Wayne, W5XD, wrote:
> This issue has been discussed numerous times over the years.
... Snip
Excellent detailed reminder of why serial numbers will vary in some logs.
Moreover, most contest sponsors don't care because they understand the
reality of assigning serial numbers with multiple entry windows (networked
computers or multiple entry windows on one computer).
A contest's serial number rule should not be taken too literally. Yes, the
operator should make every effort to start with serial number '1' and
increment by one throughout the contest. The main purpose of this is to
provide a unique element in the exchange and secondarily to add interest
during the contest as participants see how others are doing. But if the
reality of their station configuration makes it impossible to avoid some
minor discrepancies, the contest sponsor still judges the serial number rule
to have been met. As long as the operator doesn't start with, say, 5000 and
increment by, say, 100, the contest sponsor has no problem with some
duplicate serial numbers, missing serial numbers and serial numbers out of
order time-wise.
My experience with WriteLog in SO2R and occasionally SO3R, using networked
computers, one on each radio, is that I incur all three of these
discrepancies and after 3000 QSOs, my serial number is maybe 5% ahead of
actual QSOs worked. All of this is simply irrelevant in all the major
serial number contests. In fact, I'm not aware of any serial number
contest that imposes a literal interpretation of the serial number rule.
Therefore, I'm delighted that logging software authors such as W5XD are not
trying to solve this "problem", but rather working on far more important
features for us!
Ed - W0YK
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