With regards to logging rovers, and the inability to log 1x2 calls with
four letter county abbreviations, here is the answer.
The problem with a callsign like K8CC/MACK, vs. K8XXX/MACK is that both
halves of the callsign are the same length. Why is this an issue? Well,
how about in a DX contest, you might find a callsign like K8CC/VP2M. Which
half is the base callsign, and which half is the DX prefix? If someone can
figure out an algorithm to do this, I'd like to hear about it. As its
coded right now, when scoring callsigns with "/" in them, the longer piece
is the "base" callsign and the shorter piece is the "portable
modifier". When these are both the same size, its a tossup - so NA uses
the last part to be the "base" call and the first part to be the "portable
modifier", as per the ITU recommended practice.
So what is happening is that K8CC/MACK is being scored as callsign MACK
operating portable in K8CC. MACK is not a legit callsign, so this is not
allowed to be logged. As explained earlier, this is not a problem with
K8XXX/MACK because "K8XXX" is longer than "MACK".
FQP's three letter abbreviations get around this, but at the expense of
being cryptic and not always intuitive, but that's just my opinion. It
also makes using the Alt-L feature to get an unfamiliar county abbreviation
less convenient to use. For example, to find the abbreviation for MANITEE
(MTE), you type "M", then "A", then "N" and at some point you find
"Manitee", but the you have to back up to get rid of the "A" and "N" to put
in "T" and "E". This is why for MiQP and OhQP we use the first four
letters for the county abbreviation as much as possible. You type the
first few letters until you find the abbreviation, then you keep on going.
I understand why people want to stick county suffixes on the
callsigns. However, we put the "QTH Must Match For Dupe" just for this
reason, and this is the official NA way to log these QSOs.
73,
Dave Pruett, K8CC
DATOM Engineering
datom@contesting.com
http://datom.contesting.com
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