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

[David Levine]

Dan,

I checked this email when I first saw it and I looked on your web site and I
didn't see any place where it actually specified what the Contest name
should be in the cabrillo log. Did I miss it? So last night I submitted my
log and it bounced back with an error on the contest name. The error message
indicated I should fix it and resubmit, though maybe it wasn't necessary to
do so if it was just the contest name. I did a Google search with the name
returned in the initial error message:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=%22FCG-FQP%22&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=%22FCG-FQP%22&fp=gw7-ieDpVQk

and it doesn't show much in the results but nothing specific to the FQP
site:

I participate in a few QSO Party contests, and if I recall, N1MM always
generates the log file with a generic QSO Party name for the contest. I
never had it rejected or notified of an error before. Changing that value
and resubmitting it resulted in a "thumbs up" from the contest log robot.

You might want to take the info you are sending out about issues you saw and
post it to the web site for next year.

Another suggestion for future consistency is to explicitly list on the web
site how mobile stations should send there exchange and what the contest
logger expects. I think ARRL contests call them rovers and use /R as what
should be logged. Maybe that is just how the ARRL does it. From what I got
as feedback here, /P and /M should also work. Some of the preferences might
be around how various logging programs handle mobiles in a QSO party. N1MM
as an example doesn't allow (though you can force but scoring is off), AB1CD
on its own in multiple counties. You can use AB1CD/P or AB1CD/M, etc. But
maybe if there was some consistency it would be helpful. Also, it's not
always obvious on the first exchange with a mobile/rover/portable station
that they are indeed going to be setup in multiple counties unless the
assumption is if they call CQ using AB1CD/xxxx that they are.

73,
K2DSL - David

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 4:26 PM, <K1to at aol.com> wrote:

> 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<http://www.kkn.net/%7Etrey/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
>