DX Monitor

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Where are my custom colors and filters and preferences kept? How do I move them to a new installation?

The filters and color choices are in the data folder below the folder in which you have installed DX Monitor (C:\Program Files (x86)\DX Monitor 177\data for example). Search for the dxmon.exe executable if you are having trouble finding it or check the Properties of your shortcut. You can copy the *.fil files to the data folder of your new installation. You should always back up your DX Monitor installation including the data folder to a different folder or disk drive so that you can revert to older files if you need to. Custom filters should have custom names so that they are never overwritten by an update.

Your settings are in dxmon.ini. Your preferences are in preferences.ini. Your Alerts are in alerts\default.txt. Your Lid List is in Lid List.txt. All of these files are considered part of your profile. You can have multiple profiles which can be saved or loaded using the File Menu | Save Profile and Use Profile commands. The saved profiles are saved with the suffix .inx. All configuration files are readable text.

Do all the features of DX Monitor work with Windows 7,8,10,11? Vista?

Some versions of Windows with certain security settings will require running the program as Administrator. If you get a message that indicates "requires elevation", then right click the exe file and select Run as Administrator.

DX Monitor is fully compatible with different versions of Windows. It should be installed in either Program Files (x86) (the default), or in a separate folder such as c:\dxmon. If you have UAC (User Access Control) enabled, you may be asked for permission when you run DX Monitor. If you installed the program as administrator and check the box to not ask each time, this should only happen once, when you first install the program.

Some users have reported the need to right click the icon for the exe of each program and under the compatibility tab, show settings for all users, set the compatibility to XP SP2. More help from Microsoft.

Vista security has problems with DX Monitor because it communicates with several older programs for rig control and propagation forecasts. The easiest way to make DX Monitor happy under Vista so that it will work with propagation predictions and rig control features is to install DX Monitor, HamCap, and VOACAP in c:\dxmon, c:\HamCap and c:\itshfbc instead of the c:\Program Files folder suggested by the installation programs. Installation should be done from the administrator account.

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 your callsign and email address in the Lost Serial Number Form, and it will be sent 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. Press F10 in DX Monitor to read your serial number now.

I want to run DX Monitor on my laptop at work. Do I have to pay twice?

You can run the program on as many computers as you want. As long as it is for your own use and you enter the same callsign into the User Information on all the computers.

If you upgrade and change callsigns or have a new vanity callsign, use the New Call Form to obtain a serial number for your new callsign. You will need your serial number associated with the old callsign to do this.

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 Lid Filter. If you are filtering out modes using a comment filter such as FT8, make sure it is not too broad.
  6. Check your computer clock. If the date or time are wrong on your computer DX Monitor will discard spots that it thinks are not recent. About once a month we hear from someone with the wrong year on their computer clock!
  7. Check your other security software that might block an application's access to the internet. Apps like Kamo bundled with CCleaner block the needed internet access to get spots and other information.
  8. 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.

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.

How do I turn off or change the Audio alert that says "DX" in CW?

Press F4 to open the Alert List Window. In the Options Menu uncheck Play Alert Sound. To use a different sound or voice recording, use the Choose Sound File menu item.

OmniRig will only access COM Ports 1 through 20. My rig is on a higher port number.

It is possible to re-assign ports to a different COM port number. Run the Device Manager in the Control Panel. Under the Ports(COM & LPT) line, you will find the serial port connected to your radio. Click on it and Under the Ports Settings tab, click the Advanced button. Change the COM port number to one that is not in use and under COM20. If Windows reports that a port is in use, but you know it is not in use, you can still select that port. In most cases, this will solve the problem.

In some cases additional steps may need to be taken to free up an in use port that is not in use. This tutorial will help: How to Make “in use” COM Ports Available [pdf].

Can I print from DX Monitor?

Currently, DX Monitor does not support printing directly. Windows Snipping Tool can capture a window to an image which can be annotated and printed using your favorite graphics program. The free PrintKey 2000 utility also does a great job. Just define a new hotkey (ctl-F11, for example) to copy any window to the clipboard, open PrintKey and print. For your convenience here is a downloadable copy that has been checked for malware: printkey2000-5.10.exe.

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.

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 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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