Hi Dave,

I installed the new version and replied to you by email. I have a question though regarding your comment "They (QRZ) do provide an optional (for a price) XML data service that is completely insensitive to user interface changes, isn't limited to one lookup every 4 seconds, and is faster because there are not advertisements to render."

I have the QRZ paid XML service. Did I miss a setting in DXLabs so that it isn't making use of the paid XML service?

Thanks Dave!
--
Andy - KØAF

+ AA6YQ comments below

The file is still on my system in C;/WindowsSysWOW64

Tried RedSvr32.exe got the following error

The module "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\MSCOMCTL.OCX wos loaded but the call to DllRegisterServer failed with error code 0x8002801c

+ See

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/dllregisterserver-failed-with-error-code-0x8002801/403ee0d0-895b-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5?auth=1

73,

Dave, AA6YQ

The file is still on my system in C;/WindowsSysWOW64

Tried RedSvr32.exe got the following error

The module "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\MSCOMCTL.OCX wos loaded but the call to DllRegisterServer failed with error code 0x8002801c

Mark
W7HPW

Real Radios Glow in the Dark

+ AA6YQ comments below

Got a error From DxKeeper this morning

“Component ‘mscomctl.oxc’ or one of its dependencies is not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid”

+ Assuming you mean

MSCOMCTL.OCX

+ that means some event occurred on your system that caused the above component, on which DXKeeper depends, to be un-registered from Windows.

+ No DXLab application has the ability to un-register any component.

+ If you just now installed or uninstalled another application and suspect that process may have un-registered MSCOMCTL.OCX, and if you directed Windows to create a "restore point" before taking action, then direct Windows to recover from that Restore Point.

+ Otherwise, check to see if the file MSCOMCTL.OCX is present on your system. DXKeeper needs version 6.1.97.85 of this file, or later. If the file is present, then direct Windows to register it:

https://www.wikihow.com/Register-OCX-Files

+ If MSCOMCTL.OCX is no longer present on your system, let me know and I'll send you a replacement.

73,

Dave, AA6YQ



What do I do next?

Mark
W7HPW

Real Radios Glow in the Dark

On 15/11/2021 18:09, Joy Rabins wrote:

Thanks Dave. I would prefer to stay on my Mac even emulating Windows but you are right about Parallels being another failure point. I don't think I'm too worried about any slow downs. The M1 is blazing fast according to many people. Even if it is a little slower translating the X86 instructions I'm not playing games so my thought is I probably wouldn't notice it. Hopefully  someone has taken this step and will report.

Thanks,
--
Joy
N6GO

Hi Joy,

another data point I can provide is that users of WSJT-X on macOS have reported excellent performance on M1 Macs, we still only ship WSJT-X built for Intel x64 CPUs so it is running under the Apple Rosetta 2 emulator. As WSJT-X is extremely CPU intensive while decoding, and decoding elapsed time is critical to good performance, it seems the Rosetta 2 emulator is dong a very good job.



--
73

Bill

G4WJS.

Thanks Dave. I would prefer to stay on my Mac even emulating Windows but you are right about Parallels being another failure point. I don't think I'm too worried about any slow downs. The M1 is blazing fast according to many people. Even if it is a little slower translating the X86 instructions I'm not playing games so my thought is I probably wouldn't notice it. Hopefully  someone has taken this step and will report. 

Thanks, 
--
Joy
N6GO

# more AA6YQ comments below

+ Nicknames are now being rendered in bold font.

Thanks Dave. I can see why you said "Extracting callbook information from QRZ's HTML pages is extremely fragile". Given QRZ's propensity to make changes, you must be a glutton for punishment to have implemented the nickname feature in the first place. I sure appreciate it though!

# I'm no glutton for punishment, but so long as "QRZ.com via Pathfinder" is a publicly available callbook option in DXKeeper, Pathfinder must keep up with QRZ's changes. To be clear, QRZ's continuing efforts to improve the appearance of its web pages is completely reasonable. They do provide an optional (for a price) XML data service that is completely insensitive to user interface changes, isn't limited to one lookup every 4 seconds, and is faster because there are no advertisements to render. 

# I've emailed you a new version of Pathfinder that handles bold nicknames. Please let me now how it goes...

        73,

               Dave, AA6YQ

 

+ AA6YQ comments below

Dave, just started getting error this morning :2021-11-15 15:44:52.332 > program error 3049 in module SpotDatabaseModule.RecordSpot with state = 356: Cannot open database ''. It may not be a database that your application recognizes, or the file may be corrupt. Spots not showing up in SpotCollector. What could be the problem?

