[PaQSO] PaQSO Party Update

[Michael Coslo]

On Mar 21, 2006, at 2:59 PM, <wn3vaw at verizon.net>  
<wn3vaw at verizon.net> wrote:

> A few years ago, when the Cabrillo logging robots were starting to  
> roll out, I asked a few of the gurus involved a few questions on  
> how to they worked, idea being to find out how to set up or adapt a  
> robot for the PaQP.
>
> The general reply was "we're too busy with the big international  
> contests to bother with a state QSO party."
>
> I answered back something to the effect that I wasn't asking them  
> to do it, just for enough info to make suggestions.
>
> The general reply once again was "we're too busy with the big  
> international contests to bother with a state QSO party."

	Same trouble here, Ron. I have contacted some contest people, and if  
I can get beyond the initial "we're busy" ,(which I have no doubt  
that they are) I have learned that the software is generally custom  
written stuff made specifically for the party in question.

	Problems that can crop up are that there seems to be cabrillo and  
cabrillo! In addition to the log checking software, there is  
conversion software that is needed to turn the plethora of different  
things received into a form that the custom log checking software  
will accept.


>
> Whether you prefer Cabrillo-style, ADIF, CSV or whatever... it sure  
> would be nice to be able to set up a logging robot to automatically  
> receive the log, read the format, score the log, store the log and  
> acknowledge receiving the log (with or w/o errors).
>
> Now maybe the powers-that-be have a little more time now; and I  
> don't want to sound like I'm picking on them (ok, not much at  
> least) because they were at the time busy debugging problems.   
> Regardless, it sure seems to me that it should be possible, giving  
> all the computer expertise available through this list, the Nittany  
> ARC, and other amateur radio-related sources, that we should (if so  
> desired) be able to set up our own automation and take some of the  
> burden off of Mike and the NARC/PaQP log checkers.
>
> Or am I missing the obvious here, not that that'd be anything unusual?


	Nothing obvious, but of course there is a lot of behind the scenes  
stuff that has to happen to pull off the act successfully. And it  
wouldn't quite be a panacea

	I've though of writing a log checking program in Visual  Basic that  
will let us do just that. The trick is really in the log massage to  
make things compatible though. The log massaging software has to be  
pretty robust, there is a world of difference between writing a  
program that takes a structured file and does something with it, and  
the often wildly varied things that are received.

	Paper logs would be a minor issue. A person could manually enter  
them. A surprising number of people still use paper logs, many of  
which are visually superb.

	The major problem is that most of the people who might volunteer to  
do such a thing, are already volunteered to the hilt. I think if I  
took on another task, I would find out what it is like to be single  
parent. HA!

	Ohhhhhh, but it would be so cool, huh? Perhaps my successor will be  
able to give me the time to write such software.        p.s., nothing  
to be implied from that comment - its just that 2 years is a pretty  
good "term of office" in this job, these days. 8^)

	- 73 de mike KB3EIA -