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A Cabrillo Primer, by Don Field
G3XTT
The RSGB HF Contests Committee has recently
moved to adopt the Cabrillo format for RSGB contest entries.
This is not to say that other formats wont be accepted, at
least for the time being, but Cabrillo will be preferred,
and the hope is that an increasing proportion of logs will
follow the format as time goes by.
I am already hearing a variety of ill-informed
comment about the implications of this decision such as the
RSGB is forcing us to buy commercial logging software or whatever.
The purpose of this article is to set some of those misconceptions
to rest, and explain (as best I can!) what is actually going
on.
Why Cabrillo?
The first thing to say is that it makes the Adjudicators
job a lot easier if logs are in a common format. Having been
adjudicator for the IOTA Contest for two years, I am aware
of the wide number of variations in format which exist, and
it is often very time-consuming to convert these into something
suitable for checking purposes. The RSGB HFCC has, in the
past, made some attempt to adopt a standard, both by way of
a straightforward text format, and also by recommending the
use of ADIF (Amateur Data Interchange Format, used not only
for contest logs, but for a wide variety of station log conversion
purposes). Neither of these has really taken off, for a variety
of reasons. Partly because they may not be supported by the
major software authors, and partly because ADIF never really
seems to have made a major impact as a data interchange standard.
The good news is that a standard does exist, which
is already well supported and gaining ground all the time.
That standard is Cabrillo. ARRL faced exactly the same issues
as RSGB in dealing with many log formats, and asked Trey N5KO
to work on a standard which would meet their requirements
for something which was simple to implement, but would give
them what they wanted. The thinking behind Cabrillo is essentially:
1. Text based no html or other tags, both for
simplicity of implementation and with the added benefit that
a log can easily be eyeballed to determine whether it contains
the required information.
2. All information in a single flat file, rather
than having separate log and summary files, which would need
to be sent as attachments. As a result, the log can usually
be sent within the body of an e-mail (Attachments are treated
in a variety of ways by different mailing programs and different
ISPs, which can lead to problems. Note though that some contest
sponsors require the Cabrillo file to be send as an attachment
but, please, always as the .log file, never as a .zip file
or other form of encoding).
3. Header information (name, mode, power, etc.)
is, as far as possible, generic, rather than contest-specific.
This simplifies the job of the software authors, but when
correctly implemented the contest sponsors should easily be
able to determine which category has been entered.
4. Each QSO record contains all data relevant
to that QSO (callsign of both stations, band, mode, etc.),
allowing the log to be sorted in various ways for checking,
but easily recreated as required.
5. The data format, while specifying desired character
position and format for each item of QSO data (time, call,
band, sent and received exchanges, etc.) is actually very
undemanding. Essentially, provided there is white space (tab
or space is fine, no slashes, commas or full stops please!)
between each element, the adjudicator should be able to make
sense of the log.
Cabrillo deliberately doesnt ask for data which
can perfectly well be determined by the Adjudicator. So, for
example, it doesnt ask you to indicate multipliers, QSO points,
duplicate contacts, off periods, etc. Too many entrants mess
these things up, or handle them in disparate ways. All can
be figured out as and when required by the checking software.
What does a log consist of?
Lets have a look at a typical Cabrillo log:
START-OF-LOG: 2.0
CONTEST: CQ-WW-RTTY
CALLSIGN: G3XTT
CATEGORY: SINGLE-OP ALL-BAND HIGH-POWER
CLAIMED-SCORE: 484750
OPERATORS: G3XTT
CLUB: Chiltern DX Club
NAME: Don Field
ADDRESS: 105 Shiplake Bottom, Peppard Common,
ADDRESS: Henley-on-Thames, RG9 5HJ
ADDRESS: England
QSO: 21000 RY 2002-09-28 1146 G3XTT 599 14 DX RV3WU 599 16
DX
QSO: 21000 RY 2002-09-28 1146 G3XTT 599 14 DX SP9LJD 599 15
DX
END-OF-LOG:
Much of this will be common to all contests, but
obviously the actual QSO data varies (typically the contest
exchange). So the early part of the QSO line will remain the
same (Band, Mode, Date, Time, MyCall) while the rest will
vary by contest. To deal with this, preferred formats are
specified on N5KOs Web page, and for RSGB contests there will
also be links from the HFCC Web page. Software authors will
be encouraged to support the preferred format for the various
RSGB events (In the IOTA contest, by far the majority of logs
are generated from just a handful of popular contest logging
programs CT, SD, NA, Writelog, N1MM, LuxLog being the favoured
ones). But the good news, as you may have figured by now,
is that you can produce a Cabrillo log in any text editor
or Word processor with the greatest of ease. Also, many station
logging programs such as Turbolog allow you to output log
data as ASCII text in whatever order you specify, so it is
easy to set up what you require. Equally, you could keep your
log in a spreadsheet, sort the columns into the required order
and save as a text file. If you need to manipulate the Cabrillo
file once you have generated it, then life may be a little
easier if you get hold of one of the many text editors that
will allow you to edit columns as well as lines (several of
these exist, including both shareware and freeware programs
downloadable from the Web)
Note that the minimum the organisers want is the
log file. If you get a tracking number, then thats fine. The
robot is happy with your entry. If you forgot some additional
information (Club name, for example) , or spot some error
with your log, dont panic. Just resend the log. Providing
it arrives before adjudication has started, it will overwrite
the original log on the server, and youll be fine.
Thats it!
And thats about all you need to know. For many
contests which have already adopted Cabrillo, the server runs
a little routine to check for key fields in the log, and will
generate an error message back to the sender if data is missing
or suspect (for example if the dates and times dont correspond
to the contest which is being entered). Entrants are then
able to resubmit their log, when the problem has been fixed.
This saves the adjudicators a lot of time which might otherwise
have been spent in correspondence (my guess is that I had
to e-mail 30% or more of IOTA contest entrants this year because
of missing information or corrupted logs).
Just as a final little anecdote, Im occasionally
asked what is the deep meaning of the term Cabrillo. And I
discovered from Trey that, unbeknownst to me, I had actually
sowed the seeds for the name some time ago. On a visit that
Trey made to my QTH several years back we had been talking
about Maidenhead locators and I had explained that John G4ANB,
who devised the Maidenhead locator system, had named it such
for the simple reason that he was living in Maidenhead at
the time. Guess what .. Trey lives in the township of Cabrillo,
California. So he adopted the same approach to nomenclature.
Simple as that!
Of course, you may still have questions,
in which case feel free to e-mail Paul or myself and well
either answer you directly or include a short supplementary
in the next Digest. Happy contesting!
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