Country Database

The country database is one of the most important and delicate components in TurboLog 4. This database contains all country related information such as prefixes, time zones, geographical coordinates, DXCC status, countryname, etc. All country assignments in TurboLog 4 are based on data derived from this source. Since the political scene changes with new countries emerging and others disappearing and moreover, the authorities issuing new prefix blocks for their particular countries, the database needs continuous maintenance. TurboLog Communications will update the database for this reason with every new update version of TurboLog 4.

Maintenance of the database requires editing the file. We strongly recommend to our customers not to edit the country database on their own. Amendments primarily require a deep understanding of the underlying principles of data evaluation and special editing tools because of the large size of the file. Nevertheless, we disclose the new structure of the country database below:

In principle the database is constructed of records of the following composition:

Component	Description	Max. Chars.	Remarks
MainPrefix	Country's main/nominal prefix	4	*= wildcard
Area	Indicates area information available	1	*= more info in area section
Countrynumber	Unique internal number for identification	3	Max 520
Continent	Continent assignment	2	NA, SA, AN, AF, AS, EU
DXCC	DXCC status indicator	1	D=yes, N=no, X=deleted
Commonwealth	Commonwealth membership indicator	1	C=yes, *=no
Latitude	Geographical coordinate; N=north, S=south	8	Decimal number :xx.yy-N
Longitude	Geographical coordinate; W=west, E=east	8	Decimal number:xxx.yy-W
CQ-Zone	CQ-Zone assignment.....as many as apply	16	1/2/3/....40
ITU-Zone	ITU-Zone assignment.....as many as apply	16	1/2/3/....76
TimeOffset	Time offset from latitudinal calculation	4	In minutes
MultiPrefixQualifier MPQ	Indicates multiple countries for one prefix	1	Mnenonic lower case letter, e.g.: f for Fidji
CountryName	Full name of country	150	Name plus [MPQ],if present
AllPrefixes	All prefixes for the particular country	150	All pref.,separated by blanc

The | serves as delimiter between the components. Please note: If a country spans more than one zone, the zones are all included in the component field...just as they apply with any separator other than the |.

Following the record structure as above there is one record for every active DXCC country. Each country has its unique country number. Provisions are made to deal with a virtually unlimited number of countries. For the time being the number is limited to 520...which should be sufficient for the foreseeable future. Any new DXCC country would be issued the Next Country Number which is indicated in the header of the Country.DAT file.

The country number is the way in which prefix groups belonging to a single country are mapped to each other. You should never change the existing numbers, as they are used within the logging software itself.

Since some prefixes refer to more than one country we have solved this problem by introducing the MultiPrefixQualifier. In this case the prefix entry occurs several times, once for each country. Each entry is assigned a MultiPrefixQualifier which mnemonically describes the specific country. For example: The prefix 3D2 is issued for the DXCC countries:

The MultiPrefixQualifier is selected accordingly to be f, c and r, respectively. The MultiPrefixQualifier is attached to the country's name [f], etc for identification purposes.

All identical prefixes must appear as a group with no other prefixes interspersed.

Deleted countries are fully implemented in TurboLog 4. They are always referenced by their 4-letter Pseudo Prefix, to avoid confusion with current allocations. All deleted countries are listed below. Entering the Pseudo Prefix in the Call field and pressing Cursor+Dwn or Tab will bring the country information to the screen.

ABUA| |301|AS|X| |14.10-N|042.80-E|21/|39/|0000| |Abu Ail and Jabal (del 1-4-91)

KSNZ| |368|AS|X| |28.00-N|048.00-E|21/|39/|0000| |Kuwait-Saudi NZ (del 15-12-69)

KARE| |370|EU|X| |64.00-N|034.00-E|16/|19/|0000| |Karelo-Finnish Rep (del 1-7-60)

NANT| |302|SA|X| |12.00-N|069.00-W|09/|11/|0000| |Netherlands Antilles(PJ2-4)(del 10-10-2010-0400z)

