DXKeeper: Managing Multiple QTHs

DXKeeper Online Help Contents

If you operate from more than one QTH and want to print QSL cards that correctly describe the location from which you were operating at the time, then you'll need to describe each of your QTHs and assign each a unique identifier. When you log a QSO, specifying the correct unique QTH identifier enables DXKeeper's QSL information substitution commands to take on the correct value when you print a QSL card.

QTH descriptions are captured and maintained using the my QTHs tab of DXKeeper's main window. To describe a QTH, click the New button, and enter appropriate text in the Name,Street, City, County, State, PostCode, Country, Email, Rig, CQ, ITU, IOTA, Grid, Latitude, and Longitude text boxes. If you change the Grid, the Latitude and Longitude will be updated; if you change Latitude or Longitude, the grid will be updated. You need only enter information that you plan to print on QSL cards (using the substitution commands), but to avoid extra work if you later change your mind, its best to capture all of the information.

The textbox labeled ID is special -- you must enter a set of characters that uniquely identify this QTH; the single apostrophe ' cannot be used. When you log a QSO, the myQTH item is used to capture the unique identifier of the QTH from which you are making the QSO. If you never operate from two cities with the same name (like San Jose, California and San Jose, Costa Rica), then you can use the city name as a unique identifier. You could also use the name of the street from which you operate, or the name of the village, or just assign each QTH a unique letter (A for Addis Ababa, B for Bata Sani, C for Calcutta, etc). After filling in all of the textboxes, click the Save button.

As you define QTHs, they appear in a grid display in the lower part of the my QTHs tab. You can define up to 1024 QTHs; each must have a unique identifier. To modify a QTH definition, select its entry in grid display, make whatever changes are required, and click the Save button.

To delete a QTH definition, select its entry in the grid display and click the Delete button. Note that you cannot delete a QTH definition if one or more QSOs still contain its QTH identifier; should you attempt to do so, DXKeeper will inform you of its refusal, and will filter the Log Page Display to show all QSOs still containing a QTH identifier for the QTH definition you are attempting to delete. If desired, you can use the Modify QSOs function to change these QTH definitions in a single operation. Successfully deleting a QTH definition leaves the Log Page Display showing all QSOs in in the log.

If you've got a log full of QSOs made from different QTHs and wish to properly associate each with the correct QTH ID, you need not step through each QSO individually to set its myQTH item -- you can use DXKeeper's filtering capabilities to select a group of QSOs made from the same QTH. First, select a QTH by clicking on its grid display entry in the my QTHs tab. Then switch to the Log QSOs tab and use the filtering capabilities to select a set of QSOs made from that QTH -- for example, all QSOs between 25-DEC-00 and 1-JAN-01. Then switch back to the my QTHs tab and click the Set myQTH ID button in the Update QSOs in Log Page Display panel -- this will set the myQTH item of each selected QSO to that of the current QTH.

If you've defined one or more QTHs, invoking the Broke filter on the Log QSOs tab will reveal any QSOs for which the myQTH item has not been set.

When you print QSL cards or labels, DXKeeper will confirm multiple QSOs with the same station on a single card or label if the my QTH fields fields for City, County, State, Country, and PostCode all match; upper/lower case and white space are ignored in this comparison. You can, however, force each QSO to be confirmed on a separate card or label by unchecking the Confirm multiple QSOs per QSL box.

When a QSO containing a myQTH item is exported in ADIF, the QTH identifier is exported with the tag APP_DXKEEPER_MY_QTHID. If the Export tab's Export QTH definitions box is checked, DXKeeper will also export the contents of  the QTH definition selected by the QTH identifier using the ADIF 2.0 tags MY_CITY, MY_CNTY, MY_COUNTRY, MY_CQ_ZONE, MY_GRIDSQUARE, MY_IOTA, MY_ITU_ZONE, MY_LAT, MY_LON,  MY_POSTAL_CODE, MY_STATE, MY_STREET, MY_NAME, MY_RIG, and MY_EMAIL.

When an imported ADIF record contains an APP_DXKEEPER_MY_QTHID tag, the associated QTH identifier is placed in the imported QSO's myQTH item; single apostrophes contained in the identifier are removed, and noted in the import log. If the log contains no QTH definition with this QTH identifier, then a new QTH definition is created, and assigned this QTH identifier. If the imported ADIF record contains any of the following ADIF 2.0, their associated data is used to populated the newly-created QTH definition: MY_CITY, MY_CNTY, MY_COUNTRY, MY_CQZONE, MY_GRIDSQUARE, MY_IOTA, MY_ITUZONE, MY_LAT, MY_LON,  MY_POSTAL_CODE, MY_STATE, MY_STREET, MY_NAME, MY_RIG, and MY_EMAIL.

Taken together, the above export and import capabilities mean that if a log containing multiple QTH definitions and QSOs that reference them (via QTH identifiers) is exported in ADIF with the Export QTH definitions box checked, the resulting ADIF file can later be imported into an empty log with the result that all QTH definitions from the original log will be re-created, and the imported QSOs will appropriately reference these QTH definitions.