[Dx4win] Logging and spotting portable stations

[Jim Reisert AD1C]

I forgot to mention this one:

         BA7DW/P/7

This is also no good.  DX4WIN can not determine the country prefix 
from the callsign in this case.

At 08:13 PM 3/12/2007, Jim Reisert AD1C wrote:

>I see a common error when spotting and logging portable 
>stations:  use of the "double portable".  The way this usually shows 
>up is as a DX cluster spot which appears to be for North 
>Korea.  Here is one recent example:
>
>     14260.0  BA4DW/P7    11-Mar-2007 1448Z
>
>People who use logging programs with a DX Cluster interface may be 
>mistakenly notified that North Korea is on the air, when it really 
>is not (the call above was used from a Chinese IOTA).
>
>The '/' character already means portable.  So one might read the 
>call above as:
>
>     BA7DW-portable-P7
>
>(which is how most logging programs will interpret it) or
>
>     BA7DW-portable-portable-7
>
>The correct way to spot or log this callsign is:
>
>     BA7DW/7
>
>which reads, simply:
>
>     BA7DW-portable-7
>
>where '/' is replaced by the word "portable".
>
>There is one small exception:
>
>     3727.6  GW3RMD/P    12-Mar-2007 1116Z
>
>In this case, you don't want to spot or log just "GW3RMD/" because 
>that wouldn't make much sense (many logging programs probably would 
>not know what to do with that call anyway).  So it's generally 
>written as shown above, and is pronounced:
>
>     GW3RMD-portable
>
>Most logging programs will ignore the /P at the end when determining 
>the country from the callsign.
>
>Another reason to use the correct callsign (i.e. BA7DW/7 and not 
>BA7DW/P7) is for Logbook of The World.  I would not expect BA7DW to 
>digitally sign his QSOS as BA7DW/P7 and upload them that way.  So 
>the QSO that you upload will never match his.
>
>I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader how to log this station in Kansas:
>
>     KL1V mobile ZERO
>
>Hint: if your logging program says England, you didn't log it correctly
>
>73 - Jim AD1C


-- 
Jim Reisert AD1C, 7 Charlemont Court, North Chelmsford, MA 01863
USA +978-251-9933, <jjreisert at alum.mit.edu>, http://www.ad1c.us