NASM| |131|NA|X| |18.00-N|063.00-W|08/|11/|0000| |Sint Maarten (PJ5-8)(del 10-10-2010-0400z)

MVI | |316|EU|X| |60.60-N|028.60-E|16/|29/|0000| |Malyy-Vysotskiy Island (del 17-02-2012)

KH5K| |101|OC|X| |07.50-N|162.80-W|31/|61/|0000| |Kingman Reef(KH5K)(del 29-02-2016)

Area information is fully exploited in TurboLog 4 if available for a particular country. Unfortunately only a minority of the communication authorities have established a systematical call assignment by call areas in their particular country. We currently do not evaluate any potential area information which might be coded in suffix letters since this is extremely error prone.

The area information is collected in a separate database section. This database has the same common structure as outlined above:

This allows local adjustment of all country assignments to the particular call area, if necessary. CountryName will be extended in this section by the names of the geographical entities the area consists of. If the MainPrefix is equal to the assignment in the main country section the first field of the record may be filled by a the wildcard character *. Likewise AllPrefixes can be left blank if there is no further distinction made between call areas and prefix assignments. The field Area contains the call area number in this section.

Canadian provinces require a special treatment. A problem occurs in the Canadian case since there are three distinct provinces under the same call area number, e.g. VE1, VY1 and VO1. The problem was solved by treating it in a special section of the country database. Following the common record structure these assignments were made in order to deal with the problem:

Since this section is small as yet we are well prepared for any possible future restructuring of Canada....

Another special treatment is required for Antarctica. Antarctica only counts as one DXCC country, but may have prefixes from many different nationalities. Known prefixes are contained in the main country database and treated as unambiguous cases under the AllPrefixes regime. Also, there is an entry in this section with a prefix of ANTA allowing the programs using this database to access a single "prefix" for ANTARCTICA. Callsigns that are not explicitly Antarctic (e.g. Y88POL) should be put into the CALLS database.

Guantanamo Bay is another difficult case since it can only differentiated by its 2-letter suffix from other US continental calls. The solution is implemented in a special section as below:

Pseudo Prefixes either serve as an entry point for Deleted Countries, as a "Prefix Collector" as in the case of Antarctica which comprises of many different Prefixes for all the nations which are present there or to access Non DXCC countries. The latter do not count for DXCC but may be important for various awards, e.g. the Worked All Europe WAE-award. The following Pseudo Prefixes are defined in TurboLog 4.

ANTA| |310|AN|D| |80.00-S|060.00-W|12/13/29/30/32/38/39/|67/69/70/71/72/73/74/|0000|a|Antarctica (all nations)

4U1V| |312|EU|N| |48.20-N|016.30-E|15/|28/|0000| |Vienna International Center (WAE)|4U1V 4U*V

SHET| |391|EU|N| |60.33-N|001.33-W|14/|27/|0000| |Shetland Islands (WAE)|SHET GZ** MZ** 2Z**

Depending on your interests and habits you can of course either assign a call in your logbook to its DXCC origin or to a Pseudo Prefix Non DXCC country.

Thus, for example, an IT9 call would automatically be assigned to the DXCC country Italy. If you would also like it to be assigned to the Non DXCC country Sicily you can enter it again and then edit its country number to be 390. The same applies to the other members of the Non DXCC set.

MainPrefix

Country's main/nominal prefix

Area

Indicates area information available

Countrynumber

Unique internal number for identification

Continent assignment

NA, SA, AN, AF, AS, EU

DXCC

DXCC status indicator

Commonwealth

Commonwealth membership indicator

Latitude

Geographical coordinate; N=north, S=south

Longitude

Geographical coordinate; W=west, E=east

CQ-Zone

CQ-Zone assignment.....as many as apply

ITU-Zone

ITU-Zone assignment.....as many as apply

TimeOffset

Time offset from latitudinal calculation

MultiPrefixQualifier MPQ

Indicates multiple countries for one prefix

CountryName

Full name of country

AllPrefixes

All prefixes for the particular country