Ed,
The last time I used MixW in the CQ WW RTTY was in 2002 as VE3IAY, but I
still use it for PSK31 and for testing, and I am familiar enough with it
to be fairly certain where these problems originate.
MixW does have Cabrillo export capability. It does not automatically
select the appropriate Cabrillo format based on the contest; the user
has to know enough to select the "CQ/RJ WW RTTY" format. This is one
possible source of errors. You can identify logs from people who
selected the wrong format by the fact that there will be no "DX" in the
exchange for non-W/VE contacts.
However, I believe that the biggest source of bad Cabrillo files from
MixW results from users who do not know how to log contacts for this
contest. In order for the Cabrillo export to work properly, the received
exchange information for this contest *must* be logged in three separate
fields: RST_recvd, Exch_recvd (this is where the CQ zone is logged) and
Domain (the Domain is where the W/VE state/province must be logged).
There is also a QTH field in MixW, but that is not used in this contest;
the state/province must be logged in Domain, not in QTH, and not
combined with the zone in the Exch_recvd field.
I don't believe this is documented anywhere in the Help files. As far as
I can see users have to figure this out by trial and error. The default
screen entry windows both for contests and for normal logging do not
display the Domain field; users have to customize the log display to
make this field visible, and it is very important that this field be
visible during contests that use the Domain field because of MixW's
auto-entry feature (see below).
I'd be willing to bet that the majority of MixW users didn't realize
this, and simply logged the received zone and state/province both in the
Exch_recvd field. The way the Cabrillo export works, this can result in
a variety of different outputs, even within the same file.
If the user logged the two exchange fields without any intervening
spaces they will both appear in the Cabrillo file exactly as entered,
with no space between them. If the exchange field was three or fewer
characters long there will also be a "DX" field added to the Cabrillo
file, but if the field contains four or more characters, there will not
be a "DX"; the state/province/DX column will simply be missing. The
log-checking software may record it as 0, since MixW always adds a tx_id
column even when it is not necessary.
If the user put a space between the two exchange fields in the
Exch_recvd field, only the first one will be in the Cabrillo file
(everything after the space is discarded). There will be a "DX" added
after the first one, regardless of whether it was a zone or a state.
Either the QTH or the zone will be missing, depending on the order in
which they were entered.
If the user entered some other delimiter such as a dash or slash, the
entire combination including the delimiter will appear in the Cabrillo
file's zone column, and the state/province/DX column will be missing.
One other unusual feature of MixW: It tries to pick up exchange elements
automatically from the input stream; two-letter combinations surrounded
by spaces that happen to match a state abbreviation can be picked up by
the program and auto-entered into the Domain field. Under certain
conditions, state information from QSOs with the same station logged
before the contest may also be automatically inserted into the contest
log. This means that sometimes there may actually be something in the
Domain field in the log even though the user didn't enter it. If the
Domain field was not displayed in the log window, the user will not even
be aware that this has happened. However, whatever was placed in the
Domain field will show up in the Cabrillo file, so sometimes this column
may contain something despite the fact that the user was not entering
the exchange elements into the correct fields.
As for the ADIF files, the entire received exchange will be exported
using the SRX tag, unless it contained a space. If there was a space
entered into the exchange field, the part of the logged exchange before
the space will be tagged with SRX and the part after the space will be
tagged with SRX_STRING. The information, if any, logged in the Domain
field will be output with the STATE tag.
Users can fix their logs after the contest, but it's not very easy. They
will have to call up the edit dialog for each QSO, check the Domain
field for incorrect automatically-entered data and remove it, and for
W/VE contacts remove the state/province from the Exch_recvd field and
copy it into the Domain field. Most people will probably find it easier
to edit the Cabrillo file with a text editor.
As for advising submitters what to do:
(1) Before the contest, tell them how to log contacts with MixW (i.e.
tell them that they must log the zone and state/province in the
Exch_recvd and Domain fields respectively, and that they will have to
create a custom log bar layout in order to display the Domain field).
(2) After the contest, advise them that they must check their Cabrillo
log carefully before submitting it, looking for the following:
(a) all contacts with non-W/VE stations must have DX in the QTH column
(almost at the right end of each QSO line, followed by a 0 for the
tx_id); if this is missing, they should go back and re-export using the
CQ/RJ WW RTTY Cabrillo format;
(b) all contacts with W/VE stations must have both the zone and the
state/province, in that order, separated by a space, following the
received RST near the right end of each QSO line; if in any of the QSO
lines the space is missing, or if one of the elements is missing or they
are in the wrong order, or if there is an extra "DX", they must edit the
Cabrillo file by hand to correct the problem.
73,
Rich VE3KI
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