Fields for Award Information
SWISSLOG has several predefined fields that contain information for specific awards.
Therefore, if there's a field already defined, you should use it. Most of
these predefined fields are located in the PQTH table, which contains
the information about the QTH of the QSO partner. These fields are displayed
the 'QTH' page in the QSO-Window.
Examples of these fields
are:
DXCC, IOTA, WAE, ITU, WAZ, Region, Sub-Region
If you cannot use any of the predefined fields, you should use one of the fields that are provided for variable use. These are the fields, Spec, Diploma 1 thru 20 and Special 1 thru 20. If those fields are not adequate or already used, you can create a Variable Statistic – this adds a new field to the SWISSLOG DB.
To make the correct choice, you have to know if the information the field will contain is related to the QSO or to the call sign (station) of the QSO partner.
If the information is station (call sign) related, you would use a field that is stored in the Callbook table. These are the fields labeled Special 1 thru Special 20, which are displayed on the Station page in the QSO-Window. Examples of information that might be entered in these fields are Ten-Ten numbers, DIG numbers and/or any other club membership.
If the information were QSO related, you would use a field
that
is stored PQTH (QTH of the QSO partner)
or, the Logbook table. These are the predefined fields,
such as IOTA, Region, Sub-Region etc.
I would suggest entering all region dependant information such as
DOK, US-county, ADL etc. into the Sub_Region
field (P_Sub_Region). On the other hand, you should put the US-state
into the Region field (P_Region). By the way, this is done
automatically if you are using the international callbook CD. Another
example, The Swiss
Canton could be entered either in the Region or, in the Sub_Region
field; however, it is important to be consistent and always use the same field.
Spec Field (common
field of the Add QSO's mask)
This is actually a legacy from
the DOS version of SWISSLOG however, it can be very useful. It is
stored for each QSO in the logbook DB. Therefore, it can be used for cases
where each QSO counts separately, even if worked them from the same QTH.
A great number of predefined Statistics are delivered with Swisslog. Please see Predefined Statistics, this is an overview about the Statistics, the fields used, and the selection criteria.
Multiple uses of single fields
There may be a situation where you
would like to track more
diplomas than there are variable fields. This is not a
problem in SWISSLOG because the same field can be used for multiple purposes.
However, pre-requisite for multiple uses is an exact definition of what the field
contains based on the contents of other fields in the QSO.
Example:
You would like to track three diplomas – each of them is specific to one
country. You can use the same field for all three diplomas because it is possible
to define exactly which diploma is applicable to the QSO, based on the contents of
the DXCC field. Since each country has a different DXCC, you would use the
DXCC field to select the QSO's for the diplomas and statistics you want.
You can put the information for the German DOK, the US-county and the
French Department (DDFM) into the sub-region field because:
only QSO's with a DXCC of DL will contain DOK's
only QSO's with a DXCC of W will contain US-counties
only QSO's with a DXCC of F will contain DDFM's