Country and Zone Guessing

Country Guessing

When adding a new log entry XMLog checks the call field and tries to "guess" the prefix and country fields using information from the "prefixes" file. If the country can't be guessed (or if the Options/Verify Country Guesses option is enabled) XMLog will display a dialog with the following choices:

• Use the Guess - The guess is fine, use it.
• Back to Edit Entry - Go back to edit mode so you can replace the guess with something else.
• Set to ? - Country Unknown - Sets the prefix field to ? and no country will be associated with the entry. A ? should be used for maritime mobile stations or other stations that have no DXCC status. Entries with ? in the prefix field are not included in DXCC summaries.
• Select Country From List - This option allows you to choose the country from the list of DXCC countries. For more information see The DXCC Country List.

Improving Country Guesses

Sometimes XMLog can't correctly "guess" the country from the callsign. Here's a couple of ways you can improve the guesses.

• Some callsigns don't follow the rules or may not be unique to a single country. For example, a 3D2 call may be Conway, Fiji, or Rotuma. You can associate specific calls to countries by editing the Callsign List, see The Callsign List for details.
• U.S. prefixes don't always indicate the DXCC country - KP2AA might be in Arizona rather than the Virgin Islands. XMLog can look up these calls in your callbook, see Callbook Setup for details.

Zone Guessing

After the country is guessed the correct zone may automatically be set. For countries that cover more than one zone two things can happen:

• If Options/Enable Zone Prompts is disabled the zone will be set to ?.
• If Options/Enable Zone Prompts is enabled you will be prompted to select the zone from a list of all zones for that country.

Note that for Canadian or U.S. QSOs zone prompts are always disabled but XMLog will check other fields to see if the zone can be determined. First the State/Province field is checked and if no State/Province was provided the QTH field checked. The QTH field is scanned looking for the last "word" to see if it's a state or province.

Here's some examples where XMLog can guess the state and zone based on the QTH:

• Fargo, ND
• ND
• 104 Main Street, Fargo, ND - 10203

QTH fields that can't be used to guess the state/zone:

• Fargo, ND USA
• 104 Main Street, Fargo, North Dakota

Wrong guesses can occur using this scheme. For example:

• Norwich VT, near Hanover NH