[NA-User] New ARRL 10M Contest multiplier file

[David Pruett]

NA Users,

For those of you planning to operate the ARRL 10M Contest this coming 
weekend, here is a heads up for the contest that you may or may not be 
aware of.

Multipliers in the ARRL 10M Contest are a combination of American 
states, Canadian provinces, and Mexican districts, plus DXCC countries 
other than the USA, Canada, and Mexico.  Back in January, the Mexican 
government changed the name of one of their largest districts (the 
district containing Mexico City) from "Distrito Federal" to "Ciudad de 
México".  Last week, the ARRL relayed this information to the contesting 
community via the CQ-Contest reflector, and announced that the 
multiplier list for the contest would be revised accordingly. "Distrito 
Federal" (DF) would be changed to "Ciudad de México" (CMX).

Which may leave the contester in a bit of a quandry; their existing 
logging program may not recognize "CMX" as a legitimate 
exchange/multiplier during the contest.  MRRCers may want to check with 
the supplier of their logging program to see if an updated version of 
the program or at least the 10M Contest multiplier file is available.  
Also, if the program uses a text file multiplier list, it may be 
possible to update the file yourself using the Windows Notepad program.

This e-mail is to make everyone aware that NA's multiplier file for the 
ARRL 10M contest (ARRL10.MLT) has already been updated and is available 
on the DATOM Engineering web site (http://www.datomengineering.com) 
now.  All you have to do is download the file using the link on the home 
page, and copy it over the old file.

If you cannot get NA updated in time, there is still a way to operate 
the contest.  I do the logchecking for the ARRL 10M Contest, and the 
ARRL has directed me to automatically convert any "DF" exchanges to 
"CMX" without penalty.  To put this another way, you can use your 
existing NA software and multiplier as is and log any "CMX" or "Ciudad 
de Mexico" exchanges as "DF" which will be converted to "CMX" and scored 
accordingly.

Of course, it might be uncertain what stations in Mexico City will 
actually send for their exchange?  If they "got the memo" about the rule 
change, they will probably send "CMX"; if not, they'll probably send 
"DF".  The alert contester will be aware of the situation and 
consistently log either district abbreviation whichever way is accepted 
by their logging software.  Don't obsess about "copying what is sent", 
at least in regards to the location being sent by a Mexican station. If 
his log shows "DF" it will be converted to "CMX" before the logchecking 
begins.  If your log shows "DF" it will also be converted to "CMX" so 
everything should match up OK and you'll receive multiplier credit.

How if the ionosphere will only cooperate and give us some propagation 
this weekend...

73, Dave K8CC