[SD-User] Club Calls setup ?

[Richard W L Limebear]

 "Paul O'Kane" writes:

> > > > SD permits a maximum of 11 characters - 
> > I'm amazed that a longer field length is not possible.
> It is possible, but it introduces QSO capacity issues
> and various other compromises.  

If its just related to memory size (how many people only have just 600k of
spare memory ?) I wouldn't think of it as an issue. Nor do I see any need for
this field to be checked against other fields. Another possible factor is that,
in the club calls contest, more than 200 QSOs is highly unlikely.

> > .... see RSGB HFCC website - includes examples for CCC
> > in Cabrillo format.
> 
> There are some inconsistencies in the example shown.
> 
> 1.  The indicated length for received club names is 26
>     characters - not nearly enough for "Loughton and
>     Epping Forest Amateur Radio Rociety".

In another document (RSGB Log File Format) they say this field is characters
73-128 and the line must then be terminated with a hard carriage return.

> 2.  The "ARS" abbreviation is shown - is this permitted under the rules?

Good point, rules are not clear on this !!!

> 3.  There is no provision for recording your own club name as sent.

Its in the header of their example file.

G3SEK writes:

> Full club name: "Vale of White Horse Amateur Radio Society without a 'the'"

Ouch. Personally I'm checking club names against the RSGB Yearbook.

G3SVD writes:

> Surely the best solution is to give each club a registration number or code
> (like district codes in other contests) of just two or three characters,
> unless the object is to copy long club names correctly. In which case points
> should be lost for each error, e.g putting "the" into Vale of White Horse
> Amateur Radio Society.

Good idea and good point but ...

G3VAO writes:

> Why not use the Clubs RSGB membership number which if memory serves me
> correctly is on the RadCom address label.

This number is also their password to the RSGB members-only website - probably
a security issue here.

Since I'm not the only person complaining about this, may I suggest that 
entrants have a moan in their "soapbox" comments - at least ARC, CG, RC etc 
should be declared to be legal. HFCC would probably be glad to have the input.

73
Richard W L Limebear G3RWL
g3rwl at amsat.org
FOC # 1188

          So many beautiful girls ..... (sob) so little time