As you now know, our friend and fellow RTTY contester, member of the CQ
Contest Hall of Fame (and CQ RTTY Log Checker), Paolo Cortese, I2UIY, has
tragically died at the very young age of 48 years. Paolo was a great
competitor with a wonderful sense of humor and an encyclopedic knowledge of
amateur radio. Many of you worked him from his home call as well as from
P40G, and many of you have met him in person. We will all miss him very
much. More will be written in CQ Magazine at a later date on his life and
achievements.
In Paolo's absence, let me bring you up to date on this year's CQWW RTTY
Contest: as of today, we have received 1760 logs, well along the way to
setting another new all-time record for any RTTY contest. Indeed, this may
be the first RTTY contest to exceed 2000 logs. If you have not submitted
your log (you still have almost 2 weeks, until October 26), be sure to look
back at Paolo's tips sent to this reflector on September 7 and which I have
re-printed below. Although Solar Flux remained low (SFI was 67 for this
contest, for the third year in a row), participation continues to expand
significantly each year. Based on rumored scores, the results this year
promise to set more new world records.
Here are Paolo's tips, based on his years as CQ RTTY log checker and as an
accomplished RTTY contester:
Hello RTTYers!
The CQWW RTTY will take place in 3 weeks so now seems to be the right time
to give some free suggestions about log submission.
Despite poor conditions, this year we received over 1,830 logs for WPX RTTY
and - as far as I know - it was the new all time log submission record for a
RTTY contest. I guess I'm not wrong if I think that this CQWW will set a new
record, too. Maybe this time we will reach the 2,000 mark, who knows?
Both on my webpage (http://www.i2uiy.it/postcontest.html) as well as on
AA5AU's site (http://www.rttycontesting.com/AfterTheContest.html)
is still available the report I wrote after the 2005 CQWW RTTY.
Please find few minutes to read it before the contest.
Advice #1: please read the Rules. I mean the OFFICIAL Rules printed on CQ
magazine (July 2008, page 32/33) or on
<http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/RTTYDXContest.html> or on
<http://www.cqwwrtty.com/rules.htm> that are the only set of Rules you can
trust 100%. There are NO changes from the previous years but reading them
once more would not be a bad idea.
Here are just few extra suggestions that will make the log-checker's life
much easier:
+ there are no trophy and/or certificates for who sends his log one
hour or less after the end of the contest: take your time, the deadline is
October 26 so there is no reason to send your log immediately. In the last
couple of years we've got about 500 logs within a week after the contest:
this is NOT good. READ YOUR LOG before you submit it.
+ please submit your log as an attachment (NOT in the body of the
message). In the Subject-line of your e-mail message please write ONLY the
callsign that you did used during the contest and NOTHING ELSE.
+ if you'll get your log returned by the robot, please remember that
the robot ALWAYS tells the reason why that log has not been accepted.
If that is not clear, just send me an e-mail and I'll find out what was
wrong in your log. If you really want, you can post a nasty message here or
on some other reflector but if you really want an answer, you better write
to who handle the contest.
If the robot returns your log once... it makes no sense submitting it again
"as it is" hoping that the robot will change his mind, it never happens. So
it's much better try understanding what's wrong in your submission.
+ please do NOT submit .ZIP, .RAR, .LHA, .EXE, .DOC files. The robot
will accept ONLY plain ASCII files. If you need - somehow - to edit your
log, please use only NOTEPAD and/or any other ASCII editor that will not add
junk characters to your file. DO NOT edit your log using a word processor
(e.g. Word).
+ if you submit your log correctly, you will receive a message from
our robot within few minutes. Please be sure that the message from our robot
will be accepted by your spam filter. Remember: the message from the robot
only means that we have received and stored your log.
It doesn't means that your log is correct. Later, during the log checking
process, we will look at your log and, if we will find any problem, you'll
get a message from us.
+ if we are forced to write you because there is something wrong in
your log... we expect to get an answer (a fast one, if possible) so please
do not ignore our requests: 3 or 4 unanswered messages to the same guy makes
me quite (VERY) nervous.
+ Cabrillo... what is this? A log in Cabrillo format has 13 (or 14) columns:
- QSO:
- Frequency (xxxxx)
- Mode (RY)
- date (yyyy-mm-dd)
- time (hhmm)
- callsign SENT (YOUR callsign)
- RST SENT (xxx)
- zone SENT (YOUR zone)
- QTH sent (STATE/PROV for W/VE or DX for ALL others)
- callsign RECEIVED
- RST RECEIVED (xxx)
- zone RECEIVED
- QTH RECEIVED (STATE/PROV for W/VE or DX for ALL others)
- TX ID (only for Multi Op.)
