DXCC submissions

[Chris Codella, W2PA]

Hello out there in DXBase land.  Is anyone doing combined 
Card/LOTW-credit DXCC submissions on LOTW using DXBase?

I routinely use DXBase to submit log entries to LOTW - it works very 
well.  I also import QSL information from LOTW into DXBase - that too 
works well.  So far so good.  I now want to generate a rather large DXCC 
submission containing *both* LOTW QSLs and card QSLs.  LOTW lets you do 
this kind of combined submission.  Here's the problem:

In the DXBase's DXCC Award Submission window, you can tell it to select 
cards, LOTW, or both.  But there doesn't seem to be a way to indicate a 
preference for LOTW if "both" is selected.  This would be desirable 
since it would minimize the number of actual cards necessary in a 
combined submission.

I'm trying to use DXBase to generate a combined submission - but perhaps 
it's not really set up for doing that because of this lack of preference 
specification.  The alternative is to start with the LOTW web site to 
construct a submission with LOTW credits, then add card-only credits 
from DXBase.  That can't work completely automatically, since you can't 
download a list of "what I intend to submit" so that DXB can import it 
and see it.  For this hybrid procedure you therefore need to manually 
check the Award field in DXBase for those LOTW QSLs (QSOs) you're 
submitting with the LOTW web site, *then* do a card-only submission from 
DXBase.

I speculate that DXBase computes a list of submission items (confirmed 
QSOs) working through the log from oldest to newest (this is just an 
assumption on my part since the help file doesn't say what the scanning 
order is - doesn't matter anyway since the same problem exists even if 
you start with the newest and work back).  In many cases I have both a 
card QSL and an LOTW QSL for a given band/entity.  In such cases I want 
DXBase to give priority to band/mode/entities confirmed with an LOTW QSL 
over ones confirmed with only a card QSL.  For example, if I have 
England confirmed by card in 1990 and by LOTW in 2002 (or vice versa), I 
want it to choose the LOTW QSL instead of the earlier card QSL. 

I tried a test case with my own fairly large log and checked the 
generated "worksheet" listing to see if there is any LOTW vs. card 
preference built in.  Of course I didn't do an exhaustive check, but I 
looked at some common DXCC entities, specifically Wales, France, and 
Italy, and double checked the LOTW web site to see if there were any 
cards selected by DXBase for which I also had an LOTW QSL. 

I first noted that it picked a recent LOTW QSL for Wales on 40m even 
though I have card QSLs too - that's fine.  But it also picked a card 
for France on 20m even though I have several 20m France QSLs on LOTW 
which have also been imported into DXBase.  Same with Italy on 20m - it 
chose a card over several LOTW QSLs.  So it seems evident that DXBase 
has no preference for either cards or LOTW QSLs when "both" is selected 
in the Award Submission window.

In conclusion, the only sensible way I can think of doing a combined 
submission using DXBase (as opposed to my hybrid LOTW/DXBase procedure 
above) is to first generate a submission for LOTW-only QSLs, marking 
them as submitted in DXBase, then do a second submission for 
cards-only.  The second submission should then pick only cards for which 
there is no LOTW credit.  Maybe that's how you're *supposed* to do it?  
The help file gives no clue.

Please advise on doing combined submissions if I'm missing some easier way.

73,
Chris, W2PA