Category: announcements

Welcome to several new plaque sponsors for the upcoming WPX SSB Contest.

WORLD SSB 1.8MHZ – UA2 CONTEST CLUB

EUROPE SSB Tribander/Single Wire – Roger Miner, K1DQV

The  plaque for WORLD SSB Multi-Two that was sponsored by K5KA (SK) has been picked up for sponsorship by friends of K5KA.

Please visit the Plaques page at http://www.cqwpx.com/plaques.htm to see a list of available plaques. If you see a category that is missing and you would like to sponsor, please contact Doug, K1DG (k1dg@cqwpx.com).

Have you ever wondered what the record score is for your country in the WPX Contest? Or for your call area? Or the Rookie overlay category on 10 meters? Or the multi-single category for Kazahkstan?

Records represent the historical high water marks for a contest. Records may be the result of a great operator, a great station, fantastic conditions, or a combination. No matter the reason, they provide a target that is begging to be broken. Since only one person can hold a given record, owning one is a source of pride and accomplishment.

One of the advantages of having more than 25 years of WPX Contest results available in the online score database is that we can automatically generate listings of all time score records. The new records page allows you to look up records at the World, Continent, Country, and Call Area levels. For each region, the records are shown for all possible categories for both CW and SSB.

Start searching for records by visiting http://www.cqwpx.com/records.htm  Select the geographic region of interest from the drop down list at the top of the page and then click on submit.  The drop down list includes every country from which a log has been submitted.

If you want to learn more about a particular record, click on the hyperlink for the category to see a list of the all time high scores for that category and geographic region.

There are a very large number of category records that are available to the first person to submit a log!  Spend a few minutes checking out your region and set your goals for the upcoming WPX Contests!

The Overlay categories (Rookie and Tribander/Single-Element) have their own separate record pages. That is because the overlay categories essentially operate as separate Contests-Within-A-Contest so are reported separately in the results.

 

To All Contesters and Contest Logging Software Developers:

The Cabrillo log format has become the accepted standard for submission of electronic contest logs. The Cabrillo format describes a set of tag definitions that are used to format information so it can be easily processed by the log submission robot and contest log checking software. (see http://www.kkn.net/~trey/cabrillo/  for a description of the Cabrillo format).

In 2009, the committee that controls the Cabrillo logging format standard introduced 4 new tag definitions for entry of postal mailing addresses. Each contest may choose to adopt or utilize the Cabrillo tag definitions as they wish so it is important to check with the sponsors of each contest for the tags and formats they accept.

Background

With the CQ WW Contest receiving over 10,000 entries, the CQ WPX Contest more than 7,000 entries, and the CQ RTTY Contests with almost 5000 entries, it is becoming increasingly difficult to efficiently parse the free form addresses that appear in logs from all parts of the world. These new tags were requested to help entrants in formatting their postal mailing addresses in a way the computer will be able to read and understand.

Since all certificates for CQ contests are mailed from the United States, we are required to follow the US Postal Service rules for mailing addresses. By having entrants specify their postal mailing address in a known format, we can automate this process and reduce errors.

ADDRESS tag definitions

ADDRESS: text
The street address or post office box line(s) of the address. Maximum length 75 characters. This is the original ADDRESS tag definition and can be used for entry of the complete address. All other ADDRESS- tag defintions are optional.

ADDRESS-CITY: text
City name in postal address.

ADDRESS-STATE-PROVINCE: text
State, province or region name for the postal address.

ADDRESS-POSTALCODE: text
Postal or zip code in the postal address. Please type the postal code according to the convention in your country.

ADDRESS-COUNTRY: text
The post office name for your country. Not required for mailing addresses in the USA or Canada. The list of accepted US Postal Service country names (required for CQ Contests) can be found at http://www.cqwpx.com/usps_country_names.htm

Examples

Examples of using the new tags.

USA Example

NAME: John Smith
ADDRESS: 100 Main Street
ADDRESS: Apt 14
ADDRESS-CITY: Newtown
ADDRESS-STATE-PROVINCE: MA
ADDRESS-POSTALCODE: 01555

Germany Example

NAME: Andy Meszaros
ADDRESS: Wormser Str. 4
ADDRESS-CITY: Karlsruhe
ADDRESS-POSTALCODE: 76185
ADDRESS-COUNTRY: Germany

Japan Example

NAME: Sakae Morishima
ADDRESS: 3-3-2 Suwacho
ADDRESS-CITY: Matsudo
ADDRESS-STATE-PROVINCE: Chiba
ADDRESS-POSTALCODE: 271-0077
ADDRESS-COUNTRY: Japan

UK Example

NAME: Bill Thompson
ADDRESS: 35 Meadow Bank Avenue
ADDRESS: Cowplain
ADDRESS: Waterlooville
ADDRESS: Hants
ADDRESS-POSTALCODE: PO8 8SQ
ADDRESS-COUNTRY: UNITED KINGDOM

Use by CQ WPX

The contest log submission robot for the CQ WPX contest has been updated to accept the new tag definitions. The new tags are optional and all logs will be accepted if they use them or not.

Entrants for the CQ WPX Contest 2010 RTTY/SSB/CW may use the new tags in their Cabrillo log files. At a minimum, we request entrants to use the ADDRESS-COUNTRY tag.

These new tag definitions will be accepted for the CQ WPX and CQWW contests. We hope that other contests will support the use of these new tag definitions.

We ask all software developers to add the necessary fields to their software so users can enter their addresses in the more detailed format that matches the new tag definitions.

Please direct any questions about the use of the new tags to me at k5zd@cqwpx.com.

Why are addresses a problem? Visit http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/postal.html for a comprehensive explanation of the variation in worldwide postal address formats.