[RTTY] CQWW RTTY

Tue Sep 4 08:57:07 EDT 2007

Hello RTTYers!

The CQWW RTTY will take place at the end of this month so now seems 
to be the right time to give some free suggestions about log submission.

Despite poor conditions, this year we received over 1,670 logs for 
WPX RTTY and - as far as I know - it was the new all time log 
submission record for a RTTY contest. I guess I'm not wrong if I 
think that this CQWW will set a new record, too.

On my webpage (http://www.i2uiy.it/postcontest.html) as well as on 
AA5AU's page (http://www.rttycontesting.com/AfterTheContest.html) is 
available the report I wrote after the 2005 CQWW RTTY. Please find 
few minutes to read it before the contest.

Advice #1: please read the Rules.
I mean the OFFICIAL Rules 
(http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/RTTYDXContest.html) that are the 
only set of Rules you can trust 100%. There are NO changes from the 
previous years but reading them once more will not be bad.

Here are just few extra suggestions that will make the log-checker's 
life much easier:

- there are no trophy and/or certificates for who sends his log one 
hour or less after the end of the contest: take your time, the 
deadline is October 26 so there is no reason to post your log immediately.

- if you'll get your log returned by the robot, please remember that 
the robot always tells the reason why that log has not been accepted. 
If that is not clear, just send me an e-mail and I'll find out what 
was wrong in your log. If the robot returns your log once... it makes 
no sense submitting it again "as it is" hoping that the robot will 
change his mind, it never happens. So it's much better try 
understanding what's wrong in your submission.

- please do NOT submit .ZIP, .RAR, .LHA, .EXE, .DOC files. The robot 
will accept ONLY plain ASCII files. If you need - somehow - to edit 
your log, please use only NOTEPAD and/or any other ASCII editor that 
will not add junk characters to your file.

- if you submit your log correctly, you will receive a message from 
our robot within few minutes. Please be sure that the message from 
our robot will be accepted by your spam filter. Remember: the message 
from the robot only means that we have received and stored your log. 
It doesn't means that your log is correct. Later, during the log 
checking process, we will look at your log and, if we will find any 
problem, you'll get a message from us.

- if we are forced to write you because there is something wrong in 
your log... we expect to get an answer (a fast one, if possible) so 
please do not ignore our requests: 3 or 4 unanswered messages to the 
same guy makes me quite nervous.

- please remember that you must log BOTH the SENT and the RECEIVED 
data. This means that a sample Cabrillo line will look like this:
QSO: 14075 RY 2006-09-23 0703 I2UIY         599     15 
DX     KL5E          599 01     DX

- if you work a W/VE station, then you must log his State/Province 
abbreviation like this:
QSO: 14112 RY 2006-09-23 1259 I2UIY         599     15 
DX     W4UK         599 05     SC

- if you are a W/VE entrant, then your log will look like this:
QSO:  7042 RY 2006-09-23 0006 AA5AU         599      4 
LA     OM8A          599 15     DX
QSO:  7043 RY 2006-09-23 0007 AA5AU         599      4 
LA     K4GMH         599 5      VA

- please don't guess that handling the contest with computer equals 
submitting a perfect log. It is NOT true. We know that there are 2 
very popular contest programs that do not create the proper Cabrillo 
file unless you (very) carefully configure them. I did never used any 
of them but I know that this problem exists because in the past 2 
years we had almost 300 (yes, three hundreds) logs that gave us BIG 
problems (missing columns, switched columns, merged columns) and over 
90% of them have been done with one of these 2 programs. My 
suggestion is to simulate a contest log: open a new log for CQWW 
RTTY, enter 2 or 3 fake QSOs and create the Cabrillo. If it doesn't 
looks like the above samples... you better reconfigure your program 
BEFORE the contest.

- please read the Rules and learn what are the available categories. 
Please DO NOT enter a non existing category: it would be a waste of 
time. These (and ONLY these) are the available categories:
Single Operator - Assisted
Single Operator - All Band - Low Power
Single Operator - All Band - High Power
Single Operator - 80 Meters
Single Operator - 40 Meters
Single Operator - 20 Meters
Single Operator - 15 Meters
Single Operator - 10 Meters
Multi Operator - Single TX - Low Power
Multi Operator - Single TX - High Power
Multi Operator - Two TX
Multi Operator - Multi TX

- remember: (1) no QRP categories at all; (2) Low Power applies ONLY 
to Single Operators ALL Bands (i.e. no SO-20-Low, no SO-40-Low and so 
on); (3) Assisted applies ONLY to Single Operators ALL Bands (i.e. no 
SO-20-Assisted, no SO-40-Assisted and so on).

- there are NO possible sub-categories (no Rookie, no Expert, no 
Over-50, no Triband & Single Element).

- in the header of your Cabrillo log you will find the "OPERATORS:" 
line. Fill it ONLY of you were MULTI-OP *or* if you did used a 
special callsign different from your home callsign. If not, please 
leave it empty.

- remember that since 2006 there is a new "Club Competition" 
category. I'm sure that each Club officer will take care to instruct 
his Club fellows about how to fill the "CLUB:" line in the Cabrillo 
header. Please remember that World is larger than your own country... 
so please write the name of your Club as it is, no abbreviations, no 
shortcuts. Remember that a Club must... exist (!) and that his 
members must be located within a 275Km radius from center of Club 
area. When we are not sure if this limit has been respected or not, 
we will contact the Club Secretary to check it with him.

Please forgive me if these suggestions seems too much for expert 
contersters but we expect to get at least 1,700 logs and there is 
only 1 log checker...

Have fun in the contest!

73 de Paolo, I2UIY/NH7DX
CQ WPX RTTY Log Checker
i2uiy at cqww.com
Skype I2-UIY

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