+ Most likely a corrupted Spot Database. This was detected in the middle of creating a new Spot Database Entry, which implies a hardware or database malfunction. So that I can see what happened, please place the file Spots.mdb from SpotCollector's Databases folder into a zip archive, attach the zip archive to an email message, and send the message to me via aa6yq (at) ambersoft.com

+ If you'd like to immediately resume use of SpotCollector and don't mind losing the information in your Spot Database, terminate SpotCollector, delete the file Spots.mdb in SpotCollector's Databases folder, and then restart SpotCollector.

+ I suggest that you examine Windows' event logs to see whether a hardware or software failure occurred.

73,

Dave, AA6YQ

Dave, just started getting error this morning :2021-11-15 15:44:52.332 > program error 3049 in module SpotDatabaseModule.RecordSpot with state = 356: Cannot open database ''.  It may not be a database that your application recognizes, or the file may be corrupt. Spots not showing up in SpotCollector. What could be the problem? Thanks, Richard wb6ewm

+ AA6YQ comments below

I have a new M1 Mac Air laptop and would like to run DX Labs on it. Another ham has successfully run all his windows programs with Parallels 17 with Windows for ARM on his M1 machine. He doesn't use DX Labs. My question is will DX Labs run on Windows 11 for ARM?

+ I don't know. DXLab applications are compiled to the X86 instruction set, but Microsoft claims that ARM processors can interpret X86 applications. That sounds slow to this CPU design engineer, but until someone gives it a try and reports the results, performance remains unknown. Parallels adds yet another significant variable to the equation.

73,

Dave, AA6YQ

I have a new M1 Mac Air laptop and would like to run DX Labs on it. Another ham has successfully run all his windows programs  with Parallels 17 with Windows for ARM on his M1 machine.  He doesn't use DX Labs. My question is will DX Labs run on Windows 11 for ARM? Thanks for any comments. 
--
Joy
N6GO

As you can see from the email message below, Michael G7VJR has been forced to take aggressive countermeasures to defend Club Log against online attacks. As a result, the hardcoded URL that DXView employs to update its Override list by downloading exceptions from Club Log has changed.

The Club Log exceptions URL is updated in the next version of DXView, which I will publicly release after completing the addition of a database of Russian callsigns that will improve DXLab's support for the RDA award.

73,

Dave

From: clublog@googlegroups.com [mailto:clublog@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of G7VJR
Sent: Monday, November 15, 2021 7:35 AM
To: Club Log
Subject: [Club Log] Re: Changed download links

snip<

The basic issue I have is with abuse and bandwidth. URLs such as secure.clublog.org were retired long ago (also more recently, www). These URLs generated a significant DDoS attack on Club Log during October (politically motivated during a Russian expedition) which I was only able to mitigate using Cloudflare and other firewalling triggers. I had to deal with this in the middle of the night and decided enough was enough. Having legacy URLs still serving traffic makes my job considerably more difficult and I have therefore taken a firm line; undocumented, legacy URLs are now permanently behind Cloudflare with sensitive bot detection logic, or just blocked entirely. The anti-bot features will tend to disrupt API traffic where Javascript is not available, so I have put in place a clear message about cty.xml.

The other reason I have made this change is that cty.xml (even zipped) is a large file. The distributed effect of everyone downloading it to their logging tool each day is a mountain of static content - gigabytes. This, too, has to go behind Cloudflare to reduce the overheads (and speed up the downloads, which is a bonus for users). Removing legacy URLs and blocking incorrect use coming to Club Log directly is unavoidable to get this solved.

Lastly, incorrect implementations of the Club Log APIs (such as not checking user credentials) generate up to 25% of all API traffic, sometimes also apparently with a pattern such as 1 request per second the whole time the logging software is open (NB, not Rumlog!). These requests are now blocked via firewall triggers automatically, too. Users in this position will be unable to access Club Log for as long as their API requests continue.

What I'm trying to express is clearly some frustration, but I'm also pushing for practical changes to solve the issues. Club Log has been shouldering some severe issues from misuse, but they are easy to fix if I make these changes firmly. There are important reasons I have to cause disruption to get these changes through. Over the years I have tried to communicate the correct way to use the different APIs but this will probably bring the issues to a head. It's nothing personal but it's important enough to cause some inconvenience to get it done!

