WPXLOC

Version History (September 2013 and earlier)

This is the support page for WPXLOC.RAW.  This file is the country/prefix database used by AK1A PacketCluster, DX Spider, CLX and others. It has several main functions:

  1. Identifies the DXCC entity of the spotted callsign.  One can configure their cluster preferences to show the entity prefix in the comment field of the DX spot.
  2. Identifies the DXCC entity of the spotter callsign.  One can configure their cluster preferences to show DX spots from only certain entities or zones.
  3. Helps SHOW/DX properly identify the requested spots.
  4. Provides geographic data for SH/HEADING command when used with a callsign or prefix, to identity the correct bearing (beam heading) and distance from your location.

WPXLOC is a hybrid of data found in everyday logging programs (DXbase, DX4WIN, etc) and the data used for contest loggers:

  1. It is not a historical database that can correctly resolve every ambiguous callsign ever used (3D2, VP8, etc.). It only needs to be correct “today”.
  2. It can match on more than one entity when the callsign is ambiguous (i.e. SH/H CE0 will show the distance/bearing to Easter Island, San Felix and Juan Fernandez).
  3. It contains more precise geographic data than is found in many databases, i.e. US states, Canadian provinces, Russian oblasts, etc.

Why am I doing this?

I have been supporting/maintaining the contest country files (“CTY files”) since 1994.  For more information, follow this link.

For some time, WPXLOC was maintained, but I have not seen any evidence of this recently.  Dirk Koopman, G1TLH and Lee Sawkins, VE7CC have had to work around problems, and I have found and fixed some errors in my “spare” time.

Whereas the contest files are used “only on weekends”, the packet databases are used year-round, and it’s important for them to be kept current.

I also hope to leverage my previous work in this area. It makes sense to provide contest and cluster data that uses a common set of prefixes, country names and geographical coordinates (so, for example, beam headings are the same no matter which program you are using). It also means that any mistakes will be repeated across all databases (however, there are checks in place to try to prevent this :-).

Finally, by using a common data set and generation program, multiple databases can be released simultaneously at the push of a single button.