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N5UP Dave Morris has contributed to 132 posts out of 11635 total posts
(1.13%) in 8,780 days (0.02 posts per day).
20 Most recent posts: This message was posted in a secure forum. Click here to access the topic where message was posted.
eAward Suggestions »
Cost of new OCEANA award plate Jul 26, 2021 01:41 AM
(Total replies: 2)
Guy is correct that only 1/2 of the card printing credits can be used for other things like plaques and plates. However there is indeed something mysterious going on with the totalling software, because it's also only giving you 1/2 credit for your hard currency payments. I'll investigate this, and meanwhile override the system and let you order the plate. Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
General web site suggestions »
How to change my grid square? Feb 11, 2021 03:56 AM
(Total replies: 7)
Also consider that our primary goal is to create a unique eQSL card you can print, that has QTH-specific information on it. Thus each QTH needs potentially a different looking card, or at the very least, different text overlaid on the graphic. If someone goes mobile on a trip from Florida to California and wants to have different card designs for each state, we need to allow for that. So we use a relational database where each QTH has its own "account" with potentially different QSL design information, and the QSOs just point to that account. Now imagine he's also a county hunter and thus operates from 300 different counties, and has 300 accounts. The management of that with the current screens would be a nightmare. SO we are developing some new screens that allow management of a large number of QTHes easily. But easily for the user is not easily for the developer, and thus it's taking longer than we expected. I have a friend who recently flew around the world in his airplane, operating airmobile, and uploading logs all along the way. That's my test case, and as soon as it works in that acid test, we'll release it for everyone. Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
eAward Suggestions »
One click update all awards Jan 18, 2021 07:15 PM
(Total replies: 6)
I had not wanted to do this because I felt it would probably take too long, but after experimenting with it, I now have it down under 2 minutes to run a Standings on almost all the eAwards. There are still a few that require a special Standings program that must be run manually (just because of some special rules). So, for now, Silver and up can find a hyperlink near the top of the My Awards page to do this. If it does not impact the CPU too much, I may make this available to all eAward qualified users at some point. Try it and let us know how long it takes for you. Upon completion of the All Award Standings page, it will refresh the My Awards page automatically, and you should see they are mostly all up-to-date. Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
Mobile with many QTH's »
Back and forth plus mobil qth's Dec 16, 2020 06:38 PM
(Total replies: 10)
If you add the accounts by going to My Accounts -> My Other Accounts, at the bottom of the page you can "Add a new Attached Account", and it will copy over most of the information so all you are doing is changing the QTH. This gives you the ability to have a different QSL design for each QTH, if you wanted to do that. And it makes sure that all your eQSLs are valid for credit to the recipients for their use in eAwards. Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
Support - English speaking »
Import ADIF data to e-QSL fails with a password strictly longer than 14 characters Oct 12, 2020 04:19 AM
(Total replies: 2)
Can you tell me where you were able to enter a password longer than 14 characters to be stored in the profile? When I go to My Profile, it stops entering characters at 14. Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
Other suggestions »
DONE with eQSL ! Aug 25, 2020 03:49 PM
(Total replies: 4)
I appreciate your work with the tutorials. We always need more of those in various languages. Concerning incorrect eQSLs, I even get those myself. Some people get the callsign wrong or have the wrong time set in their computer. The only thing you can do is reject it, and if the same person is sending you a lot of those, you can reject the sender entirely. I have been studying the issue of JPG quality in the card graphics. We currently compress to 75% quality, and I'm experimenting with increasing that. In a system with 3/4 billion records, anything we do to make a change must be carefully thought out and tested. It's quite easy to overload the memory in our servers and end up having our Java "garbage collector" doing too many what they call "stop the world pauses", where the entire system freezes for 5 minutes or longer. We obviously cannot tolerate those, so adjusting the garbage collection mechanism has been an ongoing task for the past year. I have also been working on the issue of highly mobile stations (such as County hunters) being able to upload their logs and have them automatically triaged into the correct account. This is much, much more difficult than it appears, because it is more than just storing the QTH of each record inside that record, but in our case, being able to potentially generate a DIFFERENT eQSL design for every QTH. So our relational database is important but also adds an administration necessity. Let's say you travel across 50 different grid squares and the system generates 50 new accounts, each one with potentially a different eQSL design to show the picture of the city in each grid square, etc. Now you must be able to maintain those 50 accounts, including the start and end dates of operation, so that when you receive the reciprocal eQSL for each of those, it must flow into the correct account so you get proper credit for any eAwards. Other web services may not have those needs, but we do, so it is a non-trivial task. I have been working on it for years, and my "acid test" will be when I fly my airplane across the country and have it upload the logs in real time into the proper accounts so the eQSLs are available instantly to the recipients. A friend of mine flew his airplane around the world a couple years ago and I used his logs to test what I had been working on. Needless to say, it is not quite ready after my testing. But I'm working on it. TL;DR: stay tuned. I'm not resting on my laurels :) Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
