VHFcontesting
[Top] [All Lists]

[VHFcontesting] Uploading VHF+ Logs from Multiple Grid Expeditions...

To: <VHFcontesting@contesting.com>
Subject: [VHFcontesting] Uploading VHF+ Logs from Multiple Grid Expeditions...
From: "Phil Wells, AF6AV" <af6av@philwells.net>
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:41:03 -0800
List-post: <vhfcontesting@contesting.com">mailto:vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Hi,

Peter Lawes, N5UWY wrote:

>> > Then on the other end, you¹ve got to make VUCC Award Accounts using
>> > variations of call signs as above plus, possibly, each grid activated.
> 
> 
> As near as I can figure it, the "Award Accounts" on the LoTW sites are
> only needed if you want to view them in proper context on the site.
> If you are going to submit for VUCC it will also, I believe, prevent
> you from submitting the "wrong" QSOs for credit.
> 
> Further, any locations within the 200-km "circle" can be combined for
> your award account purposes (and doesn't affect the "other guy" at
> all).
> 
> LoTW does require a certificate for every self-assigned designator (/P
> /R /W7), however, and re-uploading a log signed with a different
> certificate will create a "zombie" in the LoTW database[1].
> 
> Every certificate needs one or more locations set up in TQSL.
> Re-uploading a QSL signed with the same certificate but a different
> location does NOT create a zombie and simply updates the grid loc.
> 
> I'm fortunate that 1) I've never been a rover and 2) I use the DXLab
> Suite to track the two certs and multiple locations that I do have!
> 
> 
> 
> [1] - It would be nice if we could all agree that unless a
> self-assigned indicator changed a stations DXCC entity, that we would
> all log it WITHOUT the designator for LoTW purposes.
> 
> 
> -- 
>> Peter Laws | N5UWY | plaws plaws net | Travel by Train!

I chatted w/ an ARRL ham who¹s involved w/ LoTW and he said to me, in
essence, that LoTW is concerned only w/MATCHES. Extra records are no big
deal.  As I¹ve found out, if you want to get all the credits you have coming
to you, you need to submit your logs signed in as many ways as necessary to
get them. But you CAN submit filtered subsets of your log to keep upload
sizes down.

To wit: I started out signing my logs, before VUCC support, as AF6AV with
DM12 in my Station Location parameters in tQSL. I found I had 50-ish DXCC
confirmations. Then, when I discovered that S58N had worked me on 20m and
17m but only the 20m one was credited, he said he¹d logged the 17m QSO as
AF6AV/M. So I made another Station Location profile and used AF6AV/M and I
jumped up to 93 confirmed DXCC credits.

Once VUCC went online, I started with maybe 75 grid squares confirmed. I
resubmitted the same log, signed as AF6AV/M-DM12 and suddenly I had 92. Yes,
there are now like 3 of each entry in the LoTW database, but I didn¹t know
whether people logged me as AF6AV or AF6AV/M when I was mobile so I had to
do both.

I then went thru my log and cleaned things up a bit, exporting only the QSOs
that I knew were from DM13 (and thus mobile because home is DM12) and signed
those as AF6AV-DM13 and AF6AV/M-DM13 just to be a good guy and not flood the
system with lots more dupes. Finally, I submitted only records from the 3
June VHF QSO Parties I¹ve played in as AF6AV, /M, & /R (since I would never
use /R except during a contest) once each for DM12, DM13, DM23, and DM24. My
DM14 QSO¹s from the Sept contest would be outside the 200km area. Now I have
115 confirmed QSOs and my VUCC without a single postage stamp. I will
eventually upload the San Gabriel Mountains DM14 logs but will not have a
Rule in VUCC for them so I won¹t get credit for any of them.

I  have learned a few things with the ARRL person¹s patience, that I¹d like
to share.  For instance, I thought I¹d need a VUCC account for the QSOs I
can¹t honestly count. I don¹t know why, I guess I thought the accounts had
something to do with divvying up the incoming QSOs. So now I just have one
account with these rules:


    Your Call sign = AF6AV
AND     Your Grid Square = DM12

    Your Call sign = AF6AV
AND     Your Grid Square = DM13

  Your Call sign = AF6AV/M
AND     Your Grid Square = DM12

    Your Call sign = AF6AV/M
AND     Your Grid Square = DM13

    Your Call sign = AF6AV/R
AND     Your Grid Square = DM12

    Your Call sign = AF6AV/R
AND     Your Grid Square = DM13

    Your Call sign = AF6AV/R
AND     Your Grid Square = DM22

    Your Call sign = AF6AV/R
AND     Your Grid Square = DM23

(Tom, K6EU, it was the addition of these last 4 rules that got you that
confirmation)


I would have preferred to use something like this:


>> Include QSOs matching...
>>     Your Call sign = AF6AV
>> OR     Your Call sign = AF6AV/M
>> OR     Your Call sign = AF6AV/R
>> 
>> [AND]
>> 
>> Include QSOs matching...
>>     Your Grid Square = DM12
>> OR     Your Grid Square = DM13
>> OR     Your Grid Square = DM22
>> OR     Your Grid Square = DM23

hoping there¹s an implied AND where I show it in brackets. But I think the
various SETS of rules are OR¹d together, so I can¹t do what I want.

More time consuming is setting up your Station Locations because you have to
include them even for grid squares you worked from that you don¹t want
credits for.

I agree with Peter that, as per LoTW documentation, if you find you¹ve made
a mistake in your log, you can re-upload it and the new data will replace
the old as long as the signing parameters are the same BUT if anyone claimed
a credit from the incorrect data, that will not go away (hams are expected
to take only the credits they are truly due).

Marty, The Esteemed N6VI, said:

> From what I know, the conventional wisdom is to ignore designators such as /M
> and /P for both the sender and the receiver of such calls.  Most contesters I
> know ignore them when logging (in fact, most contesters don't send them in the
> first place).  Casual contacts may be a different story, but that's probably
> not the source of the greatest contact volume.  Likewise, it's probably better
> to ignore /6 when you're already a 6.

I can¹t say which of the QSOs that matched as AF6AV and as AF6AV/M were
casual and which were during contests (other than the June VHF QSO Party)
but I got a ton of them as /M. And I am /M 95% of the time, even doing HF
contests. And I think it would be illegal to ID as AF6AV when mobile since
I¹m not at the FCC ULS location of AF6AV when I¹m mobile. Am I wrong? Also,
Identifying as /M can often get you some sympathy or special treatment;
imagine being an XYL working /M during a contest ­ I think the Red Sea
pileup would part for you...  And I agree with you about /R (is that even a
legal identifier? I do it anyway). Essentially all of my Rover QSOs matched
as /R but I¹m not going to miss a chance that a rookie in a rare-square
logged me as /M in a contest so I will eventually upload the contest logs
marked as vanilla and /M as well. And I agree, the 5th and 6th designators
are never, in my limited experience, exchanged for the 4 lowest V/U bands,
so I will not be signing logs with DM12lv, especially considering that ­lv
only applies to my home QTH. I do my contest logging using RoverLog by N1MU
and I export only the important contacts to HRD but, as mentioned, I have
signed and uploaded ALL my RoverLog ADI files and, any time I go out of the
200km range, I will either not claim those needed-but-too-distant QSOs or I
will find a way to filter them out.

Sorry for the long post. Marty ­ you may be anal, but I¹m a windbag.

Phil
AF6AV/M/R/6/7



_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>