Worked Status Indicators (WSIs) in Ham Radio Deluxe
WSI stands for "Worked Status Indicators" and it is a very important tool for hams seeking to gain and confirm "new ones" by Band and/or Mode. This feature was dramatically improved over the Ham Radio Deluxe 5.x versions.
Worked Status Indicators (WSIs) are the foundation that drives all decisions about filtering and alerting.
The WSI indicates whether <an entity> is Not Worked, Worked - but not confirmed, or worked - and Confirmed.
An "entity" can be a DXCC country, Maidenhead Grid Locator, CQ Zone, ITU Zone, State (per ADIF, the "Primary Administrative Subdivision"), US Counties, Continents, and PFX Prefix.
Understanding and using WSI properly will absolutely accelerate your progress in the related awards program.
In Logbook's DX Cluster and HRD Alert, you can add these entities as columns to their layout.
IMPORTANT: In order for WSIs to work properly, Logbook MUST be able to make a connection to the radio via the HRD Rig Control application. We commonly hear of WSIs not being correct when operators are using WSJT-X, but fail to configure WSJT-X so that it connects to the radio via HRD Rig Control.
Here is an example from DX Cluster (click for a full-sized view):
Here is an example from HRD Alert (click for a full-sized view):
WSI Color-Coding
By design, WSIs are color-coded as follows (also shown in the DX Cluster Options image below):
GREEN indicates that the spotted entity has been Confirmed on that Band (B) or Mode (M).
YELLOW indicates that the spotted entity has been Worked, but not Confirmed on that Band (B) or Mode (M). This is very important to DX awards enthusiasts, because most awards require some proof of confirmation.
RED indicates that the spotted entity has not been Worked on that Band (B) or Mode (M).- All WSI columns have both Band and Mode depicted with them. Their use in WSI Filters and WSI Alarms are described in the section on these two topics. For the purpose of the DXCC Country (C) WSI column, it is equivalent to the "DXCC Mixed" award.
- When you see RED, you need it. Go work it!
- When you see YELLOW, you still need to confirm one. Keep working them until you confirm one!
- When you see GREEN, you can ignore it.
Chasing "New Ones"
If you are chasing new "entities" (see list above) for a given Band or Mode:
This same dialog box is common in functionality and settings for both DX Cluster and HRD Alert.
B4 is a special case. Using the same colors above, it tells you if you have worked a given Station (callsign) on the displayed Band AND Mode.
DID YOU KNOW? You can get to the WSI options from either the DX Cluster or the HRD Alert Options? They both land on the same form that applies to both DX Cluster and HRD Alert?
- QSL types in Worked Status Indicators
- These selections enable the operator to determine which confirmation types are included in the WSI. Those chasing the ARRL DXCC awards should select QSL cards and LOTW, as these are the only confirmations accepted for DXCC award credit. (This is entirely unrelated to whether or not you use any of these methods to confirm your QSOs. This is only related which confirmation types you consider to be a confirmation towards the totals you are chasing.)
Light Pole
This feature refers to hardware that is hard to find. It is being replaced with another visual indicator.
Use ONLY open logbook for WSI
This settings refers to a rare occasion. It is being depreciated and removed.
Show WSI with Row Color (Not Recommended)
Only for the DXCC WSI, you can choose to color the row and text based on certain conditions.
Finally, there's this point to consider:
If you have multiple logs (databases; we recommend one database per unique callsign), then WSIs are determined by the QSL types shown in the WSI tab above and the logs (databases) you have included in the WSI calculations. These are set up in the Databases Manager shown here:
In the example above, only the "My Logbook" will be included in WSI.
NOTE: Because the WSIs are color-coded, we strongly discourage the use of the "Show WSI with Row Color" option. The reason for this that (a) they are already color coded, (b) there aren't enough color options to convey more than one WSI value, and (c) the Alarms will shade the row automatically.