[Dxbase] Manual entry to the DXCC checkbox in the Award field
doesn't work
John Pelham
john at radiophile.com
Wed Jan 24 17:21:04 EST 2007
Jack said,
>>don't really know what else to say about it.
I get that a lot, with computers.
John
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack" <jack at dxbase.com>
To: "John Pelham" <john at radiophile.com>; <Dxbase at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 7:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Dxbase] Manual entry to the DXCC checkbox in the Award
fielddoesn't work
> John,
>
> I cannot reproduce any of what you say. Manually setting/unsetting
> the checkboxes in Award, Select, etc.. fields works exactly as it
> should by coloring or uncoloring the field. So, don't really know
> what else to say about it.
>
> Jack
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Pelham" <john at radiophile.com>
> To: <Dxbase at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 6:31 PM
> Subject: [Dxbase] Manual entry to the DXCC checkbox in the Award
> fielddoesn't work
>
>
>> Well it's been over a week and I'm surprised to have still no
>> response
>> to my DXbase issue (see original e-mail below); not even a response
>> from
>> Jack. Well maybe not so surprised - my problem is kinda complex and
>> weird. Unfortunately this e-mail is even longer and filled with even
>> more details. I don't know how to explain this complicated problem
>> without the details.
>>
>> ----
>> But first, let me just say that I have found the answer to my
>> question
>> about the colorization of the Award field. I don't believe it's
>> anywhere in the help file (it should be) but I finally found the
>> "what's
>> new" lists (or, "Release Notes") for the recent annual versions of
>> DXbase. They're hard to find on the DXbase Web site but I
>> persevered.
>>>From the release notes for DXbase 2005:
>>
>> "33. The VALID field in the QSO log is now color coded red if the
>> field
>> is marked as not valid. The Award, Select, and Flags fields are color
>> coded green if a selection has been made in the field. This color
>> coding
>> is also used in the Previous QSO dialog."
>> ----
>>
>> Now, on to my real issue: The Award field, and its coloration,
>> doesn't
>> work right for manual data entry. It works fine when the DXCC
>> checkbox
>> in the Award field is checked by DXbase during the paper DXCC
>> submission
>> process, but not when I, the user, tries to check the boxes by hand
>> for,
>> in my case, an LOTW submission. In the past week since sending my
>> original mail, two things enabled me to test for this problem really
>> well: I have a second PC with DXbase on it, and I have a complete
>> DXbase directory backup, made on Jan. 13, the day before I started my
>> LOTW work that first exposed the problem to me.
>>
>> I have been able to copy my "virgin" Jan. 13 DXbase directory onto
>> this
>> second computer any number of times, each time trying something new
>> and
>> different to try to learn more about the problem or fix it. The
>> problem
>> also exists on the second PC, and is fully repeatable there.
>>
>> I'll describe in detail my most recent set of tests, starting with a
>> fresh copy of my Jan. 13 DXbase directory on my second PC:
>>
>> First, I ran and printed the report dxcccredited.rpt, which lists all
>> the QSOs in my log that have the DXCC box checked in the Award field.
>> Then I chose a subset of nine random QSOs from my LOTW submission,
>> and
>> manually checked these DXCC boxes in the Award field of my QSO log.
>> As
>> usual, a random sampling (this time it was 6 out of the 9) of the
>> QSOs
>> already had their DXCC box checked when I first found them with the
>> Previous QSOs dialog. Just to make sure it wasn't some kind of weird
>> display problem, I minimized everything and then restored the DXbase
>> app, forcing it to re-paint its pixels. Same thing - the DXCC box
>> appeared truly checked in all of the 6 cases. I checked my printout
>> of
>> the dxcccredited report -- none of the QSOs were in it, so none
>> should
>> have already had their DXCC box already checked.
>>
>> After manually checking the DXCC check box for all 9 QSOs in the
>> sample,
>> I re-ran the dxcccredited report to check that all the manual DXCC
>> box
>> checking I had just done had been successful. It wasn't. As usual,
>> some but not all of the QSOs now appeared in the report (this time
>> through, _only one_ of the nine QSOs "stuck"), indicating that, some
>> of
>> the time, the database hadn't been updated when I checked the
>> checkboxes.
>>
>> So, now I decided to go through my sample of nine LOTW QSOs again,
>> this
>> time manually checking and unchecking the DXCC box several times,
>> just
>> to see what happened, possibly to increase my "stick" rate. A new
>> run
>> of the dxcccredited report showed that now four additional QSOs had
>> "stuck." Added to the one that stuck the first time means that after
>> all this effort and checking, I managed to successfully change my QSO
>> database for only five out of the nine QSOs in my sample.
>>
>> This is bad - something's wrong with manual entry to the DXCC
>> checkbox
>> in the Award field. It seems to be very broken.
>>
>> To recap:
>> - Manually checking the DXCC box in the Award field doesn't stick;
>> that
>> is, it appears to get written to the database but it really isn't.
>> If I
>> go through my list of LOTW submissions, manually checking DXCC
>> checkboxes, I can go back to ones I just did a few seconds or minutes
>> previously, and a few aren't checked anymore. Which QSOs exhibit
>> this
>> behavior appears to be random.
>> - Only some, not all, of the records with the DXCC box checked in the
>> Award field are colored green. Which QSO records exhibit this
>> behavior
>> appears to be random.
>> - Sometimes (but not all the time), if I click on a non-green Award
>> field, it immediately turns green and the DXCC box in it is suddenly
>> already checked. This happens without me actually checking the box
>> with
>> my mouse. Just clicking on the field to get the drop-down list does
>> it.
>> Which QSOs exhibit this behavior appears to be random.
