[CQ-Contest] [FCG] FQP logs, the new robot and Cabrillo

[wlbaber at bellsouth.net]

Hi Dan and Ron:

This is a minor issue, probably, but I recently switched to N1MM from TRLOG.   TRLOG encourages the removal of duplicate qsos in cabrillo, but N1MM does not.  

Does this matter?  I did not remove the duplicate qsos in my recently submitted FCG-FQP log using N1MM.

73, Will, wj9b, dit dit

-------------- Original message from K1to at aol.com: -------------- 


> First of all, thanks to everyone who got on for the 2009 Florida QSO Party 
> this past weekend. The early feedback is that activity, and thus many 
> scores, were at record-breaking levels. 
> 
> As some of you have discovered, the FQP is using a robot to acknowledge 
> e-mailed logs to logs at floridaqsoparty.org for the first time. Mega-thanks 
> to Trey, N5KO and George, K5TR for getting this assembled. 
> 
> What became obvious very quickly is that some logging software produces 
> Cabrillo files that are not compatible with the current Cabrillo standard. 
> I've gotten a primer on Cabrillo formatting and will share the highlights: 
> 
> - All logs coming in so far have a different Contest Name than expected. 
> No problem. 
> 
> - At least one popular program contains a header line called CLUB-NAME. 
> That is not Cabrillo standard, hence the warning message. CLUB is what 
> Cabrillo expects. 
> 
> - Until several years ago, CATEGORY was a single field that always expected 
> 4 pieces of information. The newer Cabrillo standard is that these four 
> pieces are individual lines within the Cabrillo header: CATEGORY-OPERATOR, 
> CATEGORY-BAND, CATEGORY-POWER and CATEGORY-MODE. In addition, Cabrillo has 
> fields for CATEGORY-ASSISTED, CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER and CATEGORY-STATION which 
> don't translate from the original single line CATEGORY. 
> 
> An sample of a valid CATEGORY was SINGLE-OP ALL LOW CW. The robot 
> translates that into: 
> CATEGORY-OPERATOR = SINGLE 
> CATEGORY-BAND = ALL (not used for the FQP) 
> CATEGORY-POWER = LOW 
> CATEGORY-MODE.= CW 
> Note that the FQP does not have single-band categories. 
> 
> But if your CATEGORY came in as SINGLE-OP LOW CW, then the robot would 
> think that CW was your POWER since POWER is the 3rd item on that row, not find 
> it in the list of valid powers, and default you to HIGH power. Similarly, it 
> would not find your mode in the 4th postion and would default you to MIXED 
> mode. 
> 
> - Now, moving on to the bulk of most submissions - the QSO rows. Cabrillo 
> expects a row to look like this: 
> QSO: 14037 CW 2009-04-25 1600 W8MJ 599 MI K8NZ/4 599 LEE 
> 
> The number of spaces between each field is irrelevant. But a space is a 
> delimiter. So, if your log shows: 
> QSO: 14037 CW 2009-04-25 1600 W8MJ 599 WEST VIRGINIA K8NZ/4 
> 599 LEE 
> then the robot thinks that VIRGINIA is in the received callsign column and 
> so forth... 
> 
> Also, those columns need to appear in exact order. 
> Several of the popular DOS programs produce columns like this: 
> QSO: 14000 CW 2009-04-25 1648 N6TR 1 OR K2EK 599 
> 599 Sum 
> or 
> QSO: 14037 CW 2009-04-25 1600 W8MJ 599 K8NZ/4 599 LEE 
> 
> In the first case, several columns are misaligned. In the second case, the 
> sent QTH column is missing. 
> 
> If your logging program does not produce information in this format, the 
> robot will send an informative message back to you. However, your log is 
> still safe and accepted. 
> 
> More information is available here: 
> http://www.kkn.net/~trey/cabrillo/tags.html 
> 
> Over the next few months, we will be working with the various logging 
> software authors and Trey to ensure that everyone is in sync with what is 
> expected in the Cabrillo format for the FQP and to give the authors plenty of 
> time 
> to issue updated software in time for downloading prior to the 2010 FQP. 
> 
> In the meantime, thanks for making the 2009 FQP the best yet and for 
> sending in those logs. 
> 
> Any questions on the above may be directed to the FQP guru Ron, WD4AHZ 
> using his call at arrl.net or to me with my call at aol.com 
> 
> 73, Dan, K1TO and Ron, WD4AHZ 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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