I’m stupid and not up with modern stuff:
I log all contests on a “yellow pad”. Filling in missing info on subsequent
transmissions & scratching out incorrect info works great by not having to
stay in computer’s tightly defined software columns.
After contest, I look up exact column formatting for that particular contest in
Cabrillo cab b-4 ; then I use Microsoft “Table” to enter the QSO info from my
“yellow pad” in order that cab b-4 shows me.
After Table is complete, I paste it into the Cabrillo cab b-4 url:
Works great!
Bt73Pete,n6ze/7 today
Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS
On Monday, August 7, 2023, 11:29, David Olean <k1whs@metrocast.net> wrote:
I have had all sorts of problems with logging software and contest entry
software that processes logs. Maybe I missed it, but It is hard to find
documentation that gets down and dirty to tell us what responses are
allowed in each block where data is entered. In this past contest I
used N1MM to log for the 222 and Up contest, and it allows certain
entries for MODE. My regular logging program is VQ-Log and it has
various modes allowed. When you make an ADIF file to submit to the ARRL
LOTW, those choices may be incompatibile. The ADIF format allows only
SSB
CW
RTTY
TOR=AMTOR
PKT
AM
FM
SSTV
ATV
PAC=PACTOR
CLO=CLOVER
N1MM recognizes CW, USB, LSB, SSB, AM, FM,SSTV, RTTY, PSK31, PSK63,
PSK125, PSK250, DIGITAL, FT8 and FT4.
Note that many of the modes allowed by N1MM are not listed in the ADIF
specification. This means that any program with the wrong mode might be
bounced out of the LOTW log and you are out of luck. The contact is
discarded.
If you supply a Cabrillo file to the ARRL for your contest submission,
the modes that are allowed are only
CW
PH
FM
RY
DG
It gets better. My daily logging software VQ-Log and is primarily aimed
at VHF ops. There is a field for propagation type. If you read enough
you might find a comment telling you that the propagation mode is not
required in ADIF, but I found out the hard way that only certain prop
modes are accepted by the ARRL adif files. TR means tropo but TRS in
VQ-LOg indicates tropo scatter which is a primary means that we VHFers
communicate with. I hand copied almost all of my old paper logs and
entered the prop mode as TRS and only later found out that all of those
submitted files went into the bit bucket in Newington. So I have to go
back and modify all my entries from TRS to TR to make things work.
Really, my life is too short to have to deal with these glaring software
compatability issues.
Somewhere, I have an email that delineates all of the prop modes
recognized by ARRL LOTW and the adif input file. I wish it had been
published somewhere.
So I submitted my 222 & Up file to LOTW. Please let me know if you do
not get a match. I ended up calling everything either CW or SSB. There
was no real good choice for FT8 or MSK144, or Q65. You would think that
maybe DIGI might be a good name for all of these VHF modes, but you
would be mistaken. Your choices are SSB or maybe RTTY. There must be
some patches between software to fix some of this, but it sure has
gotten me in trouble very often.
grumble grumble!
Dave K1WHS
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