Other suggestions »
DONE with eQSL ! Aug 7, 2020 12:52 AM
(Total replies: 4)
Sorry you feel that way, Danny. I feel I've added many new features and the largest awards program in ham radio in that time. Yes, the site's look and feel is somewhat dated, but I'm working on that as well with an artist, as you can see if you go to https://www.eqsl.cc/QSLCard/Home5G.cfm which is still under construction until I have fixed up all of the over 1,000 programs in the system. Many of those are administrative programs you can't see, but I have to maintain them all with an all-volunteer staff. I travel around the country giving presentations to ham radio clubs to convince the ARRL-ONLY members that they should give eQSL a try, and usually sign up a lot of new members at each such visit. I tried to get ARRL to accept our eQSLs, but they had already invested a million dollars in LOTW and I couldn't convince them to give that up. About 92% of our members use the service for free. I only wish I had $1 from each one of them, THEN maybe I would be rich! :) But I wanted to give ham radio back something from my 50 years of fun that I have gotten out of the hobby. Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
Mobile with many QTH's »
Back and forth plus mobil qth's Mar 27, 2020 08:14 PM
(Total replies: 10)
I'm fully aware of the situation with regard to highly mobile stations, as well as users who have a vacation home they visit often, or an office with a rig, or other situations where you are operating with the same callsign from several different grid squares, or counties. While we do have MS SQL Server, a relational database, that is in fact more of a problem than a solution. In the olden days of flat files, we would just store all the QTH data in each log record and be done with it. But since the QTH implies not just a 6 character Grid Square, but also a County, and a Country, and State, and Lat/Lon, and the entire definition of the eQSL graphic and layout, and the awards earned from that QTH, you can see how such a database would rapidly get astronomically huge. The relational database SQL Server is good at fixing the issues of repetitive data, but eQSL.cc is both an OLTP as well as an OLAP type of system. That is, we have transactional data that requires rapid response (you don't want to wait 10 minutes to display one eQSL or to upload one record), and also requires the ability to process mountains of data quickly to see what eAwards a user has earned, to create the Propagation Forecaster map, to display the Satellite Status screen, and to look at Inbox and Outbox data for very large users. So, we have tried to create a balance between OLAP and OLTP. And to do it without the kind of "batch processing" that LOTW requires. When you upload a log record, that eQSL is pretty much instantly available to the user at the other end. I've worked many stations now on FT-8 where I could pull up their eQSL before I had even finished sending my 73! I have been intensely working on a solution to this for several months now, and have been pondering it for almost a decade. In my mind, the only viable solution is one in which a mobile station can upload all his logs, while enroute, and if there is no Profile record currently available for the QTHes of his grid squares, it will put them into an "On Hold" screen, where he can sort them out after he gets parked and has a few minutes to decide, did he set his QTH incorrectly and they should go into one of his existing accounts? Should the system automatically generate a new QTH account and copy over his eQSL graphic design and put the new records there? What should be done? He will have a set of buttons at the bottom of the screen to dispose of any such records in the On Hold Box. My acid test case for this is when I go flying in my airplane and work a bunch of stations while flying at 170mph across the country. I want my logger to automatically store the lat/long and the grid square I'm in, and I want to upload everything in real time, or after I land, and then sort out anything that doesn't have a place to go. To do so will also require creating a single User-level login that will consolidate all of what we currently call an "attached account" into something more like a "QTH profile". Each user could then have as many QTH profiles as necessary, with a single screen to manage them all, find orphan eQSLs and move them, etc. Much like the "Experimental Account Manager" hidden away at the bottom of the "My Other Accounts" screen. I have been working on the User-level code for over a year now. So, while it may appear that we "don't care" about mobile or portable stations, I have 2 avid county hunters on the Advisory Board, as well as one big gun DXer with a lot of DXpeditions under his belt, and I am constantly encouraged to work faster on all this! LOL (See you on the satellites and 20m FT-8) Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
Other suggestions »
ADIF file upload rejected Aug 12, 2019 12:38 PM
(Total replies: 11)
Big Question: If you are having troubles uploading, how are you doing it? Do you Export ADIF file from logger and then Upload file manually in eQSL.cc web site? OR Upload directly from logger? Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
eAward Suggestions »
Awards Aug 12, 2018 05:24 PM
(Total replies: 1)
All modes are allowable for all eAwards. It's just that we haven't established Endorsements for particular modes for all modes for all eAwards. However, there is an endorsement for the eDX100 for SSTV. Nobody has qualified yet. Maybe you can be the first? Have you looked at your Standings for eDX100 SSTV? Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP This message was posted in a secure forum. Click here to access the topic where message was posted. This message was posted in a secure forum. Click here to access the topic where message was posted. This message was posted in a secure forum. Click here to access the topic where message was posted. This message was posted in a secure forum. Click here to access the topic where message was posted.
