One of the problems with my ADIF Processor I have just addressed is the display of DXCC Entity for a station. It was determining this from a callsign’s QRZ.COM entry, but this doesn’t work for operators abroad, unless they have a specific QRZ.COM page setup.
For example, I recently operated from Rhodes as SV5/M0NOM/P. My station DXCC was being listed as England, because the software correctly determines that the ‘nearest’ QRZ.COM page is M0NOM/P, and the DXCC associated with that QRZ.COM webpage is ‘England’.
I load a dxcc json file that contains both regular expressions and a list of prefix-ranges. For example for the Dodecanese Islands the two entries are:
It all works fine. However, whilst operating from SV/AG-053 I had a contact with @IK2LEY Fabio on Sardinia IS0/IS-025. He recorded his callsign as IK2LEY/IS0. So my question is, do I also need to check for slash country suffixes, and are there any conventions as to when a prefix or suffix is applicable?
There are local rules for many countries when operating under their own licencing body and not CEPT. i.e. MW0FMF/P in Wales and MM0FMF/P in Soctland. So IK2LEY/IS0 follows Italian rules. VK stations might have to put the call area after the call VK3ARR/4 for example. And there are rules for US and Canadian stations operating in each others territories. Fun for regex writers
Last time I visited VK the applicable identification rules seemed to vary depending upon which bit of the official site I looked at. The easiest to find (at the time) said M0LEP/VK was required, but another place said VK/M0LEP. There was also a requirement for me to give my location, but that wasn’t included in the callsign, so, officially, there’d have been no way to determine which bit of VK I might be in from the callsign alone. Atthat time the national society’s site was suggesting that a CEPT-style prefix including the call area should be used. Hopefully, by now, the situation’s a bit less confusing…
I figure, generally, that different places may have different rules, and rules may be interpreted differently, depending, and there are always cases (like the various prefix modifiers occasionally inserted in UK/CD callsigns) that will simply make the extraction of a DXCC from a callsign alone impossible.
I have to follow the rules of my country. IS0 is not another country, but only an Italian region, so IS0 I have to put it after my call. Sorry for that.
73 Fabio
You’re not a VK station though, you’re operating under CEPT whilst a VK1 operating in VK8 is not operating under CEPT. Different rules, different strokes for different folks
Absolutely no need to apologise, I wanted to understand what the rules are to see if I can code them into the ADIF Processor. I’ve learnt a lot from the conversation already. All the documentation I read early on talks about ‘prefixes’ but digging deeper there is some info on suffixes too.
I’m only interested in this case in a change that affects the DXCC entity, so for example VK regional suffixes probably aren’t something I need to consider.
At that time VK wasn’t exactly party to CEPT, but did allow similar reciprocal operating permissions for some countries. Holders of non-full UK/CD licences also had some limited operating permission in VK (on VHF only?). The VK licensing regime definitely fitted into an “interesting” (as in not necessarily what you might expect) category back then, with visitors having some concessions that did not apply to locals.
Which was kind-of exactly the point I was trying to make, with the added “and sometimes it’s not so easy to figure out what you’re supposed to do”, which certainly makes determining which DXCC a call’s coming from a mite more complicated…
