[VHFcontesting] { SPAM 1 }::Re: ARRL Contest Robot and 903 mhzQ's

[David]

Bill,

Good news,  I figured out how to modify the VHF-DX Cabrillo file where the 
robot accepted it.  I also found another easy logging program that appears 
to be as simple as the VHF-DX and perhaps I will try it next contest.

If anybody has used the VHFLOG32 program and sent in the Cabrillo file this 
contest let us know if it had any problems.

David Hinton
KE4YYD EL79rv



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "William Capps" <cappswb at auburn.edu>
To: "David" <ke4yyd at gtcom.net>; "Kenneth Harker" <kenharker at kenharker.com>
Cc: <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 9:01 AM
Subject: { SPAM 1 }::Re: [VHFcontesting] ARRL Contest Robot and 903 mhzQ's


> Hello David
>   I hope you dont let some computer program stop contesting. I sure
> appreciate all those qso's from EL79. I still use paper and pencil here
> and a 39 cent stamp.
>
> 73 and Good Dx
>
> Bill Capps
> AF4OD/rover
>
>>>> "Kenneth E. Harker" <kenharker at kenharker.com> 01/30/06 8:25 AM >>>
> On Mon, Jan 30, 2006 at 09:00:37AM -0500, David wrote:
>> Steve,
>>
>> It appears that ARRL is not thinking clearly.  When changing from A
> to 50, B
>> to 144 etc. there are more characters  the used which, IMHO,
> complicates the
>> program, not simplifies it.  Seems like its change for change sake.
> It
>> would seem that ARRL could design the program to accept both the A or
> 50
>> entries.
>
> The ARRL log submission robot is not the only "customer" of Cabrillo
> format
> data.  As someone who has written software that reads in Cabrillo logs
> myself,
> I can tell you it's madness to have to anticipate and provide for seven
> or
> eight different ways to designate six meters, nine or ten different
> ways to
> designate two meters, three different ways to designate 902 MHz, etc.
>
> The A,B,C,D,9,E, etc. band encoding is not widely used outside of North
>
> America and skips over the relatively new 70 MHz band some Region I
> countries
> now have.  Cabrillo is not intended to be a strictly ARRL or North
> American
> file standard.  The use of numerical frequency designations is also
> consistent with the band designations on HF.
>
>> Another thing, was the program change announced before hand???  If it
> was a
>> lot of us didn't get the info.
>
> The use of non-numerical designations for VHF+ bands in the file
> format
> standard was deprecated in August, 2002.  The use of 903 and 76G were
> deprecated in February, 2004, when 902 and 75G became the only
> accepted
> designations for those bands.  This is all documented in the spec
> History
> of Changes: http://www.kkn.net/~trey/cabrillo/updates.txt
>
>> The VHF-DX Cabrillo file worked fine with ARRL for 5 years.  Was it
> "broke".
>> I don't think so.
>
> For almost the last two years, it has been.  The ARRL log submission
> robot might have continued being lenient about accepted logs with
> errors
> in order to give software authors an opportunity to update their
> products.
>
>> David, excontester
>
> It does not surprise me that contesters might first find out about
> these
> changes when encountering an error message from the log submission
> robot.
> After all, it's not like people think about log file formats on a
> daily
> basis.  I also think it's a huge overreaction to leave contesting
> because
> of something like this.  How many 902 MHz QSOs did you make?  Changing
>
> ten or fewer 903s in the log to 902s with a text editor seems like a
> trivial amount of effort compared to the rest of the process of
> preparing
> for the weekend, operating the contest, preparing the Cabrillo log, and
>
> emailing it in.
>
>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "STeve Andre'" <andres at msu.edu>
>> To: <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
>> Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 11:26 AM
>> Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] ARRL Contest Robot and 903 mhz Q's
>>
>>
>> > On Sunday 29 January 2006 17:46, David wrote:
>> >> 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
>> >
>> > I hope you won't leave.  Formats of things to change from time to
>> > time.  My first contest was written down in a file and I didn't
> realize
>> > about Cabrillo so I spent an 'enjoyable' evening writing little
> awk
>> > scripts to form the data into something the robot would take. It
> was
>> > kinda funny--I'd submit the log and the robot would crab about
>> > something, and after four cycles of this I got it right.
>> >
>> > So I see I'm going to have to change my system for the June
> contest.
>> > If all thats changed is the band designators, I think that is a
> fairly
>> > minimal change.  Backwards compatibility is nice but things do
>> > change.  I'll have to do more reading on this but it doesn't sound
>> > like an earth shattering problem as yet.
>> >
>> > --STeve Andre'
>> > wb8wsf  en82
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > VHFcontesting mailing list
>> > VHFcontesting at contesting.com
>> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
>> >
>>
>>
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>
> -- 
> Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
> kenharker at kenharker.com
> http://www.kenharker.com/
>
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