[RTTY] Unclaimed QSOs were deleted from Cabrillo file

[Robert Chudek - K0RC]

Hello Jerry,

You said: "Whazzup with that? Those two stations I worked don't deserve any NIL 
penalty just because I screwed up logging the exchange! And I don't(?) deserve a penalty either."

Your statement contradicts itself! You admit "I screwed up" but  then you said "I don't deserve a penalty".

Please explain why you do not deserve a penalty? My understanding is a penalty is dealt out when an operator makes a mistake, miscopies a call or exchange, or otherwise "screws up". Otherwise, what's the point in penalties?

Penalties are part of the contest and are supposed to encourage better operating skills. I've had my share of penalties. I DO understand it's tough to swallow when you discover the penalty before the sponsors even process the logs. 

Okay, with all that aside, I don't have an answer about WriteLog and what happened to create the missing information problem. If you are confident there weren't any "issues" when you logged these contacts, then the "Whazzup" might lay with the program.

In general, I am not a fan of log grooming after a contest. There's been robust debate on this topic on other reflectors. If I review my Cabrillo file and see W44UK in the list, I would make the correction. It's obvious (to me) I stuttered on the keyboard. But removing or adding contacts is "out of scope" in my book.

Here's how I handled a recent incident... During the NAQP I logged a third contact with a TX station. I saw the two previous QSO's were logged as TN. There's a long list of how this could have happened, but when I spotted the inconsistency, I asked the operator whether he was TX or TN. I then took the time to make the correction during the contest. In effect I suffered my own penalty of slowing my rate down for 30 seconds to avoid a REAL penalty during log processing.

Regarding your submitted Cabrillo file, you did the right thing. But your thought about alerting the Cabrillo log checker that you do not want to claim the contact (to avoid a penalty) is not how it works.

73 de Bob - KØRC in MN
_______________________________________________
Set aside some operating time on Saturday February 3, 2007 to participate
in the Minnesota QSO Party. Ten active mobile stations will again activate all
87 MN counties this year. Full details at: http://www.w0aa.org/mnqp.htm



------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 11:31:58 -0500
From: Jerry Flanders <jeflanders at comcast.net>
Subject: [RTTY] Unclaimed QSOs were deleted from Cabrillo file
To: writelog at contesting.com
Cc: secc at contesting.com, rtty at contesting.com
Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.0.20070122110145.047defb8 at comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

After the UK-DX RTTY contest was over I noticed a couple of blank 
serial nr spaces in my WriteLog log, so thought I would "unclaim" 
them to simplify the contest committee's log check process and to 
avoid any penalty to me for reporting a bad exchange.

After WL created the Cabrillo file, I discovered they had been 
completely removed!!!

Whazzup with that? Those two stations I worked don't deserve any NIL 
penalty just because I screwed up logging the exchange! And I don' 
t(?) deserve a penalty either.

I went back and "claimed" them and submitted a Cabrillo that has them 
listed (with blanks).

It seems to me there should be a way to deal with this situation 
within the WL Cabrillo file so that the contest robot can see that I 
am reporting that the Qs took place, but I am not claiming them for my credit.

Do other contesting programs handle this differently?

Please FWD this to a Cabrillo reflector, if it exists.

Jerry W4UK