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Re: [CQ-Contest] How to be sure you have 60+ minutes off time

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] How to be sure you have 60+ minutes off time
From: Ward Silver <hwardsil@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 13:18:19 -0500
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
It has nothing to do with "the robot". if the mechanics are of interest, this is a consequence of how logs are (and must be) checked when there are no seconds in the time. The robot only checks to be sure that the log is properly formatted according to the Cabrillo standard and that certain data elements like contest name and date-and-time are acceptable. It is the log-checking software that calculates off-time.

The log checking software generally assessed off-time by determining whether during every individual clock minute (remember...no seconds) you were "on" or "off" the air. You can't be both during an individual clock minute - you can only be "on" or "off". When an "off" minute is detected - no QSOs logged during that minute - the off-time counter ticks up by one, starting from zero. It has to tick for 60 consecutive minutes (in this particular contest) before a valid break time is considered to have occurred. If an "on" minute is detected before 60 ticks have occurred, the off-counter is reset to zero. There is no rounding up to the nearest clock minute.

Should this be publicized more clearly? I should think so, as not entirely unreasonable assumptions about what constitutes 60 minutes are being made in the absence of a clear specification, resulting in unwelcome surprises to the customers.

73, Ward N0AX

On 7/4/2013 10:04 AM, cq-contest-request@contesting.com wrote:
Now, of course, we know that the robot isn't too smart, so we must let up to
61-minutes pass (at least those few of us who read this thread now know
that).

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