[CQ-Contest] Slashed-Zero - Please Don't

[Ron Notarius]

The solution is not to use the "slash zero" extended ASCII character, which
is what Ward is alluding to.

The solution, for those concerned about the problem, is for YOU to use as a
DISPLAY font a font that automatically displays the character Zero as a
Slashed Zero -- but stores the character correctly as the number Zero.  The
Monaco font, for one, comes to mind here.

I've run into a related problem when extracting from my log (stored in dBase
.dBF format) to print QSL cards (from Microsoft Publisher, which requires a
conversion of the database to MS Access in order to use the merge
capability, which is another story).  To make the calls look right, I used
to have to manually edit them "zeros" to "slash zeroes."  Now, I use Monaco,
and it displays (and prints) the callsign zeroes correctly without requiring
an extra level of manual intervention.

73, ron wn3vaw

----- Original Message ----- 
> Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2005 08:43:35 -0700
> From: "Ward Silver" <hwardsil at centurytel.net>
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Slashed-Zero - Please Don't
> To: "CQ-Contest Reflector" <cq-contest at contesting.com>
> Message-ID: <003a01c59842$1c752570$7ca9fea9 at WardsNotebook>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=original
>
> > The solution, when checking the log post-contest, is to use a fixed
> > width (monospaced) font with a slashed zero. There are plenty
> > around. Check out http://tobias-jung.de/seekingprofont/ - there are
> > some nice samples there. I use ProFont and/or Proggy fons for email
> > and IRC.
>
> Please do NOT use a slashed-zero character in your log!  This character
may
> or may not be translated to ASCII '0' by the log-checking software. This
> could require the contest log-checker to have to process your log by
hand -
> greatly increasing their trouble.  It's also quite possible that the
> log-checking software would just treat the slashed-zero as something
> completely different than ASCII '0' and bust every call in your log with a
> zero in it!  Maybe every log-checker program for every contest does a
global
> search-and-replace for slashed zeros, but I wouldn't bet my UBN on it.
>
> If you want to do a visual inspection of the log for O-0 typos, make a
copy
> of the log, use a word processor to do a global search-and-replace of the
> slashed-zero for ASCII '0' in the copy, then inspect it.  Edit the
original
> and send that in.
>
> In general, the QSO information in your submitted log - to have the
maximum
> compatibility with all reasonable log-checking programs - should have NO
> characters other than plain old ASCII.  That's numerals 0-9, A-Z, a-z, and
> basic punctuation marks.  Anything else is a roll of the dice as to how it
> will be handled.
>
> 73, Ward N0AX
>
> ------------------------------