[WT-support] ARRL Sweepstakes - Watch out - Win-Test does NOT flag most data entry errors

[Bob Wilson, N6TV]

One of the biggest contests in the USA occurs this weekend, the ARRL
Sweepstakes.

This contest has long exchange including

Serial Number  (must be all digits)
Precedence  (A, B, Q, U, M, or S)
Callsign
Check  (must be two digits representing year first licensed)
ARRL Section

Please note that Win-Test ONLY checks for something that looks like a
callsign, and a valid ARRL Section.  It does NO OTHER VALIDITY CHECKS.  If
you enter "FOUR" as the serial number "X" as the precedence, and "NV" as the
Check, Win-Test will happily accept these invalid values, and it will copy
them all to your Cabrillo file.  A very common mistake is to enter the
letter "O" instead of "0" in the Check field.

You will lose credit for these QSOs during log checking by ARRL
Headquarters.

>From the menu, selecting *Tools | Check Log | Search for possible Bad
Exchanges* will NOT flag any of these obvious data entry errors as problems.

Bug report #261
<http://flyspray.win-test.com/index.php?do=details&id=261>has been
opened to fix the "Search for possible Bad Exchanges" problem for
the ARRL Sweepstakes.

In the mean time, you can run the CBS (Cabrillo Statistics) program by K5KA
against your Cabrillo file, and it will flag most of these errors (
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr/software/).  But good luck trying to figure out the
correct value when you find out much later that you have mistakenly entered
"NV" in the numeric "Check" field.

Win-Test will not let you enter a QSO if there are any blank fields, which
is good.  But I wish it would go a step farther and at least highlight the
bad fields or flag the QSO with "NR?" "PREC?" or "CK?" in the right hand
column if what has been entered there is obviously invalid.  In other words,
Win-Test could still let you log the QSO so as not to slow you down, but
flagging or highlighting those bad exchange fields in real time would give
you a chance to correct errors immediately, before you forget what was sent.

73,
Bob, N6TV
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