“Usual location, Jimbo, old son?”
“Roger”
Location details exchanged. 
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ADIF supports 2,4,6 or 8 figure grids, but we’re only accepting 6 figures because the API uses a function written by Andy 60 years ago in FORTRAN or Algol or COBOL or some dinosaur crap that he converted to work on the old database software which was also dinosaur language but more Jurassic than Pre-cambrian, and then updated for the new API and left as is “because it works”
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Splendid idea!
You definitely should! The bulk of activity levels will probably be in IO83 / IO82. You’ll get a lot more points from working those stations than I will. OTOH, I will probably work more of those stations than you will. Exactly where the balance tips towards, it’s difficult to predict.
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Can we have a special multiplier if the chaser is in JO square (also known as Flatland) where the nearest summit is more than 100km away? 
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I hope it was Fortran 2D not that modern Fortran 4 rubbish
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Good Morning, Well why not say Maidenhead then?
This is a world where people want 1-click, no thought, instant answers. I do try and work things out for myself, however
is Klingon to me, hence the question.
Again, in the 1-click world, VK Port-aLog and Ham2k PoLo allow pretty straightforward uploading of .adif to the database. Apart from logs for this challenge, it would seem. Or did I get that wrong too?
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If it’s in any of their location formats that are supported (lat/lon fields, gridsquare fields, etc) it is handled automatically. The %QRA% is only for CSV that has no native way of supporting location data.
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That will be the code in geogutils.aspx.cs which was a C# rehash of code originally written using an Amstrad PC1512 and Zortech C++ in the 90s. I’m fairly sure some the routines were rewritten and run on Her Majesty’s Trafalgar Class submarine SONARs to exercise comms between some modules. I wonder if it’s still in the software suite 27 years later ? It may have just been in some post ATE acceptance tests but it was so long ago.
There’s a lot to be said in favour of using code that just works.
Anyway that code was originally written to convert Maidenheads to Lat,Long and then run the Haversine algorithm to get the great circle distance to score points/km for RSGB VHF contests in the 90s. It’s come full circle after 30 odd years.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
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Because the ADIF and FLE spec don’t call it Maidenhead, they call it GRIDSQUARE and talk about grid references. I was trying to be consistent with the existing documentation…
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RRR
6 char seems like a reasonable compromise accuracy vs overkill. Works well enough for microwave test. Thanks for clarification.
“I write all my serious routines in assembler and all my comedy routines in FORTRAN.” which may have been written by Ward Christensen. He also wrote “On a clear disk I can seek forever.” and the XMODEM file transfer program.
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As a matter of curiosity, and nothing else, does the conversion use a particular corner of the grid, or does it calculate the centre of the grid and use that Lat,Lon value?
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This is a fantastic idea and something I’m really looking forward to. I’ve only ever made 2m ssb contacts during the RSGB Backpackers Contest and even then there was no activity on the CW portion of the band for the contest. Hopefully this will encourage activity, even if it is just the novelty of a 2m CW S2S.
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Thanks for inadvertently reminding me I have a pile of random 5¼" floppies to run through my Kryoflux setup! Been on my todo list since around 2013 but back then I had to use old Windows drivers c.W95/98 were all that worked to mount the A drive.
I forgot Kryoflux has Linux drivers, so hopefully I can get it to work now and see what’s on the boxes of random disks I bought from someone in Germany about 15 or so years ago!*
*if anything juicy turns up, like, say, Colin Porch’s C64 Parasol Stars code, I’ll do a blog write up! Last I recall from the couple of disks I scanned all I found were old business programs for defunct OS’es requiring obscure emulators to run.
Anyways, back OT and apologies for the ramble.
Bottom left I think. There will be some small errors but as everyone’s distanced is calculated by the same code the errors will be the same for all. I do know talking to Barry about this for when we got a uWave distance that was in 1km of the next award level that we would allow claimants to submit more accurate 8 or 10 fig locators as there would not be thousands of claims to check. The only time I know it was done was for my late friend Brian G4ZRP (who introduced me to SOTA). I went through all his 23cm FM chaser QSOs and using 8 figure locator found he had just squeezed the distance to be 150km and centimetres on 1 QSO so we could send him the award to pin above his bed in his final weeks.
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Well yes, in a limited sort of way: the DB still shows OS grid refs for the UK, and the WAB chaps still use squares based on that. I also remember the original QRA locator which preceded the maidenhead, retired because it only covered Western EU. Mostly academic but you never know, a WAB mobile may call an activation and give his WAB square as a location! Some UK summits are in very desirable WAB squares!
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Excellent! I just added an FTX-1 to go with my 818, so I’ll hope for some good goes. Getting 6-digit grids in VHF contesting might be an extra challenge, but should be easy for some non-SOTA folks to provide. Will have to see who in W9/WI might be up for challenge S2S skeds.
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A huge number of posts on this topic are about obtaining or processing the chaser’s location. I’ve read them all carefully. A few posters have asked for clarification on acceptable or unacceptable means of obtaining the chaser’s location, and I’ve not seen clarifying answers from the MT.
Could someone answer my simple question:
If it’s not allowed to obtain the chaser’s precise location after the activation, e.g. via qrz.com, RSGB call book, etc, does that mean:
(a) The chaser is known to be on a SOTA summit (because he sends you the SOTA ref on-air or you read it in his alert or self spot), OR
(b) He must send you his 6-figure maidenhead locator (‘grid ref’) during the QSO [even if you know his grid ref],
(c) Or something else? [e.g. if he gave a WOTA summit ref which one could look up the grid ref later]
… for that QSO log entry to be valid for the challenge points scheme?
73, confused dot com
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Perhaps it can be simplified to:
- Never assume that a chaser is where their qrz/callbook/etc location is
- You must verify their location over the air somehow: via maidenhead, lat/lon exchange, park reference, WOTA location, etc.
- This verification can be, “Are you currently at your QRZ.com location”, “Yes”.
- But don’t assume they are at a particular location just because they’re usually there.
Cheers,
Andrew
(who has responded to several queries already, but people tend to forget is part of the MT)
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Well I like the new challenge, I think it’s a good combination of functionality and novelty depending on where you usually activate. For those who are 500km away from anything, it’s not going to be a success unless you happen to activate when there is a sporadic E event occurring and then you’ll work over 2,000 km on 2m. And when you think about it, that’s likely to happen in the next month, or for the next year, depending on old Sol.
And remember, FM isn’t vertical, SSB isn’t horizontal.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
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