[ILQSO] How to log multi-county stations

[mnowack]

Bruce,

In reply to the first part of your question, logging calls for the ILQP.
The ILQP log verification software basically ignores anything appended to
the call sign.  Anything following a '/' in the call is not a factor in the
call verification process.  The basic call sign itself and the location
logged as part of the QSO exchange are the critical factors.  As you pointed
out, there is a wide range of things that can and do show up appended to the
received call signs.  This includes /M, /MOB, /R, /ROV, /QRP, /Q etc.
Frequently the 4 letter county designator (for example /ADAM) shows up
there.  Mobiles send the four letter county ID to allow others to quickly
identify their location. In some cases, these appended groups are added into
the log to facilitate a work around for logging software deficiencies found
in several programs. Specifically the '/XXXX' is used to allow multiple
counties to be logged for a single call/band/mode contact.  All are ignored.


What do we see in the logs? A little of everything including things that do
not compute.  The scoring process doesn't penalize anyone as long as the
basic call sign was logged correctly.  The one instance where an appended
letter/number group would be checked as a part of QSO verification is where
a station is signing something like W9XYZ/W1XXX signifying the operator is a
guest operating the station outside of the station licensees' authorized
privileges. In this case the complete group would need to be logged
correctly to be considered a complete and valid QSO.  Thus far, we have not
run into this as far as I know.  In any case, ANY busted QSO is manually
reviewed prior to the final scoring to insure no QSO is unjustly busted.

I am no expert on LoTW, but as far as LoTW is concerned, my experience has
been that anything appended to the call sign is relevant to the software
finding a match.  This I think is due to the fact that any QSO could end up
being used for a number of awards and often the appended groups indicate the
DX country, state/province, grid square, zone, etc.  Each of these would
require a separate user account to have the correct factors in place for
proper award credit.

I hope this helps, 

73, Mike NA9Q      

-----Original Message-----
From: ilqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:ilqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
On Behalf Of Bruce Richardson
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 9:56 AM
To: ILQSO at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [ILQSO] How to log multi-county stations

I was mobile in Iowa SSB-only on Saturday and activated 7 counties.
Never worked any stations IN Iowa.  Boy, IAQP is MUCH smaller than ILQP!!!!
Sunday, I operated ILQP from my cabin in SW Wisconsin and had a ball working
you all in Illinois.  Both events were "multi-op" with my girlfriend, Janice
KA9VVQ.

My question is two-fold. First is how to log for the ILQP scoring software
to find a match on my QSO's vs. their QSO's.  Second, is how to log for
likely matches in LOTW.

For example, say I logged:
KB1C/R        599 MSHL
KB1C/R        599 STAR

KC1D/M        599 IROQ
KC1D/M        59  BOND

KD1E/LEE     599 LEE
KD1E/OGLE    599 OGLE
KD1E/WTSD    599 WTSD

And even (no /suffix):
KE1G         59  SANG
KE1G         59  CHRS

N1MM accepts all the above variations on logging the callsign.  I must tell
you that I PREFER the callsign/XXXX version.  But what does the scoring
software need to have for minimal intervention?  Or will it buy all of the
above?  What do most of you stations log yourselves as? /R?
/M? /XXXX? Or just plain callsign?  (Personally, I do /M as a mobile in QSO
parties.)

2nd Part--LOTW:  I've been a mobile in the Minnesota QSO Party.  And I've
tediously built TQSL "locations" for the 7 counties I do in Minnesota.  And
then I tediously upload to LOTW with my callsign/XXX, then again as
mycallsign/m, and then again as just my callsign.  I get a different 5% QSL
rate via each suffix variation.  Yeah, I know, this second part of the
question is about LOTW matching.  What do most of you portable stations
upload as?  Plain callsign? /R? /m?, or /XXXX?  I must tell you that with
all my VHF roving, I ONLY upload as mycallsign/R because that is what I send
during the contest.

Interested in answers and opinions.

73
Bruce Richardson W9FZ  

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