[Trlog] Serial numbers in Cabrillo

[Tree]

On Sun, Apr 24, 2005 at 11:30:59AM +0300, Tonno Vahk wrote:
> thanks for clarification Tree,
> 
> I actually don't understand your last sentence (maybe I'm still too sleepy:)
> 
> I think that QSO numbers in WPX should be in the same place as in other CQ 
> and ARRL contests where sent serial numbers are included. The Cabrillo 
> template on your page clearly puts serial number starting on place 49. Also 
> the example of WPX RTTY log shows that serial number starts at 49!
> 
> But when I make Cabrillo with my latest POST 6.79 then the serial numbers 
> are all ending at 55! Being aligned right instead of left. Is something 
> wrong here?

They actually end at 54.  The difference is that I left hand justify then
numbers instead of padding zeros and left justifying them.

> Anyway, if there is this Template for all CQ and ARRL contest then that 
> could be also perfectly applied to other similar contests with serial 
> number that TR Log supports. Russian DX, EU Sprint would be the most 
> important. The only thing needed is to have the sent serial at position 49, 
> maybe you can add it for those contests?

The difference is really if the number is padded by zero's and if the
full field is available.  I did the WPX a LONG time ago, and don't 
remember exactly why I did it the way I did - but I have a few guesses.

It is possible to get a received # that has 5 digits - so the QSO 
template is somewhat broken if this occurs.

Adding leading zeros wasn't something that was required.  So, TR has
been doing it this way for many years.

I think you will find that the people who write the software to read
the data use the "whitespace" between the entries as the way to 
determine when one piece of data ends and the next begins.  Therefore,
as long as the data shows up in the right order - it will work.

Note that the next piece of data (callsign of the station worked) 
shows up on the proper column - so if you read cursor positions
49 through 54 (the whole space allocated to the serial number) 
and then convert it to an integer - it always will work.

Tree