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

[Kenneth E. Harker]

From: "David" <ke4yyd at gtcom.net>
To: "Ned Stearns" <aa7a at cox.net>; <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 9:46 AM
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] ARRL Contest Robot and 903 mhz Q's

> Thanks Ned,  but it just isn't worth the trouble.  I have been a faithful
> VHF contester having only missed one ARRL contest in over a decade.  I
> almost stopped contesting when the Cabrillo requirements came out since I
> didn't have a computer.  After getting a computer and struggling many 
> hours to learn how to submit the scores via the VHF-DX program, I just don't 
> feel like having to play musical chairs with ARRL again.  They need to 
> keep it simple or they have lost another contester.
>
> David

There is still, to this day, no requirement that you use a computer to
log or submit an entry to an ARRL sponsored VHF contest.  You can log
on paper and submit that log through the mail:
http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2006/jan-vhf-ss.html
There is no reason you can't go back to logging on paper, I suppose.

The ARRL has also started a web-based log submission option that takes 
your log in almost whatever format you can think up and makes a Cabrillo
log out of it and automatically submits it to the ARRL:
http://b4h.net/cabforms/arrlvhfjan_cab.php
You might try it and see if it meets your needs.

And, as far as emailing in a Cabrillo log generated by contest logging 
software goes, the ARRL (and the Cabrillo-based log checking community) is 
actually trying to simplify things.  It is a lot simpler to have one 
and only one band designator for each VHF/UHF band than it is to have 
the potentially dozen or so that might have been in use before.  For
the 902 MHz band, for example, some logging programs produced "9", others
"902", and yet others "903".  Some might have incorrectly been putting in 
something like "902.1" or "903.1" or something like that.  It is not 
just the log submission robot that speaks Cabrillo these days - a lot of 
other software, including log analysis, log conversion, LoTW, etc. all
want to speak Cabrillo, so it makes no sense to go on tolerating five or 
six different ways to designate each VHF band.

It has never been easier to submit a contest log to the ARRL and know that
your entry has been received and is in a format the Contest Branch can use.

>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ned Stearns" <aa7a at cox.net>
> To: <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
> Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 12:34 PM
> Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] ARRL Contest Robot and 903 mhz Q's
>
>
>> David, maybe others...
>>
>> VHF-DX V 4.1.56 was released in 1999.
>>
>> Cabrillo format was amended in 2000 to include VHF bands and subsequently
>> in 2002 and 2004 (altered  "name" of 902 MHz band). Look at the history 
>> of
>> changes of Cabrillo log formats:
>>
>> http://www.kkn.net/~trey/cabrillo/updates.txt
>>
>> These changes were made to permit submission of logs electronically for
>> VHF
>> contests and not just HF contests. I can't find any subsequent updates to
>> VHF-DX on the net, so any changes in the Cabrillo format will probably
>> cause
>> the users of software release prior to 2002 to be required to  amend 
>> their
>> Cabrillo files with a text editor (as I have done that numerous times,
>> BTW)
>> to get past the robot.
>>
>> My recommendation is to try to use a logging program that has an author 
>> or
>> author team that is keeping their software up-to-date. Contest rules keep
>> changing. Contests always being added and then, every once in a while,
>> Cabrillo formats change to permit additional functionality for electronic
>> log submissions.
>>
>> Personally, I use N1MM. There is a huge and dedicated team that is 
>> keeping
>> the program current on all contest. It is updated as many as ten times a
>> month (sometimes right after a contest to permit correct generation of
>> Cabrillo logs). Your mileage may vary.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Ned Stearns
>> AA7A
>> ARRL Vice Director Southwestern Division

-- 
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker at kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/