[CQ-Contest] sprint - Two Questions

[n6tr at teleport.com]

KG5U asks:

1. I ran across station A during NA Sprint SSB where he was just giving the
callsign of station B at the head of his exchange.  He followed up with a
signal report, name, city and state (No number!).  Station B op said
something to the effect "Okay. I'll take your number 1.  73" and he wasgone.
I called station A and he came back to me with "kg5u this is xx0xxx.  You're
my number 7. Name is (name) and I'm in (city and state). Over."  This was
radically different from what I had heard him tell the other station.
So, if Station B has Station A as sending #1, but A sent me #7.  If A
doesn't send in a log, what then?  If he had given out a 'number 1' to a
station prior to station B working him, then would station B, who 'assumed'
the number was '1,' then lose points? How would it be detected if the other
station didn't send in a log?2.

Well - first off - if this guy doesn't send in a log - probably 
nothing will happen.  There isn't any QSO number checking done for
people who didn't send in a log (in the sprint).

If he does send in a log that shows the QSO should have been #6 and 
someone has #1, then the QSO will be removed because the received 
QSO number is wrong.  It is possible that Station A has not really 
made a QSO since no number was exchanged or acknowledged.  When 
working stations that you don't think are in the contest - it isn't
really good practice to assume their sent number should be #1.  It 
is better to ask them if this is their first QSO and get some kind
of acknowledgment.  "Is this your first QSO in the Sprint?"

During the early part of the NA Sprint SSB, I got flustered and logged the
guy's exchange and hit return.  When I gave the exchange, I read the number
from the callsign field line (this is in TRLog), e.g.., 10....bad news...10
was the NEXT QSO number.... The current QSO had already been moved up into
the logsheet with the current number, e.g., 9.
By the time I realized my mistake, the guy was gone.
On my next QSO, I gave the new guy the previous number, e.g., 9 and logged
the QSO. I then went into the edit mode and changed the number (10) in the
logsheet to 9. I then went up one more line and changed the previous QSO's
number from 9 to 10.
Now.  According to Sprint rules, the log must be in sequential order.  So,
after the contest (I admit it!) I went in to the .dat file and swapped the
two QSO's so the numbers were in order (but, now the time is out of
order--but the rules didn't say anything about chronological order).

The rules probably need to be updated.  You could have left the QSOs
in the order you made them and edited the sent numbers.  However, what
you have done will work out just fine.

73 Tree N6TR
n6tr at teleport.com


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