[DogParkList] Using MacLoggerDX in a contest
B. Scott Andersen
bsandersen@mac.com
Fri, 30 May 2003 21:48:57 -0400
On Friday, May 30, 2003, at 08:34 PM, Don Agro wrote:
> Hi Scott, Anthony,
>
> Great advice on preparing for contests Scott ! Thanks.
>
Thank you. I hope it helps.
> On Friday, May 30, 2003, at 08:09 PM, B. Scott Andersen wrote:
>
>> 4. Figure out where you're going to put the exchange information.
>> Contests almost always have some fixed exchange information
>> such as RS(T), zone, year first licensed, serial number, etc.
>> MacLoggerDX (sadly) does not have a field to capture this
>> information. So, I've used either the RST sent/received fields
>> or carefully put the exchange information in a particular
>> format in the comment field. Of course, this relates to #3 above.
>
> What sort of field should I add to MacLoggerDX to fix this, and is=20
> there a standard ADIF tag for exporting this ?
I looked into this just now. Here's the ADIF specification page I was=20
able to locate:
http://home.no.net/jlog/adif/adif.html
and http://www.hosenose.com/adif/adif.html
and I found the following definitions:
* SRX N Received serial number for a contest QSO
* STX N Transmitted serial number for a contest QSO
The funny (?) thing is the exchange information is limited to serial=20
numbers
(or, at least, numerical data). Still, there are plenty of contests=20
where a simple
serial number exchange is given and this would cover it nicely. If you=20=
were able
to make the "sent" serial number "auto incrementing" then that would be=20=
very
convenient.
----
To overcome the number-only limitation, there are a couple of=20
suggestions
for handling regular character data are presented in the "suggestions"=20=
page:
http://home.no.net/jlog/adif/adif2-suggestions.htm
The two tags would be:
* SRXString
* STXString
Here are the definitions:
Format: <SRXString:6>27AETX
Max length is open.
Field Type: Character
Enumeration:=A0 None
Represents the exchange sent in an event like field day.=A0 No =
formatting=20
or enumeration is needed.=A0 As the existing tags of STX and SRX are=20=
numeric and work for exchanges that are only numeric, the ExchSent and=20=
ExchRcvd pair of tags allow for the non numeric exchanges present in=20
many contests and other activities.
Format: <STXString:4>2AGA
Max length is open.
Field Type: Character
Enumeration:=A0 None
Represents the exchange sent in an event like field day.=A0 No =
formatting=20
or enumeration is needed.=A0 As the existing tags of STX and SRX are=20=
numeric and work for exchanges that are only numeric, the ExchSent and=20=
ExchRcvd pair of tags allow for the non numeric exchanges present in=20
many contests and other activities.
------
Then again, the proposed changes from above are about a year old. The=20
site
http://www.hosenose.com/adif/proposed_changes.htm
has considerably fewer changes and the ones I listed above are not=20
present
(although other changes unique to this document _are_ present. <sigh>)
The date on the http://home.no.net/jlog/adif/adif2-suggestions.htm is=20
about a year ago.
The date on http://www.hosenose.com/adif/proposed_changes.htm is=20
December 20, 2002.
I don't know what conclusions to draw from that (if any).
SOOOO....
I would suggest the addition of four new columns (yes, that's a lot, I=20=
know):
[1] serial/numeric sent (with the _optional_ auto fill/auto increment=20
feature)
[2] serial/numeric received
[3] exchange sent (string)
[4] exchange received (string)
For contests that need serial numbers the auto fill/auto increment=20
number
will work nicely.
For contests that require numeric data (such as the zone number of CQWW)
the serial number/numeric field will get the two digit number exchanged
in addition to the RS value. So, a typical thing I would send is "you=20
are 5904".
The 59 goes in the RS(T) column; the zone 04 goes in the serial/numeric=20=
sent column.
Of course, my "sent" information for this contest will _always_ be 5904=20=
so if
you could autofill that value over and over (instead of incrementing),=20=
that
would be handy.
For contests that require more complex interactions would use the=20
strings.
Check this out from the ARRL November Sweeps Phone rules.
o o o
4. Exchange: The required exchange consists of:
4.1. A consecutive serial number;
4.2. Precedence;
4.2.1. "Q" for Single Op QRP;
4.2.2. "A" for Single Op Low Power;
4.2.3. "B" for Single Op High Power;
4.2.4. "U" for Single Op Unlimited;
4.2.5. "M" for Multi-Op;
4.2.6. "S" for School Club;
4.3 Your Call Sign;
4.4. Check (the last two digits of the year you were first =
licensed);
4.5. ARRL/RAC Section
Example: WA4QQN would respond to W1AW's call by sending: W1AW 123 B=20=
WA4QQN 71 NC, which indicates QSO number 123, B for Single Op High=20
Power, WA4QQN, first licensed in 1971, and in the North Carolina=20
section.
o o o
Yes, I wrote my standard exchange
<CALL> ### A NE1RD 02 EMA
on a card and taped it to the top of the radio. By the 200th QSO, I was=20=
such a
zombie I wondered on a couple of exchanges if I'd said all the right=20
stuff--but
the station always came back QRZ?(!) [so, I guess we were done!]
For extra credit, it would be nice if you could have the sent string=20
auto fill
with some fixed information (like "A NE1RD 02 EMA") and insert the=20
calling station's
ID and the sequence number. That's probably overkill since you could=20
write the
report writer to conjure that from a serial number field (above).=20
That's what I
did for the November contest. I put the serial numbers in the RS(T)=20
fields and
put the other information collected from the other station in the=20
comment. The
Cab formatter then assembled the information appropriately at report=20
generation time.
So, that's food for thought.
73!
-- Scott
> Best Regards,
> Don Agro
>
> D o g P a r k S o f t w a r e L t d .
>
> email: dagro@dogparksoftware.com
> www: http://www.dogparksoftware.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> DogParkList mailing list
> DogParkList@dogparksoftware.com
> http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/dogparklist
>
>
B. Scott Andersen | "Magic is real, unless declared integer."
bsandersen@mac.com | -- The collected sayings of Wiz Zumwalt
Acton, Massachusetts | Amateur Radio =3D=3D> ne1rd