[NLRS] (10 GHz Log Submissions?)

[John P. Toscano]

Clare Jarvis wrote:
> I disaggree with two premises.  I do not think it is difficutl to
> submit electrontically.   The only two things that are kind of a pain
> is the exact wording of the entry class and and the exact wording of
> of the contest.  The exact name of the contest is actually found
> in the cabrillo spec.
> 
> When you submit your log the league sends you an address of the
> list of logs submitted.
> 
> I think this answers most questions on the two items mentioned.
> 
> 73 Clare   de K0NY   (in Florida without radio equipment.)

Clare, I agree that it is very easy to submit electronically for the 
January VHF, June VHF, August UHF, and September VHF contests.

The problem is that for the 10 GHz and Up Cumulative Contest, there is 
no standardized logging program designed for the purpose (to my 
knowledge, at least), and NO STANDARDIZED FILE FORMAT.  The Cabrillo 
file format CANNOT SUPPORT THIS CONTEST, because it has no way to record 
some of the required data.  And I believe that this is why, when I go to 
the ARRL web page for "logs submitted" for this year's 10 GHz and Up 
Cumulative Contest, all I get is a page that says "No report available". 
  The robot is not programmed to accept files for this contest and parse 
them, because there is no standardized format in which to send them.  I 
think that the ARRL needs to revise the format to make it possible for 
it to support this contest as well, but I have no idea if they are doing 
so, nor if there is any software in the works to log this contest and 
create a "next-revision Cabrillo output format" file.

My spreadsheet is now available at the following location:
   http://www.qsl.net/w0jt/10GHz/index.htm

Although it is conceivable that you could fill it out and email it as an 
attachment to the Contest Branch, I would be very leery of doing this. 
That is because the whole reason that they picked the Cabrillo file 
format for all the other contests is that it is a plain ASCII text-based 
file format that is easy to parse for the required data fields.  There 
is no guarantee that they will bother to open an Excel file and extract 
the data needed for their database.  Your submission might just be 
rejected, without enough remaining time to mail in an entry.

My spreadsheet is set up to allow you to print the submission form and 
the log form(s) on your printer, suitable for mailing in.  I guess you 
could also "print" them to an ASCII text file and submit that 
electronically, but not everyone is experienced at doing that sort of 
thing, and it could be a problem for those folks.

P.S., my final results:
     22.6 hours total operating time over both weekends
    196 QSO's
     22 Unique callsigns
  2,200 QSO Points
29,801 Distance Points
32,001 Total Points
    332 Km best Dx on 10 GHz, no contacts on any other (higher) bands
    163 points per QSO (average)
    152 Km per QSO (average)

I'm working on my writeup for the web and for the ARRL, but no telling 
how soon they will be ready...

73 de W0JT