[VHFcontesting] ARRL Contest Robot and 903 mhz Q's

[David]

If the VHF-DX program doesn't work anymore then I will not send in any more
logs.  I learned how to use it, is simple and I see no reason why the
ARRL needs to change their program so it doesn't work.

David Hinton
KE4YYD, EL79rv

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Cumming" <w2bzy at cfl.rr.com>
To: "Steve Gilmore" <shg at staffnet.com>; <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 11:46 PM
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] ARRL Contest Robot and 903 mhz Q's


> Steve et al.
>
> As it did to you, 'the ARRL contest robot gave me fits this time.
>
> Not having broke 100 Q's I did a quick check of my log , hit the
> convert to Cabrillo format in my logging program *(VHF-DX V 4.1.56)
> and sent it off to the league by e-mail.  Soon after came the first
> bounce.  All My Q's were bounced for not one but two reasons.  First
> looking at the error messages and the screren version of the log (not
> Cabrillo0 the line numbers didn't line up with the Q's in my log so I
> looked at the Cabrillo text file and found that the line numbers
> included the header (station info and Soapbox).
>
> After sorting that out I compared the Q's with the cabrillo data and
> the error messages - ie QSO B = Invalid band Spec "B"  a quick look
> at my last Jan (2005)VHF test log - the frequencies looked ok and
> they matched my submissions up to and including the June,05 and Sept
> 05 tests - not a reject.
>
> Also all my q's were rejected as In valid date and time - it stated
> the contest period as 1900Z on 2006-10-22 through 0359 on
> 2006-01-23.  SXtrange was that the time in the log fell within this time 
> slot.
>
> Figuring that the robot was acting weird - I resent the log as it
> stood and went to bed.
>
> The next AM My e-mail had another reject message from the robot
> Listing invalid Band Specification (A, B, C, D, 9, E, and F) - Well
> ok - the robot took the info in this format last contest - what happened?
>
> Went to the ARRL website and searched on Cabrillo format and came up
> with the  http://www.kkn.net/~trey/cabrillo/
>  site - ok the spec called for the frequency not A, B, C etc.
>
> When did this happen the robot digested my log ok last time with letters.
>
> In the history section it stated:
>
> "
> 2002-08-03      Letter codes for VHF bands depricated.  Only number
>                 codes should be used.
>
> Well ok nice of them to let us know - why did they take the letter
> designation for so long after the change -nice of them to let us know.
>
> I went back and manually edited the Text file to convert the "Letter"
> designation to the Frequency (thank God for my word Processor's Find
> and replace feature).
>
> Resent and only my 903m 1296 and 2304 Q's bounced this time - checked
> and found they wanted 902, 1.2 and 2.3.
>
> Re edited and resubmitted ok this time.
>
> Boy, Never have so many labored so long and so hard to accomplish so
> little = 91 Q's for 5976 points.
>
> And they wonder why some hams don't submit their logs!
>
> Looks like time to invest in a new logging program as the "Cabrillo
> output of VHF-DX no longer matches the Required format
>
> VRY 73
>
> Bob Cumming
> W2BZY
> QRV 50-2304 this time ( didn't get the antennas up for 3456 and 10G
> this go round)
> From EL98hr
>
>
>
>  At 10:08 PM 1/25/2006, Steve Gilmore wrote:
>>Hello all,
>>
>>
>>
>>Just a quick post I submitted my log to the ARRL for the January VHF
>>Sweepstakes and it threw out all the 903 Q's
>>
>>They were listed in Cabrillo as 903 so maybe they changed something. This
>>was the decoding from the logging package
>>
>>So it appears something is amiss here.
>>
>>
>>
>>For those who send in logs pay attention to this ...
>>
>>
>>
>>Just a note to see if anyone else has had the same issue.
>>
>>
>>
>>Steve Gilmore - W4SHG
>>
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>
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