[CQ-Contest] Contest Rules

[James Cain]

K6VVA, I feel your pain. 

I presume the new four-character county abbreviations for the California QSO Party are the reason that there is a new DAT file for CT. According to the CQP web site, CT 10 does not work for the CQP and I further presume this is because of the new abbreviations. The web site said earlier versions (9) of CT work. 

The CQP web site also says that CT will not output a Cabrillo file for the CQP, regardless of the version. You need to get a free program by KA5WSS to convert your CT BIN file to Cabrillo. Yikes!

All I have is CTWIN Version 10. I got the new DAT file and ran a test of half a dozen entries and everything worked. So, off I go into the CQP, make and log eleven contacts successfully. On contact number twelve, CT blows up, really blows up, Blue Screen and lots of exclamation marks and stuff. Pretty scary. And CT refuses to re-start on the CQP BIN file. 

So, it's paper and a keyer for 126 CW Qs. At least I could use Notepad to see the call signs I'd logged, in the BIN file.

This is "progress"?

But at least the CQP web site warned me. 

After 18 years I continue to dance with CT, "the software that brung me." It's free and familiar, like a favorite hat. 

But I'd really rather be outside hanging a new wire than playing with software.

Jim Cain, K1TN