[NLRS] Crying out loud

[John P. Toscano]

Scanner.Kleindl at VerizonWireless.com wrote:
> This week I was working on the 10GHz contest log.  I downloaded the
> ARRL log sheet and the first and the thing that caught my eye was the space

I don't know why they would be so reluctant to fix a bad file, but I 
guess if they lost the "good" file, they may figure it is too much work 
to re-create it again.  (Not making excuses, just thinking out loud.) 
There is the old adage about "people in glass houses should not throw 
stones", and here is a perfect example of that (which is why I am not 
throwing stones)...

On the NLRS web site, there is a file at the following URL:
   http://www.nlrs.org/W0JT/10GHz_Logger.xls

It is a crude logging program for the 10 GHz contest.  It needs a little 
work and then could be everything needed to print out and submit a log 
for the contest.  So far, I haven't found the time to make those 
refinements and upload it to the web site.  So I guess I am as "guilty" 
as Dan and company.

One nice feature of mine is that if you put in the two 6-digit grid 
squares, it will compute the distance points automaticaly.  And it also 
computes the unique callsign points for you.

By the way, there are two data entry "pages" in the spreadsheet, and the 
one that shows up by default is NOT the one most people will want to 
use.  The page that comes up allows you to log by lat/long using "exact" 
coordinates.  Just click on the next page back which is the "log by 
gridsquare" page, and you will see it is much more user-friendly.  I 
don't recall offhand if it computes the distance from sub-grid center to 
sub-grid center, or from the SouthWest corner of one sub-grid to the 
SouthWest corner of the other sub-grid, but I doubt that there would be 
a significant difference even though the Earth is not flat...

What it needs is a column or two to check off "time on" and "time off", 
and either a view for entering data that is as close as possible to the 
ARRL log forms (no extra columns, etc.) or else one view for entering 
data and a separate place that has the data for printing in the ARRL log 
format.  I also plan to have an option to allow the user to specfy their 
time zone of logging, and then they can either enter in local time or 
UTC and the printable log will be converted to UTC if necessary.  (OK, I 
was guilty of writing down all my contact times according to my 
wristwatch, which has no provisions for displaying UTC.  Really.  I 
cannot change the time display except DST disabled or enabled, and one 
of the 4 US timezones, it sets the time automatically from the NIST 
radio beacon.)  Rather than doing the math in my head and risking 
getting it wrong, I just wrote down what my watch said, and planned to 
do the conversion at log submission time.)

With some luck, I will have this file in a more presentable form before 
the end of contest weekend 2, and failing that, far enough in advance of 
the deadline for submissions that it will be of more use to the general 
10 GHz public.

Then again, we'll have to see if I even survive my current work schedule 
that long...   :(

73 de W0JT