20 March 2021

I got tired of navigating to the WSJT-X directory every time I wanted to import my latest QSOs into DX4WIN. Fortunately, Windows 10 has a solution. The idea is to create a symbolic link in your SAVE directory that points to the WSJT-X log. You can read more about symbolic links here:

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

Here are instructions for how to do this:

  1. Using File Explorer, locate your DX4WIN installation. You can do this by right-clicking on the desktop DX4WIN icon, then selecting Properties. You will get a window similar to the following. Look for the Target, shown circled in red below. Make note of both the drive/partition (the capital letter at the beginning of the Target) as well as the full path to the file. In the example below, DX4WIN is installed on the E drive/partition.



  2. Next, you will need to open a Windows Command Prompt in Administrator mode. In Windows 10, from the Start menu, find the "Windows System" folder, click on it, then right-click on "Command Prompt". Follow the "More" link (to the right) and click "Run as Administrator".

  3. After the command prompt window appears, type the letter of the drive that DX4WIN is installed on, making sure to include a ':' (colon) at the end. For example:
  4. Next, use the "cd" ("change directory") command and type in the rest of the path to your DX4WIN SAVE directory that you located previously. UPPER/lower case is not important. However, you must use the backslash character ('\') to separate the directories. For example:

  5. Finally, use the "mklink" command to create the symbolic link. You must type the command exactly as shown. Simply copy/paste what is shown below:
    mklink wsjtx_log.adi %LOCALAPPDATA%\WSJT-X\wsjtx_log.adi
    If you were successful in creating the link, you should see a message in the command prompt window like the following:
    symbolic link created for wsjtx_log.adi <<===>> C:\Users\jjrei\AppData\Local\WSJT-X\wsjtx_log.adi
    If instead you see the message, "You do not have sufficient privilege to perform this operation.", then you did not start the command prompt in Administrator mode. You will have to start again at step #2 above.

  6. Type "exit" to close the command prompt window.

  7. You should now be able to see the link when you use DX4WIN's import dialog. Just select it as you would any other file that you might import.