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Incorrectly formatted call signs

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#1

This applies primarily to recently licenced UK call sign holders more than any other group.

For some reason, probably based on poor training during Covid lockdowns, or possibly on how the latest licence document from the UK authority is formatted, there are a group of people recording call signs incorrectly in their logs. A typical example would be someone entering their own call as M9 ZYX and mine as MM0 FMF/P or MM0 FMF /P.

THERE ARE NO SPACES IN A CALL SIGN.

That chase should show M9ZYX and MM0FMF/P. I’m off to consider the best way of fixing this, probably a nice script to remove the spaces.

However, can I notify everyone that when I next find someone doing this I’m strongly minded to delete the QSOs without warning.

Please learn the correct formats and enter call signs correctly. Thanks.

2 Likes
#2

The same applies to the final /P
I sometimes find spots on SOTAwatch with the activator callsign written as XX#XXX /P, when it should be XX#XXX/P without any space between the callsign and the /P.

Cheers,

Guru

1 Like
#3

You’ll find that it is typically someone using a smartphone and the smartphone is being “smart” by adding the space between the last letter and the / character.

1 Like
#4

I have just processed all log entries and have removed 26000 spaces from the callsign fields. There’s probably more but this will do for now.

5 Likes
#5

Very likely. I guess this is not a problem for most of us. Definitely not for the database manager. It causes little problem to me because I usually use SAISIE SOTA program to log my chases and when I chase an activator who is spotted on SOTAwatch, I copy his callsign and SOTA ref from the SOTAwatch spot and then paste it on SAISIE SOTA. When there’s a space between the callsign and the /P, the program doesn’t let me enter the chase and warns me that there’s a space which I have to manually delete. Not a big deal, though…

Cheers,

Guru

1 Like
#6

Whilst I was cleaning up I found 1536 badly formed Band specifiers which date back 15+ years. They have also been cleaned up so they match the accepted Band specifiers.

3 Likes
#7

There’s an additional concern here:/P. How is it reported out? All Activators are exected to be /P so that’s a given. Chasers may or may not be /P.
when logging in other programs, /P acts as a different operator – unrecognized. That play havoc when trying to confirm identities without facial recognition patterns!

#8

Any amateur logging program that does not support /P or such is faulty. You should replace it with software that works correctly.

3 Likes