I admit to making an "after contest" adjustment of my cabrillo file for
the recent CQ WW SSB contest. I wasn't quite "with it" when I started
the contest, and gave one fellow a "Zone 5" instead of my "real" Zone
4. I tried to edit the contact to put zone 5 in the contact line, but
didn't see any "CQ Zone" in the "Edit Contact" box. Since I couldn't
change the CQ Zone during the contest, I entered "sent zone 5 instead of
zone 4" in the comment field, and after the fact I changed the one log
line in my cabrillo file to Zone 5.
I now think (but am not sure) that the zone COULD have been changed for
this one contact by entering "5" in the "exchange" box, but it wasn't
obvious during the heat of the contest. And, I'll never understand why
the "comment" field is in the "Edit contact" pane, but to retrieve the
data one must go to VIEW>NOTES (NOT VIEW>COMMENTS). This resulted in a
big puzzle, and a note to my two "Elmers" for N1MM software, who pointed
out that "Comments" were labeled "Notes" under the VIEW tab.
Should my "after the fact editing" of this one line in the log result in
disqualification of my entry, and should an orange or red card be
issued? The rules specifically say I should not massage the log after
the fact. My reasoning was that I had the data in the comment or note
Field in the N1MM "raw" log, couldn't figure out how to edit it "on the
fly," and I didn't want to penalize the other station for a busted QSO
because of my error.
====================
The other question involves a newbie who entered the contest using a
"non contest" logging programme. It supposedly made a cabrillo file,
but the result did NOT have his zone, nor did it have the received
signal report. We managed to "massage" this log with Notepad edit
feature, so that it conformed with the cabrillo specs provided by CQWW.
Yes, again, the rules say one should NOT edit the file after the contest.
The choice was either NOT submit a log, or do this rather massive
editing by putting the local zone and the received signal report into
the cabrillo file. We didn't make any "corrections" just added data
which was in the original log but did NOT show up when the programme
made a "so called" cabrillo file. I figure that he might be encouraged
to see his call amongst the other folks in the CQ Writeup, and we might
have another contester amongst this seemingly dying breed of US Hams. I
also encouraged him to try his logging software to make sure it will do
the correct cabrillo file prior to entering another context.
Comments will be appreciated.
72/73 de n8xx Hg
QRP >99.44% of the time
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