The CQ DX Marathon is an annual recognition issued by CQ Magazine. It is the sum total of the number of different entities, plus the number of CQ zones, worked in a given year.

This conversion program reads an ADIF log and writes a comma-delimited spreadsheet that can be copied/pasted into the official CQ
Scoresheet.

The current version of the conversion program is 5.0 and was last modified on 5 May 2012. You can click on this link to see the version history.

Click on this link to download the program. To install the program, you need to run the SETUP.EXE program inside the .ZIP file. The installation program uses the Microsoft MSI format. This requires your system have the Microsoft installer components already on your machine. If you have installation problems, get the latest version of the Microsoft installer here. Installation will add a "ADIF to CQ DX Marathon" shortcut to your Start menu.

NOTE: if you are trying to update an earlier version, and you see an error message like the following, especially on Windows 7/Vista systems, it most likely means that the new version can not be installed on top of the old version. Uninstall the old version first, then install the new version.

The following properties have been set:
Property: [AdminUser] = true {boolean}
Property: [ProcessorArchitecture] = AMD64 {string}
Property: [VersionNT] = 5.1.2 {version}
Launching Application.
Using MsiInstallProduct with package path 'C:\Users\username\Documents\Ham\DX Marathon\MARATHON_20111104\marathon.msi' and command line ''
MsiInstallProduct returned '1638'
Error:

The brief instructions are as follows (more detailed instructions can be found below):

In addition to callsign, date, time, band and/or frequency, and mode, the ADIF file must also contain these fields:

If the CQZ and/or DXCC fields are not present, the program will not be able to determine the CQ zone and/or DXCC entity for the DX station worked. Most contest logging software will not write these fields to the ADIF file. General-purpose logging software like DX4WIN, DXKeeper, Logger32, etc. usually generates the desired fields in the ADIF file.

From the CQ DX Marathon website, "[The] list of separate countries (entities) for the CQ World Wide DX Contest and the CQ DX Marathon is based on a combination of the ARRL DXCC list, additional entities on the WAE (Worked All Europe) list and the Italian island of Pantelleria (IG9/IH9), in CQ Zone 33 off the coast of North Africa. For 2010, this provides a total of 349 entities consisting of 340 current DXCC entities, two (2) deleted DXCC entities, six (6) additional WAE entities (GM/Shetland, IT/Sicily, TA1/European Turkey, 4U1VIC, YU8 Kosovo, JW/Bear Is.) and African Italy."

The conversion program attempts to determine the additional entities above based on callsign, prefix or IOTA reference number:

The above list is complete at the time this page was last updated. However, there could be legitimate calls of which the program is unaware. Make sure to check them when you finish up.

Running the Conversion Program

After installing the program, double-click on the "ADIF to CQ DX Marathon" program in the Start menu. Once the program window appears, click the ADIF button to specify the name of the input ADIF file. Click the Marathon button to specify the name of the output .CSV file. To change the year, just type it into the box provided (default is last year if before March 1, or this year if March 1 or later). Click OK to perform the conversion. Click on the Done button to exit the program.

Any errors will be listed in the window.

The Help button takes you to this web page. There is a link to the CQ DX Marathon website in the lower-left hand corner of the program window. You can click on the window icon and select "About..." to see the program version.

Filling in the Scoresheet

There are two parts to filling in the Scoresheet:

First, open the .CSV file you just created, using a spreadsheet program like Excel.

Next, widen the Entity column ("B" below) so that the contents of that field don't overflow into the Day column ("C" below). To do this, position your mouse on top of the small vertical line that separates "B" and "C" (in the gray area) and double-click. If this doesn't widen the column, please consult the Help for your spreadsheet program.

With your mouse, select the cell in the Day column next to 1A0/Sov. Military Order of Malta:

Next, using the scroll bar, find the cell in the Callsign column next to ZS8/Pr. Edward & Marion Islands. Hold down the SHIFT key and click in this cell with the mouse. This should select all the country records in the spreadsheet:

Type Control-C (or right-click and select Copy) to copy the cells into the Windows clipboard (do not close this window yet).

Now open the CQ DX Marathon Scoresheet in your spreadsheet program. Make sure you have downloaded the latest version from this link, as they are continually making changes. Version 3.0 of the conversion program is only compatible with 2010 DX Marathon Score sheet version 2010.2 and later. NOTE that the screen shots below refer to the 2007 Score sheet, but the principles are still the same for 2010.

In the Scoresheet, use your mouse to select the cell in the Day ("DY") column next to 1A0/Sov. Mil. Order of Malta:

Now type Control-V (or right-click inside the cell and select Paste) to copy the country data into the Scoresheet.

Now go back to the spreadsheet containing the output of the conversion program. With your mouse, select the cell in the Day column next to CQ Zone 1:

Next, using the scroll bar, find the cell in the Callsign column next to CQ Zone 40. Hold down the SHIFT key and click in this cell with the mouse. This should select all the CQ Zone records in the spreadsheet:

Type Control-C (or right-click and select Copy) to copy the cells into the Windows clipboard.

Back in the Scoresheet, use your mouse to select the cell next to KL7/Zone 1:

Now type Control-V (or right-click inside the cell and select Paste) to copy the CQ Zone data into the Scoresheet.

Check that you lined up the data correctly. There will be blank lines for entities you did not work. Both the Entity and CQ Zone information will be filled into the Scoresheet if you've done this correctly.

Finishing Up

There are seven entities on the CQ list that are NOT on the ARRL DXCC list:

The program will attempt to identify QSOs with these entities if the ADIF logbook contains enough information (callsign or IOTA). Otherwise, you will have to find the information in your logbook yourself and fill in those entities in the scoresheet by hand. If you do enter a QSO by hand, make sure that QSO wasn't already used as credit for another entity. For example, you can not count a Bear Island (JW) QSO as credit for both Svalbard and Bear Island, so you may need to find another Svalbard QSO in your log to receive credit for that entity.

Fill in the rest of the fields in the form, and send it in!

Version History:

Ver. 5.0 - 5 May 2012
Prefix for Republic of South Sudan is now Z8
Updated modes for 2012
 
Ver. 4.1 - 4 November 2011
Added ST0, Republic of South Sudan
 
Ver. 4.0 - 27 February 2011
Updated for 2011, still works for 2010
Default year now changes in February instead of March
 
Ver. 3.0 - 26 October 2010
Added new PJ entities for 2010. The old ones count too!
/MM QSOs do not count
 
Ver. 2.1 - 4 November 2008
Uses ADIF input instead of DX4WIN input
 
Ver. 1.13 - 6 April 2008
Added placeholder for Kosova, YU8
 
Ver. 1.12 - 16 March 2008
Updated for 2008
 
Ver. 1.11 - 12 January 2008
Compatible with final CQ DX Marathon spreadsheet for 2007