<div><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 12:33 AM, Ian Maude <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ian@gb7mbc.net">ian@gb7mbc.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">Well, as it seems there is no interest in having the space bar reserve the serial number, can someone tell me how I can have 2 (or more) networked stations using win-test all using different numbering schemes?</div>
</blockquote><div><br></div><div>There is no way to do this with Win-Test. The best you can do is use separate serial numbers per band, which is really the simplest way to handle multi-ops without any possibility of duplicate serial numbers. The sponsors of the WPX contests have figured this out, and I hope the IOTA contest sponsors will follow their lead.</div>
<div><br></div><div>In the "good old days," when we were all writing on paper log sheets at multi-ops, there was no practical way to "reserve" a serial number in the middle of a QSO, so why is it suddenly a "requirement" that our contest software has to have serial number reservation capability? If the contest sponsors still accept paper logs from multi-ops, then they still need to make it practical to handle serial numbers on paper, for example, by starting with 001 on each band or each band/mode.</div>
<div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div>For example in IOTA I could have had the run station start at 001 and the mult at 2001. I could find no way of keeping the separate schemes though while they were networked.</div>
</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>In the IOTA contest, in my opinion, the rules regarding multi-ops and contest numbering are incomplete and contradictory, and they need to be updated.<div><br></div><div>For example, according to <a href="http://www.vhfcc.org/hfcc/rules/2009/riota.shtml">http://www.vhfcc.org/hfcc/rules/2009/riota.shtml</a> :</div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.vhfcc.org/hfcc/rules/2009/riota.shtml"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; ">"Any non-multiplier QSOs made accidentally on the second station must be logged, but will be scored as zero points."</span></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">That's fine, except there is no "Run/Mult" indicator in column 91 of the Cabrillo specification on the RSGB page, so there's no way for the log checkers to actually <i>do</i> this. (Fortunately the official spec. at <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; "><a href="http://www.kkn.net/~trey/cabrillo/qso-template.html">http://www.kkn.net/~trey/cabrillo/qso-template.html</a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; ">does include this "tn" or transmitter number column).</span></span></span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">"Send RS(T) and serial number starting from 001, plus IOTA reference number if applicable ... Do not use separate numbering systems for CW and SSB. Stations may be contacted on both CW and SSB on each band. Multi-operator entrants may find it convenient to allocate separate blocks of serial numbers for the run and multiplier stations, but do ensure if possible that there is no duplication of serial numbers."</span></span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">How can you have a "serial number" that starts from 001 if you also reserve a "block" of serial numbers for use only by a second station? If it is not chronological, it's not really a serial number.</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">How can you have a run and mult station going simultaneously on phone and CW on the same band, logging on paper, if you're supposed to have one consecutive serial number system? And what's really wrong with sending a duplicate serial number to someone as long as you actually log what was sent? Other contests allow this.</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">In sum, I hope you will raise these questions with the IOTA contest sponsors, as they need to think about the impractical nature of some of their current rules. Requiring separate serial numbers for each band/mode at a multi-op. is the simplest solution, for both paper logs and Cabrillo logs.</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">73,</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Bob, N6TV</span></font></div></div></div>
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