Topband: Don't give up AND log who worked the DX b4 and after!

[Herb Schoenbohm]

Correct Doug, Error creeps in so often with a DX-pedition and so if I 
did not find my call I would start trying some Russian roulette and 
plugged in K4VFZ or K4FZ instead, and bingo often there it was.  Once 
from a super rare location I was logged as K44FZ.  On CW DXCC "K4VFZ" 
has DXCC.  (This is not an issued license.)   One thing that would be 
nice would be searches that permit some busted call wildcard searches on 
the Club Log type data bases at least within a 1/2 hour plus or minus 
time frame on a specific band an mode. I suggest let the aggrieved 
amateur do the work rather than the overworked QSL manager. ARRL's LOTW 
permits this with your uploaded contacts but not the other way primarily 
to prevent fishing expeditions.  Without a doubt there are hundreds upon 
hundreds of horror stories where a static crash or a tired DX-pedition 
operator just entered the data incorrectly. The new LOTW upload software 
even flags mismatch cross band ambiguities that often occur when you are 
band hoping with some logging programs and the TX and RX frequencies are 
out of sync and on different bands.  I have gone back to 2010 and found 
nearly 300 errors where the RX frequency and the TX frequency show up on 
different bands.  This is easy to do when you quickly jump bands or 
modes with a VFO A and B not reset in the software.  It might be fine on 
the radio but the software following is the issue. As a result the QSO 
apears on your LOTW log but neither you nor the applicant can get LOTW 
credit for the mismatch.   I was able to print out all the mismatched 
LOTW past uploads and now are re-entering the corrected version at the 
rate of about 25 per day.


Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ






On 11/15/2013 12:52 PM, Doug Renwick wrote:
> I learned a lesson many years ago where I showed up on a needed band as a
> NIL.  I have more than one callsign and if I need that band contact I will
> try and work them with both callsigns now.  Mistakes happen on the DX end (I
> know as having been a DXpedition operator) and the contact gets mistyped or
> accidentally deleted.  Simply insurance.
> Doug
>
> "Think of all the ways you can hurt yourself laughing."
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> Great information Jim....I wish I would have done that many years ago as
> I worked BS7H in 2007 on 20 CW May 5th, 2007 and the log search shows up
> nothing.  Apart from P5 and Eritrea this is one of three missing ones
> for DXCC I need.  If I had jotted down the proximate contacts I might
> have been able to have received some help.  I know KV4FZ is in the log
> somewhere but how can I ever get help finding it.  I all goes to prove
> that when working rare DX-peditions there are no rewards by poor record
> keeping. There hasn't been another operation to Scarborough Reef in
> nearly a decade and probably won't be for a long time especially with
> the political battle over disputed islands in the South China Sea.
>
>
> Regards,   Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ
>
> _________________
> Topband Reflector