Hi Brian,
POST only produces a valid Cabrillo file for the major contests (ARRL, CQ,
NCJ, a few others); basically, those which were listed at N5KO's Cabrillo
spec web site at the time the version you are using was written. For all
other contests it produces a file with the .cbr extension, but as you have
noticed this file is in its own unique format which is not particularly
useful. TRLog's log.dat file for this and other contests is perfectly OK,
although it does not include the sent exchange (except for serial numbers
when that is part of the exchange).
Regardless of all that, as I understand it the JARL does not accept
Cabrillo format. They have their own format for log files. You can find
this format at http://www.jarl.com/contest/english/aaelog.htm .
JARL have created a script for producing logs to match their desired
format, at
http://www.jarl.or.jp/English/4_Library/A-4-3_Contests/elogmakeraa.htm . If
you use this script to prepare a log submission, you will need to paste
your log.dat file (NOT the log.cbr file) into the logsheet body part of
this form. You will also need to enter your sent exchange as a comment,
since there is nowhere else in the JARL format to enter the sent exchange.
If you want to produce an ADIF file for importing into a general-purpose
logging program, there are a few tools available for converting your
log.dat file into an ADIF file. You can find information about some of them
at http://www.trlog.com/logconv.shtml . However, my experience with any of
these is that they may need some post-conversion massaging to get the
exchange data into the desired ADIF fields. Unfortunately (aren't
"standards" wonderful?), no two logging programs seem to agree on the minor
details of ADIF, although at least they do all agree on the important parts.
The most flexible way to convert any fixed-format log file (including
log.dat files) into ADIF format is to use a spreadsheet program like Excel.
There are detailed instructions on how to do this at
http://www.g6csy.net/ham/adif.html . A few of the ADIF tags at the end of
that page are non-standard (many are specific to the DXKeeper logging
program), but it should be clear from the examples there how to proceed.
For example, G6CSY uses "PROVINCE" for Canadian provinces, but some logging
programs use "VE_PROV" (the ADIF 1 standard) and some accept Canadian
province abbreviations in the "STATE" field (as per the ADIF 2 standard).
You may have to do some tweaking to get these into the format your logging
program prefers. You may also wish to add some ADIF fields that are not in
your contest log at all, for example, the OPERATOR and STATION_CALLSIGN
fields and/or "<TX_PWR:3>100"; this is easy to do using the same methods.
If for some reason you still want to produce a log file in a similar layout
to Cabrillo, my suggestion would be to open the log.cbr file with a text
editor like WordPad (or if you are using Windows XP, Notepad). Use the
editor's global replace feature to change your 6-character call sign
followed by 14 spaces to your call sign followed by 8 spaces, 599, a space,
and your age. Then do another global replace from 599, space, 599 to simply
599. If there were any non-599 reports in your log, you may have to fix up
those lines by hand. You may also have to massage the header part of the
file (for example, there is no CONTEST: line in POST's non-Cabrillo .cbr
files; if the contest organizers don't specify or accept a Cabrillo-style
format, you will be on your own as to what to enter for this line).
Hope this helps.
73,
Rich VE3IAY
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