I certainly agree with what you say, however this is something
different. I also try to be careful how I enter the exchange, but in
the heat of battle don't always type the right thing
In my experience, TR has done one of three things when you hit enter
after typing the exchange:
1. Recognizes an apparently correct exchange with an apparently valid
call in the callsign field and logs the contact.
2. Recognizes an apparently correct exchange with an apparently valid
callsign in the exchange field and logs the contact.
3. Is confused and refuses to log the contact WITHOUT CHANGING what
is in either the callsign or exchange fields..
In this case, TR is overwriting the callsign field with all or a
portion of the exchange and not logging the contact. I have never
seen this in SS in previous years.
The real problem with this versus #3 above is that the CALL IS GONE.
If you don't remember the call and the caller has moved on, you've
lost a QSO and the caller has a NIL! It never occurred when I had
entered a corrected call in the exchange field.
I wish now that I had taken the time to write down exactly what was
in the exchange and callsign fields when this happened. I believe
this only happened when running, although I wouldn.t swear to it. At
least it never happened when I had time to really sit back and
analyze the exchange. Re-entering the callsign and putting spaces
between the exchange elements always fixed the problem, so I just
moved on. Fortunately, I never lost a QSO because of it.
This occurred maybe a half dozen times during ~650 QSO's. I think it
would have happened more often if I hadn't become more careful than
usual in entering the exchange. Btw, I also saw #3 several times
during the contest.
I am in awe of your ability to make the number of QSO's you do. And
even more amazed that you can do so while also entering the exchange
correctly each time. That's why you are always at the top of the
scores and I'm somewhere down below!
I just spent about fifteen minutes playing with TR and was unable to
make it happen. If someone else hadn't reported it first I would now
attribute it to hallucinations.
Jimmy
On 11/21/00 George Fremin III - K5TR:
>I would have to see what you logged to be sure but it is
>possilbe to enter an exchange in such a manner that
>it looks like a callsign. Although TR is very fogiving
>with exchanges in SS there are some ways to confuse it.
>
>I follow a few rules just so I am sure that TR will log
>what I want it too.
>
>Most problems can be overcome by logging the
>serial number and the prec. together like 23B
>and logging the check and section in this manner also. 76STX
>If I update the check will also reenter the section
>just to be on the safe side - like 77STX so the exchange
>line looks like 123B 76STX 77STX
>
>If updating the number you and just enter the number if you
>make it 1 or 3 or more digits long. Like 023
>so it would look like this:
>
>123B 76STX 77STX 023
>
>I made a few QSOs this weekend and never had the exchange
>overwrite the callsign field.
--
Jimmy Weierich, KG2AU <kg2au@stny.rr.com>
Vestal, NY USA FN12xa
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