Summary of URLs for API requests (e.g. realtime logging, deletion, getting ADIF files etc):

http:// anything - not supported. The only HTTP endpoint is the Club Log Gateway (to avoid TLS overheads).
https://www.clublog.org/ - supported for now but behind Cloudflare bot protection, which may interfere with API clients
https://secure.clublog.org/ - supported for now but behind Cloudflare bot protection, which may interfere with API clients
https://clublog.org/ - CORRECT. Protected by reactive firewalls and other DDoS protection but not susceptible to other forms of blocking API clients.

Summary of URLs for cty.xml, SCP files etc (i.e. static downloads with an API key):

https://cdn.clublog.org/ - CORRECT
Anything else: blocked

73
Michael G7VJR

+ AA6YQ comments below

Dave in N1MM when using the N1MM rotator you can see the heading windows for each of the specified rotators. Is it possible to have a directional window for each of the N1MM rotators when running DX Labs also?

+ Yes it is, but it's relatively low priority given the ability to do that via the interoperation with "N1MM Rotor", and the relatively small fraction of users who have more than one rotator to control.

Also, I wonder if it's possible to set up Hotkeys within DXview (Alt J and Alt L) to turn the rotator to the highlighted station in DXview - just like what happens in N1MM.?

+ Is the mouse cursor resident in DXView's Main window often enough to make that worthwhile? Are you aware that depressing the CTRL key while double-clicking a Spot Database Entry will rotate your antenna to the short path to the entry's station, and that depressing the ALT key while double-clicking a Spot Database Entry will rotate your antenna to the long path to the entry's station?

+ Rotation hotkeys could be added to DXKeeper's Capture window, but ALT-J and ALT-L are already in use. See

https://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxkeeper/Help/KeyboardShortcuts.htm#Capture%20window%20shortcuts

73,

Dave, AA6YQ

+ If  DXView interoperating with "N1MM Rotor" is not meeting your needs, please explain the deficiencies. Thanks!

+ AA6YQ comments below

Thanks for the reply Dave. You can try my call or NS8K. I believe the nickname extraction quit working about 2 weeks ago. It hasn't worked on any station for me since then.

+ Nicknames are now being rendered in bold font.

Thanks Dave. I can see why you said "Extracting callbook information from QRZ's HTML pages is extremely fragile". Given QRZ's propensity to make changes, you must be a glutton for punishment to have implemented the nickname feature in the first place. I sure appreciate it though!

--
73,
Andy - KØAF

+ AA6YQ comments below

I am using the default color coding schemes in spot collector. Lets say that I have worked and confirmed HD8R on 40 SSB and 20CW ..

When HD8R is now spotted on 20 SSB , the spot shows up in black, because of have the MODE confirmed and I have the Band Confirmed. Is there a way to have that spot show up in RED because I would like the spot to be
flagged because I still want to be notified that I need the contact on 20M SSB since I have not worked an HC8 on 20 SSB.

+ DXLab's realtime award tracking for DXCC conforms to the DXCC rules (cough, except for the user-defined digital mode, cough) which as you point out involves working each entity on each band and in each mode, but does not involve working each entity on every combination band and mode. If you're only seeking to do this with a few callsigns, you can add those callsigns to SpotCollector's Special Callsign List with a <Leaderboard> tag, and you'll be prompted to work them on all band-mode combinations; see

https://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxlabwiki/LeaderboardAwardTracking

+ If you really want to confirm all 340 DXCC entities on all combinations of bands and modes - a challenge known around these parts as the Quixote Quest - you can do that using Volker DL9HO's Spot Spy add-in:

http://www.dl9ho.de/SpotSpy/SpotSpy.htm

73,

Dave, AA6YQ


Dave

NR1DX

--
Dave Manuals@ArtekManuals.com www.ArtekManuals.com

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I am using the default color coding schemes in spot collector. Lets say that I have worked and confirmed HD8R on 40 SSB and 20CW ..

When HD8R is now spotted on 20 SSB , the spot shows up in black, because of have the MODE confirmed and I have the Band Confirmed. Is there a way to have that spot show up in RED because I would like the spot to be flagged because I still want to be notified that I need the contact on 20M SSB since I have not worked an HC8  on 20 SSB.


Dave

NR1DX

--
Dave Manuals@ArtekManuals.com www.ArtekManuals.com

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+ AA6YQ comments below

Thanks for the reply Dave. You can try my call or NS8K. I believe the nickname extraction quit working about 2 weeks ago. It hasn't worked on any station for me since then.

+ Nicknames are now being rendered in bold font.

73,

Dave, AA6YQ