DX Monitor

Frequently Asked Questions

Please read this list of questions before submitting a bug report or comment.

My hard drive crashed and I need to re-install DX Monitor. Do I have to pay again?

Of course not. If you wrote down your serial number or backed up the email containing it, then you can enter it into the new installation. If you didn't then enter Prepaid in the registration form, and I will send it to you again. If you are reading this before your hard drive crashes, perhaps it would be a good idea to back up all the passwords and serial numbers that you might need when your hard drive crashes or your computer dies.

DX Monitor is not working. No spots are showing up.

The button at the left of the toolbar will say STOP when automatic updates are occurring. If the button says AUTO, click it to start accessing DX Summit and other sources automatically. Or Select a source from the Update menu. Watch the status in the bar at the bottom.

I see the program access the internet, but no new spots show up, or some spots are missing from either the main window or the band map.

  1. Check your filter settings. You may be filtering out all the new spots because you are only watching other bands.
  2. Check the SNR Filter setting. Maybe there is no propagation from your location to the DX right now.
  3. Check the Local Spots Only option. Maybe no-one near enough is posting spots.
  4. Check your sort order. If the sort is not by time, the spots are not at the top. A column header in red indicates which sort is in effect.
  5. Check your computer clock. If the date or time are wrong on your computer DX Monitor will discard spots that are not recent.
  6. If all else fails, reset to the default setting with Help Menu: Reset All Options and Preferences

Tip: You can test the data sources in the Preferences Window. Double click on any URL that you suspect is not working. The page will be retrieved by your web browser so you can see the raw data. Or an error page will be displayed if the server is down.

Double Click used to do something and now it doesn't.

Double clicking on a callsign can be defined to do one or more tasks in the User Preferences. Press F10 and select the Preferences tab. Check the options you would like to define.

The QRZ, HamCall, and Google buttons have stopped working.
You probably just updated Internet Explorer. The default web browser setting in Windows is pointing to the non-existent old version. In Internet Explorer, Tools menu, select Internet Options. On the Programs page at the bottom, check the box beside Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser. This should resolve the problem.

I upgraded my computer to Vista and DX Monitor is not working.
Most Vista users have no problem with DX Monitor working using the default installation. But a few users have reported difficulties with the program trying to save settings, resulting in various kinds of program errors or crashes. Installing in a different folder, such as c:\dxmon instead of the default c:\Program Files\dx monitor seems to resolve the problem, which seems to be related to security settings, user privileges, and certain anti-virus programs.

Will DX Monitor work from behind a corporate firewall or with a proxy server?
Yes, DX Monitor supports proxy firewalls and dialup accelerators including those with username and password. Proxy setup is in the User Preferences window.

Can I print from DX Monitor?
Currently, DX Monitor does not support printing directly. The free PrintKey 2000 utility does a great job. Just define a new hotkey (ctl-F11, for example) to copy any window to the clipboard, open PrintKey and print.

My new installation or upgrade freezes during installation or the first time I run the program. Help!
This has happened to a very few users (less than one per cent). If you can quit the program, do so and run it again. If not, reboot your computer. That has always worked so far. All of the people reporting this problem have been using Zone Alarm or Norton firewalls and it seems that Zone Alarm is stopping the new program (as it is supposed to do) but “forgetting” to display the alert box to ask permission to run it.

I don’t like the new default color scheme. What can I do?. The colors in the Band Map and Main Window are set by the filter used. You can select a different filter or use the Filter Editor to create your own custom color scheme. Right Click Here and save the HF996.fil file to the Data subfolder of DX Monitor. When DX Monitor is restarted, one of the options under Select Filter and Colors will be HF996. This will restore the old filter colors you used to have.

I posted a spot but it never showed up.

Spots posted via DX Summit often do not show up. DX Monitor does no more than fill in the DX Summit Form. Sometimes spotting over the internet is disabled due to abuse. Sending spots via Telnet is much more reliable.

Where is TX9 (or some new prefix)? Why doesn't DX Monitor know where it is?

DX Monitor uses the CTY.DAT file updated by AD1C for the CT and other contest programs to determine the country and location of callsigns based on their prefix. CTY.DAT is updated regularly and DX Monitor will automatically download the updates. You can add new prefixes to the file yourself, but make sure you get the newest CTY.DAT when it is released.

Tip: You can define the location of any station by right-clicking on the Mercator Map in the correct location and entering the callsign. The new location will be applied to maps and propagation predictions.

The UTC time correction is incorrect.

This value is obtained directly from the operating system and displayed with no changes made by DX Monitor. There are two choices available for getting the correct combination of local and UTC time:

  1. The Internet Time Window will check the correct UTC time from the network time servers and allow you to enter a clock correction. But your the time zone must be correctly set up on your computer for both the UTC and local times to be correct. Double click the clock in the system tray and set the Time Zone.
  2. If you like to keep your computer in UTC time instead of local time, remember that Microsoft Clock setting GMT(Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London) is not UTC. It will change to summer time in the summer. Even worse, it will change back during CQWW in October. For correct UTC, use the option GMT (Casablanca, Monrovia).
  3. If you are still using W95 or W98, use the TZEDIT.EXE utility to create a real time zone that reflects the time zone you are in. TZEDIT works with both W95 and W98. On the W98 CDrom it is in the \tools\reskit\config folder. It is also available on the OEM SR2 CD which came with later shipments of W95 computers, but was never available retail. Documentation is available at Microsoft Article Q158195 .

Some garbage data got into one of the spots. How can I get rid of it?
First, wait until tomorrow. The spot may not be saved when the History File is cleaned. Deleting it now will only result in it being downloaded again from the spot sources. To delete from the History Window, select the spot or spots, and press the Del key.

I use HamCap and DX Monitor sometimes freezes the first time I run it. This is usually a firewall issue. Make sure that DX Monitor has permission to open a new process (in this case HamCap). In Zone Alarm, select Program Control, the Programs tab, right click DX Monitor, Options, check the box Allow OpenProcess. There is now a User Preference to skip the automatic HamCap interface if this is a problem on your system. There seems to be a problem with some versions of Windows causing this to occur when DX Monitor initiates HamCap. This problem should have been resolved in Version 1.03 and later. Please let me know if you experience this problem.

What tools were used to program DX Monitor?
DX Monitor was written using the Borland Delphi Development Environment. The Winsock interface was written using the excellent Internet Component Suite developed by François Piette.

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