[UK-CONTEST] Ending times etc.

[Dave Sergeant]

On 23 Jan 2011 at 22:56, Gordon Brown wrote:

> All this makes me wonder why we are so concerned about starting and
> ending times to the nearest microsecond?  

Indeed. The Cabrillo log doesn't show seconds, times are rounded down 
to the previous minute. Nobody is going to submit a log showing a QSO 
time of (say) 2130 and will edit it to 2129 to allow the robot to 
accept it. And with the propagation time of radio signals your end time 
will be a few ms diffrent from the station at the other end of the 
country checking on you with an SDR receiver (whose own clock may be 
out by a similar number of ms due the propagation time of the internet 
time server). The first QSO at the start begins at the time the calling 
station's call is entered, any CQ's made before are nothing to do with 
it, and similarly you are not going to submit a log showing a QSO at 
1959.

Atomic clocks may be convenient, but are totally over the top when +/-5 
seconds accuracy is more than adequate.

73 Dave G3YMC

http://www.davesergeant.com