I never _ EVER_ thought I'd need to recover lost log data the hard way!
I'm pretty fanatical about backing up, but sometimes things don't go the way
they should. (Murphy is stilll around.)
Short version of sad story: I lost a precious WL data file due to a hard
disk crash shortly after a contest but _before_ my regular backup routine
which saves all WL files along with other vital data. Ouch. That lost file
had some fairly rare ones in it....... but I had already generated a
Cabrillo file that proved to be recoverable with some generous help from
others who've already been thanked privately.
Most SOS posts here have been about using WL to generate Cabrillo files for
email log submissions. But I needed to do the opposite -- go from Cabrillo
back to WL.
Now that the problem has been solved, I thought I'd pass along some useful
experience and a URL to a great program called CBR2ADIF. Thank goodness it
first proved possible to recover a copy of the Cabrillo file -- and that was
great news. But then came the question, is it possible to use a
Cabrillo file to recover the data that was used to produce it? *** YES
***
A Google search on "Cabrillo to ADIF" yielded this lead to a super little
utility.
http://www.storm.ca/~ve3iay/cbr2adif.html#CBR2ADIF
It took just minutes to convert the Cabrillo file to ADIF following the
simple instructions at the command line. Then I imported the ADIF file into
WL, checked it over, and resaved it as a .WL file. A complete rescue was
the result.
Next time I'll backup IMMEDIATELY after a contest is over, even before I
submit the log. But I'm for sure hanging on to CBR2ADIF -- it's a keeper.
Thanks to Rich, VE3IAY, for a super piece of work. No WriteLog user should
be without it.
Jon K1US
This experience was also the excuse to improve the backup hardware here. A
nifty new 32x16x40 CDRW is spinning merrily - doing a complete 650mB backup
to CDR in just over 4 minutes....
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