On Sun, 12 Jan 2003 at 20:41:08 -0500,
WA9ALS - John said:
> ... One reason
> that noone wants to be the contest manager for the Sprints is because
there
> is no module that will generate a Cabrillo and thus allow certain log
> checking software to aid the checking process. ...
I'm not sure what you mean here, John. Software does exist that supports the
NA RTTY Sprint. It is true that the Cabrillo format for the NA Sprints (and
the NAQP) is different from that for most ARRL and CQ contests, but AFAIK
the RTTY format is identical to the CW/SSB format, so any program that does
both CW/SSB and RTTY and properly supports the CW/SSB Sprint should be
capable of supporting the RTTY Sprint with at most a minor programming
change.
For example, I used TRLog in the RTTY Sprint in October 2001, and the
Cabrillo file it produced was fine as far as I could tell except that I
edited the contest name from NA-SPRINT-RY to NA-SPRINT-RTTY. However, while
TRLog's support of the CW Sprint is superb (obviously I am a happy TR user!)
it isn't really intended to be a RTTY program - it does RTTY as an almost
undocumented afterthought.
MixW2, which is RTTY sound card software, also supports the NA Sprint
Cabrillo format. It doesn't happen to have NA-SPRINT-RTTY in the list of
contests, but it allows you to type in the contest name, so you can just
enter NA-SPRINT-RTTY as the contest name and select the NA Sprint Cabrillo
format for export. I just did a test of this, and the Cabrillo file MixW2
produced seems to have everything in the right place.
As far as I am aware, the situation with N1MM Logger is similar. It has an
NA Sprint module for CW and SSB, and supports RTTY contesting as well, but
doesn't happen to have the RTTY Sprint in the list of contests. I would
expect that this could be remedied by using the CW template with a simple
post-contest edit of the CONTEST: line from NA-SPRINT-CW to NA-SPRINT-RTTY,
but I admit I haven't taken the time to try this out yet.
I am not a WriteLog user, but I get the impression that it is one of the
most popular programs for RTTY contesting. The NA Sprint is on the list of
contests on the WriteLog web page. Doesn't Writelog have a Sprint Cabrillo
module? If not, is that what you were referring to, John?
73,
Rich VE3IAY
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