[WriteLog] ARRL DX CW prefill file problem

[Gary AL9A]

Apologies to any who downloaded a link to the prefill file for the ARRL DX CW contest that I posted a couple of days ago.  I was setting up my contest logger today and when I connected to the prefill file I discovered that it didn’t work correctly!  After much head scratching and trial and error attempts I finally figured out what the problem is.

In all my previous prefill file releases I used Excel 2007 to generate the text file from which I created the prefill adi file.  One of the reasons is that Excel 2007 has the ability to eliminate duplicate calls in the data files.  This is essential not only  to keep the adi file size in hand, but because Excel and WriteLog handle duplicates differently.  When the file is sorted by call in Excel and there are duplicates the newest data is sorted first and older data sorted last.  But when loading into WriteLog its data handling logic is different.  If it finds duplicate calls it keeps the last one and ignores the earlier ones.  This can result in old obsolete data being loaded and newer more current info being ignored.  To avoid this I always try to eliminate the old duplicates first so as to give WriteLog only one record, the most current one, to load from the prefill file.

I have just upgraded to a new PC in the last week or so and one of the changes, in addition to running under Win 10, was that I upgraded to Excel 2016.  Unfortunately, I just discovered that Excel 2016 handles duplicate deletions differently than Excel 2007.  This resulted in some severe data issues within the prefill file.  This occurred because Excel 2016 eliminates duplicate calls, but unless specifically instructed, does not eliminate the associated data for the deleted duplicate calls.  This results in data from a deleted call being associated with a another random call in the file which results in errors.  Once I figured out what was going on I was able to recreate the base history file and then correctly use the duplicate deletion sequence in Excel 2016.  This has resulted in a new corrected file that is now available to download from the following link.  If you downloaded the earlier version, please delete it and use this one instead.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7os60bd41p341nx/ARRL%20DX%20CW%20History_V2.adi?dl=0

Again, a reminder.  This file if for DX stations only who will be working US/VE stations only.  There is no prefill file for US/VE stations as they receive a sequential serial number from the DX stations.

73,
Gary AL9A