[CQ-Contest] IARU log checking report

[Doug Grant]

WB9SBD said:

> I have this problem in the IARU HF test. probably 10% of my contacts are
> arguments with people saying I'm telling them I'm in the wrong zone.  I
> AM in zone 7 and yes a 9 lander in Wisconsin. there is this small slice
> of Wisconsin 9 Land that is in zone 7,  but I have so many people say
> i'm in Zone 8.  hello?  who knows better  You or Me what zone I'm in.
>
> Copy whats sent and nothing else.
>
> Joe WB9SBD  Zone 7

I got curious, and went to the ITU site to confirm Joe's statement
that part of Wisconsin is in Zone 7 instead of 8.

The Official ITU CIRAF Zone map can be found here:

http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/terrestrial/broadcast/hf/refdata/maps/index.html

He's right.

A quick look shows that the boundaries do not fall cleanly on
call-area, state or even national borders. There are lots of
part-of-Wisconsin-in-Zone-7-not-8 boundary cases. Half of Belize is in
Zone 10, half in 11. Part of Maine (I think W5WMU/1's QTH is in that
part) is in Zone 9 (generally all Zone 9s are assumed to be Canada).
Parts of Washington State are in Zone 2. The U.S.-Mexico border
wanders back and forth across the line, so some U.S. guys are really
in Zone 10, and some XEs are in zone 7.

In fact, the resolution of the official map is not particularly great,
so it may be tough for a lot of people to figure out what zone they
are really in.

Seems to me that the ITU CIRAF zones were drawn with straight lines in
an attempt to as closely as possible match assorted political
boundaries. The intent was probably to match them exactly, but there's
no obvious record I could find on the ITU site that said that. I found
a text document that defines the (I think) the corners and centers of
various quadrants within each zone for the purposes of monitoring
signal strength of HF broadcast stations here:

http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/terrestrial/broadcast/hf/refdata/reftables/ciraf.txt

Kind of a drag that country/state boundaries don't fall cleanly on
latitude/longitude lines, eh?

So you can give out whatever zone you can reasonably assume the ITU
wants you in...as long as you send the same zone the whole contest.

And good luck to the log checkers!

73,

Doug K1DG