[CQ-Contest] County designators - (was Contest Rules)

Mon Oct 9 13:12:13 EDT 2006

Mike,

I don't think this is 100% correct. Seven of the 4-letter county codes in WØQE's list don't align with the CQP codes used this past weekend. 

WØQE     CQP
LOSA     LANG
MDOC     MODO
ORNG     ORAN
SBNT     SBEN
SDGO     SDIE
SLOB     SLUI

My statement regarding unique county codes only holds true when you prepend the 2-letter state code in front. For example, there are 12 states with POLK county. Guess how many WASHINGTON counties there are in the US.

I haven't followed this topic very close, but I know the MnQP changed from 2-letter to 3-letter codes last year. The other time I saw a discussion thread was when the 7-Land QP was run. This brought the topic into focus because all of the "7" states were active that weekend. CLARK County is a popular name out west, appearing in 4  of the "7-Land" states.

I'm not sure whether pursuing a list of 3077 unique identifiers is necessary for software that supports QSO Parties. But it does appear the QSO Parties are rising in popularity. As Dave - K8CC pointed out, the software vendors/programmers have more of a vested interest in this. I don't know how much programming effort is needed to keep all of them current. Maybe it's a moot point.

But to Dave's point, how do they stay in the loop regarding this kind of issue? I think they did a great job with the ADIF and Cabrillo specifications. Maybe that is the vehicle to discuss the "county issue" among the programmers.

That's my 2¢ on the topic...

73 de Bob - KØRC in MN

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2006 11:09:05 -0400
From: Michael Keane K1MK <k1mk at alum.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Contest Rules
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Message-ID: <7.0.1.0.0.20061009104215.03633eb0 at alum.mit.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

MARAC adopted W0QE's list of 2x4 county abbreviations for the County 
Hunters CW Contest because the managers of that contest do have to 
deal with all 3076 counties being in play at once.

Whether such a unique-id is of value in regional QSO parties or on 
weekends when several QSO parties are held is up to the sponsors to decide.

The "2 x 4" refers to a two letter state abbreviation plus a 4 letter 
county abbreviation.

73,
Mike K1MK

At 10:20 PM 10/8/06, David Pruett wrote:
>Dave,
>
>I'm the logchecker for the Michigan QSO Party, and write logging
>software as well.  I've never heard of any "standardization" effort.  If
>the instigators of this want to gain wide acceptance, then they should
>make it know to those who have the most invested.  Also, I doubt that
>many contest sponsors are interested in reworking their scoring
>practices.  Most of these events already have standard county lists
>appropriate for their state.
>
>I don't even understand what a "2x4 county abbreviation" is.
>
>Dave/K8CC
>
>David Robbins K1TTT wrote:
> >> Mal,
> >>
> >> I believe the California folks are leading the charge to implement the new
> >> 2x4 abbreviation list that makes all 3000+ USA counties unique. The new
> >> list creates a standard for all logging/contesting software authors to
> >> use. They won't have to constantly update county lists. The abbreviations
> >> will become consistent, like the DXCC countries list.
> >
> > Yeah, and that list only has to be updated every couple of months or so...
> >
> > David Robbins K1TTT
> > e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
> > web: http://www.k1ttt.net
> > AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
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Michael Keane K1MK
k1mk at alum.mit.edu