Getting more eQSLs »
pay for FT4JA eQSL ??????? Mar 5, 2017 06:28 PM
(Total replies: 9)
This is a voluntary mechanism to help financially support DXpeditions the same way they do it with other QSLing services. During the first few months, they request a donation to support the costs of the expedition by charging for each QSL. After the initial period is over, all QSLs are free. So you can either support the DXpedition, or you can wait a little longer for your free QSL. It's that simple. The donation to the DXpedition has nothing to do with your eQSL membership payments. Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
eAward Suggestions »
eWAE? Feb 19, 2015 01:30 AM
(Total replies: 32)
In an all-volunteer organization with one programmer, we have to focus on the low hanging fruit first. And those are awards that can be easily implemented with our current eAwards Engine. Doing the eJapan award required a significant modification to the engine, but now that we have that in place, we may be able to accommodate other awards that require more than a simple prefix count. Still, any version of WAE that we do here will require a completely new set of rules to match up with our way of doing things, will require an award manager, and a lot of testing. When you have a 300 million record database and 300,000 users in a system that operates internationally around the clock in every country in the world, you can't make even one mistake that might take the system down for hours. So, yes, we do operate a little slowly when it comes to adding new things. But we have been adding new awards and new endorsements, and we are discussing this one and several others right now in the Advisory Board. 73 Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
Authenticity Guaranteed »
Test Mar 15, 2012 01:36 AM
(Total replies: 2)
Test Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
General web site suggestions »
High quality image located "outside" eQSL? Nov 6, 2011 03:10 AM
(Total replies: 14)
Quite the contrary. The owner is engaged every single day in moving the entire system over to a new 64-bit server. What you guys are forgetting is that every single solitary eQSL is generated by the software at the time the recipient displays it. The QSO details have to be superimposed onto the static graphic. So even if you hosted the static graphic somewhere else, now I'd have to spend bandwidth getting the graphic, then server horsepower doing the graphic manipulation, and then bandwidth to send it to the recipient. When you have 25 people bulk-downloading their entire 10,000 entry InBox in Europe, that kills everything, processor, disk, network, everything. So the graphic resolution is a compromise. And I print thousands thousands of cards here for people around the world, and I can tell you that if the graphic is a good one, it comes out looking good on the printed card too. Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP
General web site suggestions »
download of "jpg QSLs" from eQSL Jul 30, 2011 03:25 AM
(Total replies: 14)
Don't despair, people. I have almost finished moving all our software over from 32-bit to completely new 64-bit routines, which will allow us to graduate from 3GB of maximum RAM to 12GB, upgrade the application server, and hopefully get out from under some buggy graphics routines that caused Java heap overflows and crashes. That will then make it possible for me to implement some batch downloading routines, maybe to allow printing eQSLs 4-up on a letter size page, or other things. Right now you have to realize that every eQSL is generated on-the-fly as it is being displayed. To have to crank out 2,000 eQSLs at once would put a horrendous load on the processor, and if I had 100 people all doing that, well, I'd have to start charging $10 a month per person just to cover the new servers and bandwidth I'd have to start using. Hang in there, I do listen to every suggestion, consider many of them, and implement the best. Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong! 73, Dave Morris, N5UP |
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