[CQ-Contest] A Plea to Cabrillo Contet Robot Writers

[Zdenek Sebek]

Hi Mike,

yes, you are right, but 

for Cabrillo:
what if the logging SW does not follow this specification. What if it uses some self-defined tags? What if you can get these versions of Cabrillo standard depending on type and version of SW which was used by the entrant to generate the cabrillo log:
QSO: 7000 CW 2005-11-12 0001 K1ABC   599 001 OK1ABC   599  APA
QSO: 7000 CW 2005-11-12 0001 K1ABC   OK1ABC   599  599  APA
QSO: 7000 CW 2005-11-12 0001 K1ABC   OK1ABC   599  599  APA OK1
QSO: 7000 CW 2005-11-12 0001 K1ABC   OK1ABC   599  599  APA 1
QSO: 7000 CW 2005-11-12 0001 K1ABC   OK1ABC   599  599  APA 1 OK1
QSO: 7000 CW 2005-11-12 0001 K1ABC   OK1ABC   599  599  APA OK1 1
QSO: 7000 CW 2005-11-12 0001 OK1ABC   599  599  APA
QSO: 7000 CW 2005-11-12 0001 K1ABC   599 001 OK1ABC   599  APA  OK1 1 0
QSO: 7000 CW 2005-11-12 0001 K1ABC   599 001 OK1ABC   599  APA OK1
QSO: 7000 CW 2005-11-12 0001 K1ABC   599 001 OK1ABC   599  APA 1
Please note we have a definition of cabrillo template on our web page. See http://okomdx.crk.cz/cab.html. 
Sorry, but I do not call it the STANDARD. 

One of the reasons of this situation in my point of view is lack of standard procedure how to put the template for a contest into cabrillo spec web page so the contest logging writers can see it there and implement it into their SW. But also the contest organizers have to care about it. It is not enough to say "cabrillo log welcomed" in their contest rules, they have also say how their cabrillo should look. Especially when their contest exchange contains more items, not only serial number for example. 

and for ADIF? The main problem is what tag should contain contest exchange. Although AFAIK there is a specification for it in ADIF specification, there are many ways how the different logging programs are doing it. There were at least 3 or 4 different tags used depending on SW and its version which was used to generate the ADIF file. BTW there are also situations where length of the content of a tag does not agree with length specified within tag definition area. So to handle an ADIF log is generally not a problem, but it is problem to understand which field contains needed information. 

By native log format I mean for example *.DAT file for TRLog, *.ALL file for CT etc.

Zdenek
OK1DSZ

> ------------ Původní zpráva ------------
> Od: Mike <nf4l at nf4l.com>
> Předmět: Re: [CQ-Contest] A Plea to Cabrillo Contet Robot Writers
> Datum: 13.1.2007 17:32:36
> ----------------------------------------
> Zdenek Sebek wrote:
> > I will not comment internal format of Cabrillo, because it would be too long.
> I will write only this. AFAIK the main reason why the Cabrillo has been born is
> to have a logfile format which it would be easy to import into the log checking
> systems. I have seen many cabrillo files produced by many contest logging
> programs and different versions of these programs. A have also written parsers
> for native logs from CT, TRLog, SD, ADIF and some more. From this experience I
> have learned it is MUCH EASIER to write a ROBUST parser any native log format
> than for the Cabrillo. And in general it is even easier (or at least not more
> difficult) to maintain several parsers for native log formats than one for
> Cabrillo. Please note word ROBUST, which means the parser is able to process
> succesfully many different versions of Cabrillo STANDARD logs. And for those
> suggesting to use ADIF - to parse an ADIF is even worse.
> >   
> Huh? All you have to do is read it in, and look for the tags. MUCH 
> simpler. And more ROBUST. Same for XML. What do you mean by
> native log format ?
> 73, Mike NF4L
> 
> 
> 
>