Several users have commented about NA only allowing four digits for the
"received" field in IARU. For no other reason, this is a holdover from the
other contest formats which use four digits for this field.
NA has been this way since 1988. The ARRL, which checks the IARU logs, has
never bounced a QSO or questioned the four digit field length. Prior to
sending the special "WRTC 2000 compliant" NA version to the WRTC
organizers, I explicitly asked whether this was an issue and got no
response. I guess its not that important.
I've always just cut off the HQ abbreviation at four digits. Four example,
"MRASZ" becomes "MRAS".
It would not be a big deal to change the field to five characters. But
then, would someone want six? Also, then new NAs would not be able to read
old IARU logs.
Dave Pruett, K8CC
DATOM Engineering
datom@contesting.com
http://datom.contesting.com
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