[SCCC] CA Counties for CA QSO Party Abbreviations

[Dennis Younker NE6I]

I remember reading something about the problems with certain California 
county abbreviations.  It goes without saying that "LA", as was used many 
years ago for Los Angeles, would be confusing if a ham with a 6 in his 
callsign was in Louisiana.  However, I would think he would definitely be 
signing "/5" to avoid confusion.  Adding the "X" to make it LAX seemingly 
cleared things up.

I don't think SDG was broken either.  Obviously, a W6 type ham in South 
Dakota might be giving "SD" as his location (how often do you think THAT 
happens?) so we needed the "G" in SDG.

It seems obvious to me, all said and done, that the CQP contest committee 
wanted to use four letter county abbreviations to attempt to end any 
confusion. They have selected the first four letters of the county name, or 
in the case of a two word county name (IE: Los Angeles, they selected the 
first letter of the first word and the first three letters of the second 
word.  (IE: LANG)

Personally, I could get used to this in nothing flat.  Regarding the SDIE 
and the possibility of "IE" getting lost on CW in marginal conditions, I 
would personally be extra careful to verify whether the other station was 
sending SD or SDIE if he had a "6" in his callsign.  On the other hand, I 
would think that if I was a W4 (for example) and W6AA who was in South 
Dakota and not California (for example) would quickly wave me off if I tried 
to work him in CQP.

It would seem that the only place the confusion would typically exist is if 
a W6 in Calif was trying to work a W6 in LA or SD (the state, not the 
county) and that W6 didn't elect to sign with the portable designator.

Actually, all of this is a lot less confusing to me than reading the results 
and seeing the score of W6OAT who was really K2RD operating at K6IDX but 
using the call sign W6OAT.  Huh?  What was that all about?  (And he wasn't 
the only one doing that sort of thing.)

Just to add more confusion to the results, W6OAT was actually operating over 
at K5RC but using the call sign W7RN.  I sort of get that one.  He wouldn't 
want to sign K5RC because K5RC is in the state of Nevada and holy cow, we 
might be confused with a K5 giving Nevada as his QTH (but probably not!).

Whoa, I'm getting dizzy just thinking about it all.  :)

--Dennis, NE6I
--Might see you guys Sunday in CQP but Saturday I am tentatively planning on 
a wakeboarding competition at Lake Elsinore.  At least there, we all use our 
own, real names and four letter abbreviations/words are only used if we take 
a bad fall.  :)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Art - W6KY" <w6ky at sbcglobal.net>
To: "N6KI Dennis Vernacchia" <n6ki_73 at sbcglobal.net>
Cc: "SCCC" <sccc at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 6:39 PM
Subject: Re: [SCCC] CA Counties for CA QSO Party Abbreviations


> Simple answer.  The NORTH can't seem to win (even tho they won last
> year) and San Diego
> always places either 1st or 1st and 3rd.  I have bean wondering for
> years what they would
> come up with to fix this problem.  The 'I E' jus might fix their problem
> of loosing... Also,
> another top 3 finisher Los Angeles county has been changed to LANG. LANG
> makes no
> sense and the NG isn't exactly a great CW string.... The CQP was a
> perfect example of
> "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"....I would sure like an opinion (other
> than mine) of why things
> have been changed......Even on SSB, we are going to get tons of repeats
> for the county
> abbreviations...
> 73, Art  W6KY
>
>
> N6KI Dennis Vernacchia wrote:
>> Print Out the CQP 2006 Rules here:
>>
>> http://www.cqp.org/pdf/2006_cqp_rules.pdf
>>
>> IMPORTANT ! PLEASE READ !
>>
>> The counties abbreviations for CA QSO Party have changed !
>>
>> They are now 4 letter abbreviations  instead of 3
>>
>> Ie;  What used to be SDG for San Diego is now SDIE
>> ( Why they did not choose SDGO is beyond me ....
>> using SDIE is not good for CW as the I and E can get lost in QRM ! )
>>
>> Go Figure ( Maybe the CQP committee got help from the government to help
>> choose the new abbreviations ! )
>>
>> You can printout a copy here
>>
>> http://www.cqp.org/pdf/cqp_mults.pdf
>>
>> If you are using CT Contest Logging Program
>> you can download the new DAT files from info following:
>>
>> The organizers of the California QSO Party recommend using new official
>> 4-character county abbreviations
>> starting in 2006.
>> New CQP Multiplier files have been created.
>> Please download the new versions from:
>> http://www.cqp.org/software/ctcqpmult.zip -or- http://tinyurl.com/qeqmv
>> I don't know when these new files will get posted to the official CT 
>> site.
>> If you are in California, please use the new CQP.DAT.
>> If you are outside of California, please use the new CQP1.DAT (must
>> rename it CQP.DAT).
>> Note: CT Version 10 doesn't seem to be working properly in the CQP (RST
>> where QSO number belongs).
>> I'd recommend using CT 9.92 or CTWin 9.92. More explanation about this
>> CQP change at http://www.cqp.org/cqp_multipliers.html. If anyone spots
>> any errors or omissions in these new files,
>>  please post the info here or contact me directly.
>>
>> 73, Bob, N6TV 2006 CQP County Coordinator
>> n6tv at kkn.net
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>
>
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