• DXingWithDXLab

DXing with DXLab

The following assumes that your only objective is to obtain DXCC award credit for all current entities, but the suggested techniques apply equally to pursuing DXCC entity-modes and entity bands, IOTA tags, Marathon entities and zones, VUCC grid squares, WAS States, WAZ zones, and WPX prefixes (and their band-specific, mode-specific, and band-mode-specific variants).

DXLab's Realtime Award Tracking for DXCC will highlight and announce active DX stations -- spotted on DX Clusters, or decoded by WSJT-X, or decoded from skimmers, or reported on the Reverse Beacon Network -- with whom a confirmed QSO would advance your award progress. However, there will come a point where chasing needed stations no longer produces results; further progress requires you to target needed entities:

1. Identify target stations that are active from the needed entity, and learn when each of these target stations is typically QRV, on which bands, and in which modes

   1. Getting Started with Spot Collection, Active DX Identification, and Analytics

   2. Filtering the Spot Database Display to show active stations from a specified DXCC entity

   3. Identifying Callsigns whose Spot Database Entries should not be Pruned

   4. Determining From Where an Active DX Station is Being Spotted

2. Learn which of the bands on which you can operate are providing openings from your area to the needed entity and its nearby entities, and when each such opening begins and ends
   1. assess actual propagation from your QTH based on spotted and decoded stations in and near the needed entity

      • Analyzing Propagation From Active DX Stations

   2. assess actual propagation by monitoring NCDXF beacons located in or near the needed entity

   3. identify gray-line propagation openings between your QTH and the needed entity

      • Identifying Gray-Line Propagation Openings

   4. assess predicted propagation from your QTH based on spotted and decoded stations in and near the needed entity

      • Getting Started with Propagation Prediction

      • Predicting Propagation For a Spot Database Entry's DX Station

3. Patrol band openings during which target stations from the needed entity will likely be QRV, using the modes these stations will likely be using

   • As you encounter stations that aren't needed, locally spot them so that their callsigns appear on Commander's Bandspread window, on Commander's Spectrum-Waterfall window, or on a SmartSDR Panadaptor, enabling more rapid identification when you tune across them during the remainder of your patrol.

DXLab's focus on understanding and exploiting HF propagation was influenced by two books:

• The Complete DXer

• The NEW Shortwave Propagation Handbook

Additional Information

• "DXing with DXLab" presentation delivered at the 2017 International DX Convention in Visalia California

  • in Microsoft PowerPoint format

  • in PDF format

• Predicting and Monitoring Propagation with DXLab

Post a question or suggestion on the DXLab Discussion Group

Getting Started with DXLab