Topband: Stew logs and the robot and RSTs

[Tree]

I have received a number of e-mails about certain logging programs not
producing the correct Cabrillo format for the Stew Perry logs.  Here 
is a "statement" about the problem.  Hopefully, this will help those 
who are having problems:

When the Stew was designed, it was done by committee, and because of that,
we had kind of a funny rule about RST - it was optional.  When the Cabrillo
spec came along, we asked for the contest to be supported, and it was.
The spec included the RST field.

When the RST was dropped all together, we kept the spec the same as it
was - so those who had implemented it into their logging software wouldn't
have to change their programs.  

You can find the example for the QSO entries for the Stew Perry at this 
link:

http://www.kkn.net/~trey/cabrillo/stew.txt

It shows the QSO entries like this:

QSO:  1800 CW 2002-12-28 1500 K7RAT         599 CN85   W2VJN         599 CN82
QSO:  1800 CW 2002-12-28 1500 K7RAT         599 CN85   W7TTT         599 DM09

The robot is programmed to look for this format when reviewing a Stew Perry
log.  The actual placement of the columns isn't important - just having 
the correct number of data fields in the right order is required.

The Boring ARC is very sorry about the confusion that the current situation
has created - however, it is felt that simply using the published Cabrillo
specification is the correct choice instead of having various people 
decide what the format should look like on their own.

The robot does provide pretty specific information that also shows the 
correct format.  Simply resubmitting your log will fix the issue.  One
method of adding the RSTs would be to import the log into Excel, add the
two columns with 599 and then save it as a text file.   There are also
column editors out there - I use PE2 - an old DOS program.  I have been
told that Word will also work that way, but I don't know how.

Of course, another method is to copy this message to your software
author and ask them to generate "dummy"  RSTs in their Cabrillo output.

73 es HNY 
Tree N6TR