>> - Once in a while I get the "CQWAZ..." (see my original message
>> below)
>> error message when merely finding QSOs with the Previous QSOs
>> database.
>> Which QSOs produce this error seems to be random.
>> - Using the DXB Utility's Repair function on my QSO database doesn't
>> change any of the above behavior.
>> - Using the DXB Utility's Compact Database function on my QSO
>> database
>> doesn't change any of the above behavior.
>> - Restarting DXbase, and/or rebooting the PC, and/or initializing
>> tables
>> doesn't change any of the above behavior.
>> - Using a copy of DXbase installed on a second computer doesn't
>> change
>> any of the above behavior.
>>
>>
>> In the past, the DXCC checkbox in the Award field has gotten checked
>> automatically, by DXbase when preparing a paper award submission. I
>> was
>> never aware of any errors or strange behavior with this field before.
>> My first LOTW submission has caused my to try to use this checkbox
>> manually for the first time. I think DXbase may have a bug in this
>> functionality. I'm hoping this is just a bug with manual data entry
>> into this field, not a data integrity problem with my QSO log.
>>
>> 73,
>> W1JA
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "John Pelham" <john at radiophile.com>
>> To: <Dxbase at mailman.qth.net>
>> Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2007 5:24 PM
>> Subject: [Dxbase] Dazed and confused about green fields, and more
>>
>>
>>> Today I, for the first time, made a DXCC application (for
>>> endorsements) using LOTW QSLs. I'm having trouble getting DXbase to
>>> cooperate in this process.
>>>
>>> I submitted the application using the LOTW Web site. LOTW gave me a
>>> list of the 42 QSLs it chose for the award category endorsements I
>>> applied for (mixed, CW, phone, 160M, 80M, 40M, 10M). My idea was
>>> that
>>> then I would go to DXbase and check the DXCC box in the AWARD field
>>> for each of these QSLs. This is where my problems began.
>>>
>>> 1. Some of the AWARD fields are colored green. What does this mean?
>>> I vaguely recall reading that this is a feature, added maybe a year
>>> or
>>> two ago, that indicates at a glance if the QSO record has been used
>>> for a (DXCC?) award. But I'm not sure. I couldn't find any
>>> information on the coloration of this field. I checked in Help,
>>> under
>>> Logging | QSO Log Field Description | Award -- no mention of colors.
>>> I also searched Help for the word 'green' - no luck.
>>>
>>> I'm having a problem with this field. I noticed that sometimes when
>>> the DXCC checkbox is checked, the field is green, and sometimes it's
>>> not. If it's checked but not green, and I click the field to open
>>> the
>>> drop-down list, it turns green. But if I go back later to check
>>> again, it's usually not green anymore even though the box is still
>>> checked.
>>>
>>> Anyway, I dutifully checked the DXCC Award checkbox for all 42 Q's
>>> that I just used for my LOTW DXCC endorsement application. Later, I
>>> went back to DXbase to spot check it, and I find that eight of the
>>> boxes are still not checked. There's no way I missed checking
>>> eight.
>>> I was very careful. Somehow the checking didn't stick. Most (but
>>> not
>>> all) of the Award fields are also not green when I first look at
>>> them.
>>> They turn green as soon as I click on the field to show the
>>> drop-down
>>> list if the DXCC checkbox is still checked, or they turn green as
>>> soon
>>> as I check the box if it has become unchecked and I need to check it
>>> again. But they don't stay green, and as I said it appears some of
>>> the boxes don't stay checked.
>>>
>>> 2. Even more weird: When I was initially finding (using the
>>> Previous
>>> QSOs dialog) each of the 42 QSOs to check the DXCC box, I noticed
>>> that
>>> some of the DXCC Award boxes were already checked as soon as I
>>> clicked
>>> to get the drop-down list! I don't understand how this can be, as
>>> these QSOs were all confirmed only with LOTW and this was my first
>>> award application. None had been used for DXCC credit before, and
>>> the
>>> LOTW Web site confirmed such. (I started to think that maybe after
>>> I
>>> had been checking a few DXCC boxes, that some super-smart DXbase
>>> code
>>> was "knowing" that I wanted to check the box and was doing it for me
>>> as soon as I clicked the Award field? Somehow I don't believe this
>>> one.)
>>>
>>> 3. One some (about 10 out of the 42) QSO records, as soon as I found
>>> the record with the Previous QSO dialog, I'd get an error message
>>> that
>>> said "The record <> could not be found in the CQWAZ numeric
>>> Statistic
>>> Table. Updates to this table will now be aborted. Correct your
>>> database and Initialize Tables when repaired." I dismissed this
>>> error
>>> message and proceeded normally since I had no idea what it meant. A
>>> quick glance at each record didn't show any problems, like with its
>>> CQ
>>> zone for example. The second time through, when I had to go back to
>>> find the eight DXCC award checkboxes that didn't stay checked, I
>>> only
>>> got two of these error messages.
>>>
>>> So, to summarize my issues:
>>> 1. What does a green Award field mean? In any case, mine aren't
>>> green
>>> consistently.
>>> 2. Checking the DXCC Award check box doesn't seem to "stick" in many
>>> cases.
>>> 3. I get the CQWAZ Table error when finding some QSOs with the
>>> Previous QSOs dialog.
>>>
>>> I should add that I initialized tables, and restarted DXbase twice
>>> during the time I was checking the 42 award checkboxes. The
>>> problems
>>> persisted throughout the whole process.
>>>
>>> Yours dazed, frustrated and confused,
>>> John, W1JA
>>>
>>>
>>> John Pelham
>>> E-mail: john at radiophile.com
>>> Web site: http://www.radiophile.com
>>> ______________________________________________________________
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>>
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