Software for the 2007 Party

There are no significant rule changes this year; but I have made some small changes and corrected a few minor errors.

Here are the changes that are important to you.

The has added support for Expeditions - on either end of a QSO. When you work an Expedition, use a /P suffix with the call sign. Then the logger will score it appropiately and allow you to work that station again from another location.
I upgraded Cabrillo support to vesrion 3.
I added an optional Name field to the logging screen to support the Virginia Quadricentennial Commemorative Certificate.

Here are some features that have not changed and are, possibly, improved.

If you use a computer interface between your normal logger and your radio, you may wish to install OmniRig. You can learn about OmniRig at by clicking here. Omni-Rig has a new release available. If you have an older one, that should also work. I've recently found a small application, HamPort, which uses Omni-Rig and runs concurrently with the Logger.
Support for both county names and abbreviations.
Retention of settings in the Logging screen so that you don't have to reset options every time you start logging.
Support for multiple, concurrent executions of the logger. N8IK and KG4LTB use this feature to operate two SO Mobile stations from the same car.

Please feel free to send me an e-mail if you find any bugs. I will try to fix them before the contest.

BUGS FOR 2007

Mar 01: None yet reported;
Mar 13: The program crashes when the main logging screen attempts to open the edit-log screen or the settings screen. Corrected in 2007.04
Mar 14: The drop-down box for State on the main logging screen is cumbersome to use. Also, it does not follow the expected behavior of a drop-down box. Corrected in 2007.03
Mar 16: Changed UTC offset from 5 to 4 in the sample database to reflect the changes to Daylight Saving Time. Corrected in 2007.04
Mar 16: When data in placed into the Name field, the user cannot log the QSO. Other fields get cleared to spaces when the user exits the Name Field. Corrected in 2007.04
Mar 18: Corrected an error that treated NEW KENT as an invalid county. Corrected in 2007.05
Mar 18: Corrected an error that prevented you from logging a duplicate QSO. The logger would detect the dupe, give you the choice of logging it or not, and then ignore your choice. Corrected in 2007.06
Mar 18: Corrected a scoring error that lumped all Canadian QSO's into a single province. Corrected in 2007.06
Mar 18: Corrected an error that prevented the QSO date from moving to the next until after 0400 hours. Corrected in 2007.06

The Virginia QSO Party is an amateur radio contest sponsored by the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club. For the 2007 party, the last software update is version 2007.06 on March 23, 2007. If you experience any problems, I would appreciate it if you would send me a bug report.

Click here to download the software

Click here to register the software

Click here to report a bug or suggestion

Click here to download last year's software

VA QSO Party Logger - Installation Instructions

Omni-Rig Installation:

The use of Omni-Rig is optional; the VA QSO logger will function equally well with or without OmniRig. If you are already using a computer (CAT) interface, then will may be convenient to use Omni-Rig.

Omni-Rig information and software is at this site. Download and run the Omni-Rig Runtime Package . Install the Omni-Rig Runtime Package in its default directory. Execute Omni-Rig to specify your rig and the COM port; this also tests your PC-to-Rig connection.

Note that the VA QSO logger can only access Rig1, even though Omni-Rig supports 2 radios.

.Net Framework 1.1 Installation:

.Net applications will not run unless the .Net Framework has been installed. Since the VA QSO Party Logger was developed in Visual Basic .Net, you must install .Net Framework 1.1.

This site has instructions for determining which version of .Net Framework is installed on your PC. If you have already upgraded to .Net Framework 2.0, that should not be a problem. However, if you never installed version 1.1, you will have a problem. In that case, uninstall version 2.0, install version 1.1, then re-install 2.0. Both versions peacefully co-exist on the same PC.

If you don't want to use Microsoft's Install Through Windows Update process, then this site will give you access to dotnetfx.exe; simply download it and execute it.