For those starting the all-important log checking. My Single Band 15 log
has found that a lot of folks send you stuff that isn't right. I have found
the following State-Zone errors so far.
1 British Columbia sent zone 4 -- Should be Zone 3
4 Tenn stations sent zone 5 -- Should be Zone 4
1 Utah sent zone 4 -- Utah is in Zone 3
1 On5 sent Zone 15 (verified 3 times) is in Zone 14
1 UA sent 17 -- I give up where he really is suppose to be :-)
States and things to watch for. MT and WY are both in Zone 4 not 3. Lots of
stations in CA have 8's, 9's, 3's instead of Six calls and you might pick
up zone for the 8, 9, or 3 and end up with zone 4 or 5 where its supposed
to be zone 3.
Alaska stations are in Zone 1 and DX not states. Also KL7's can use there
calls in other states and are for instance in zone 4 and KY and not a DX
station in Zone 1.
The "big" problem in doing all of this "auto" stuff is the rock and the
hard place so to speak. If you log what is sent that should be what is
used, however, if you're going to be penalized like it was last year then
you had best fix it.
The major problem is that in some software cases if you mess it up. e.g.
you log KI6XX who is in NE in zone 3, and then it auto picks it up the next
4 times you work it, you are going to be zapped for 5 Qso's, maybe 5 mults
as well. Been there and have last year's score to show for it.
I was pretty careful and spent an extra amount of time yet I have already
found 8 qso's that aren't right. So I plan to fix 'em and also to add a
log addendum to the top of the Cabrillo and let 'em know which I have changed.
W6OTC you had best give us a ruling on this situation prior to log
checking! I don't plan to have the situation that happened last year to be
repeated this year in log checking.
---
Jay Townsend, WS7I < ws7i@ewarg.org >
|