If your software doesn't create such a log... you better find an new logging
software or you better read the instructions to configure properly your
software.
+ Some versions of TR Log POST places in the column #13 an
abbreviation for the country. This is NOT good, please edit your log and
remove it. Column #13 is ONLY for the QTH RECEIVED.
+ warning: 599NY is NOT like 599 NY.
+ please remember that you must log BOTH the SENT and the RECEIVED
data. This means that a sample Cabrillo line will look like this:
QSO: 14075 RY 2006-09-23 0703 I2UIY 599 15
DX KL5E 599 01 DX
If you operate outside of W/VE, you will sent only RST+Zone BUT you MUST log
(i.e.) "599 15 DX". Please make sure that your software does this
automatically.
+ if you work a W/VE station, then you must log his State/Province
abbreviation like this:
QSO: 14112 RY 2006-09-23 1259 I2UIY 599 15
DX W4UK 599 05 SC
+ if you are a W/VE entrant, then your log will look like this:
QSO: 7042 RY 2006-09-23 0006 AA5AU 599 4
LA OM8A 599 15 DX
QSO: 7043 RY 2006-09-23 0007 AA5AU 599 4
LA K4GMH 599 5 VA
+ please don't guess that handling the contest with computer equals
submitting a perfect log. It is NOT true.
We know that there are (at least) 2 very popular contest programs that do
not create the proper Cabrillo file unless you (very) carefully configure
them. I did never used any of them but I know that this problem exists
because in the past 3 years we had almost 450 logs that gave us BIG problems
(missing columns, switched columns, merged columns) and over 90% of them
have been done with one of these 2 programs. My suggestion is to simulate a
contest log: open a new log for CQWW RTTY, enter 2 or 3 fake QSOs and create
the Cabrillo. If it doesn't looks like the above samples... you better
reconfigure your program BEFORE the contest.
+ in 2007 we found that 152 logs have been rejected by the robot for
various reasons and NEVER resubmitted. I fixed manually all of them (it
about 10% of all received logs!) but this is a waste of time. In these days,
RTTY is a 100% computer mode. So why people don't read the Rules and take
good care of their own logs?
+ please read the Rules and learn what are the available categories.
Please DO NOT enter a non existing category: it would be a waste of time.
These (and ONLY these) are the available categories:
Single Operator - Assisted
Single Operator - All Band - Low Power
Single Operator - All Band - High Power
Single Operator - 80 Meters
Single Operator - 40 Meters
Single Operator - 20 Meters
Single Operator - 15 Meters
Single Operator - 10 Meters
Multi Operator - Single TX - Low Power
Multi Operator - Single TX - High Power
Multi Operator - Two TX
Multi Operator - Multi TX
+ remember: (1) no QRP categories at all; (2) Low Power applies ONLY
to Single Operators ALL Bands (i.e. no SO-20-Low, no SO-40-Low and so on);
(3) Assisted applies ONLY to Single Operators ALL Bands (i.e. no
SO-20-Assisted, no SO-40-Assisted and so on).
+ there are NO possible sub-categories (no Rookie, no Expert, no
Over-50, no Triband & Single Element).
+ in the header of your Cabrillo log you will find the "OPERATORS:"
line. Fill it ONLY of you were MULTI-OP *or* if you used a
special callsign different from your home callsign. If not, please
leave it empty.
+ remember that since 2006 there is a new "Club Competition"
category. I'm sure that each Club officer will take care to instruct
his Club fellows about how to fill the "CLUB:" line in the Cabrillo
header. Please remember that World is larger than your own country...
so please write the name of your Club as it is, no abbreviations, no
shortcuts. Remember that a Club must... exist (!) and that his
members must be located within a 275Km radius from center of Club
area. When we are not sure if this limit has been respected or not,
we will contact the Club Secretary to check it with him.
Please forgive me if these suggestions seem too much for expert
contesters but we expect to get at least 1,800 logs and there is
only 1 log checker...
Have fun in the contest!
73 de Paolo, I2UIY/NH7DX
CQWW RTTY Log Checker
Look for the results from this contest in May 2009 CQ Magazine. In the
meantime, we look forward to seeing you in the CQ WPX Contest on February
14-15, 2009.
73,
Glenn, W6OTC
CQ RTTY Contest Director
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