[UK-CONTEST] CTJ for Jubilee Contest

[Dave Lawley]

Message text written by "Tim-M5ACC"
>Will the RSGB start using SDR+SD as a conversion tool?
If the RSGB use SDR they can covert cabrillo files into RSGB format, that
way I can use my preferred logging software and not have to purchase
another
one just for domestic contests :-)
The logger will screw the scoring up during the contest but at least it
will
output a useable format at the end without having to spend hours faffing
around editing it.<

The HFCC is looking at this. Some contests (e.g. AFS) can be
accommodated by Cabrillo. Some have additional data and this
will mean we will have to publish our own definition to accommodate
the extra fields, Club Calls is a good example of this. What we are
NOT going to do is to change our contests to fit Cabrillo!

Cabrillo contains some good ideas but it was 'designed' for a limited
number of contests and is not general purpose. We had hoped to use
ADIF which is extensible, but experience has shown there are as many
dialects of ADIF as there are logging programs. I have numerous examples
from the IOTA contest and we had plenty of problems getting them all
converted from the ADIF 'standard'

I remain unhappy about some aspects of Cabrillo, but it is becoming the 
de-facto standard. I can't understand how in the header section you can 
insert your claimed score but not show points and multipliers against
each QSO. So, after NFD you won't be able to tell us of your score here
on the reflector. I would prefer you to make the small investment and buy
SD which will include SDR. By all means use CT or whatever for the 
contest, but then run SDR to find out what your score is.

The Committee hasn't discussed this aspect in detail yet, but some of you
will have found that ARRL is very prescriptive about the content of the
Cabrillo file. This is largely because the logs are received by a robot.
If the robot thinks there is anything wrong with the file then it rejects
the
entry and you have to correct it and re-submit, and you might take
several attempts to get it right. If the RSGB goes for Cabrillo then you
will
have to make sure your log contains the additional data required for the
contest, otherwise it will be rejected. Think of Ropoco. It would actually 
be much simpler to use SD for this contest, then there's nothing else you 
have to do. Of course SD already has the capability to produce a Cabrillo
file.

You'll see from January Radcom that Cabrillo is not one of the formats
we accept at present, but if this policy changes it will be published in
time for 
the next contest season.

Dave G4BUO