[ct-user] "Busted logs" from old DOS CT

Larry lknain at nc.rr.com
Wed Dec 14 08:50:57 PST 2011


It has been a long time since I used CT. I seem to recall that there were
some issues at one point with timestamps and I believe there is a utility
to fix the timestamps. The utility should be on the CT website (at least it
used to be).

73, Larry  W6NWS
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Haupt" <w8nf at yahoo.com>
To: <ct-user at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 10:59 AM
Subject: [ct-user] "Busted logs" from old DOS CT


Back when I started contesting from California Santa Rosa, I logged using CT 
on a Win95 laptop borrowed work, using DOS mode. I saved the files (in all 
formats) to floppies and figured on someday transferring them to a "master" 
logging package when I could afford the space and budget for more than one 
home computer.

A used XP machine finally became part of the shack about five years ago, and 
last weekend I found the stash of floppies. Of the several dozen logs, all 
but three seem to be "in good shape" and the ADIF versions transferred as 
expected into DXKeeper.

However....

Three of the logs seem to have a timestamp error. In the ADIF file, starting 
at some point in the contest log and continuing until the end, the timestamp 
for all QSOs became 1970-01-01-0000. In the *.ALL file, the date/time fields 
are simply blank. The files, as transferred into DXKeeper, take on an 
unusually exhilarating property. DXK cannot stand the thought of 
simultaneous QSOs, so it incremented the timestamp on each QSO by a few 
seconds. The first "unstamped" QSO got a timestamp of a few seconds more 
recent than the last QSO with a real timestamp. So, I have the glory of 
showing a nice 400 per hour rate for the last half of several contests, 
while using only a dipole at 12 feet and hand-sending CW. Whoo-whee!

I still have the *.bin files for these contests and wonder:

- What might have caused the original error? Is this a sign that the 
internal clock in the laptop experienced a hardware error (can you tell I'm 
not computer-fluent?)?
- Is there a chance that the *.bin files have correct timestamps?
- Will CT for Windows run under XP, and will it successfully open CT for DOS 
files?
- Will anything else out there open a CT for DOS binary file?

TNX ES 73,

Dave W8NF
>
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