[CQ-Contest] Email Log Formats

[Dave Lawley]

DAA26362
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The points raised by Dave and Randy about the differing
layouts of log files submitted for checking have come up
before. I do not believe we will ever get to a time when every
single log submitted is in the 'correct' format, but we 
should be encouraging everyone to move towards a 
standard.

The main problem with most 'standard' log formats is that they
are based on one line per QSO and this brings limitations.
A couple of years ago when the "why don't we have a 
common standard for logs?" question came up on the  
reflector a group of people got together and came up
with the ADIF standard which is not limited to one line
per. QSO. I put Paul, EI5DI in touch with the group and 
Super Duper was, I believe, the first contest logging program 
to support ADIF. There are now convertors or built-in support
for ADIF in most of the popular contest logging programs.
Have a look at   www.hosenose.com/adif

I believe that following the hard work of a lot of people to
come up with a standard which is extensible and therefore
should be able to cope with present and future requirements
for contest logs, we should encourage entries in this format.

In practice, however, we will continue to receive some logs in 
widely varying formats. Actually this is no different from 
when logs came in on paper. I vividly remember the
first contest I checked for RSGB. It was a QRP contest
and some of the logs were homebrew and QRP, for example
4 x 5 inches on wafer-thin paper. The columns were ruled in
by hand and the entries were in varying ink colours, and the
columns weren't in the right order. We used to get all sorts
of paper formats for logs, and do our best to read the
handwriting so that the entry could be processed. 

It is a mistake to think that computers solve all our problems
without introducing problems of their own. We are going to
be stuck with a minority of log entries that are difficult to 
process. I am full of admiration for a contester I know who
in his eighties is getting to grips with the complexities of
computer logging. If he sends a log in the 'wrong' format 
I will do my best to process the log, and try and show him
how to get the software to produce the log we want in
the future. I am not going to disqualify him for sending 
in the wrong format.

Dave  G4BUO

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