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Table of Contents
RAC Contests Log
This year was my first time participating in the RAC Canada Day contest on my own. It was a lot of fun and also very instructive. Here are a few things I learned.
First, everything you need to know about the RAC contests (Canada Day or the Winter Day) is located on RAC website.
Logs
At the end of the contest, logs must be submitted to RAC. They will accept paper logs for submissions with less than 100 entries, but they really prefer electronic logs, which must be formatted as Cabrillo.
A Cabrillo file is really just plain text file formatted in a very specific way. For more information, see:
- This RAC pdf
- The WWROF website
For example, here's a copy of my Cabrillo file (with only a few entries as example):
The first 21 lines give RAC all the information they need about the operator. The other lines show the contacts made, ending with an END-OF-LOG tag.
RAC does NOT want this emailed to them in the body of the email. Instead, this should be saved in a plain text file named (in my case): VA7FI.LOG and attached to the email.
Regular contesters use logging programs which can generate these files while providing many bells and whistles during the contest to facilitate the logging process. Many people have recommended N1MM. RAC also has its own Contest Software.
But since I'm not a regular contester and I didn't have time to familiarize myself with a logging program that would run under GNU/Linux, I simply used a spreadsheet to log my entries and tweaked it as the day went on to add my points and check for duplicate stations. A few days after the contest was over, I added some code to the spreadsheet to export the Cabrillo file the way RAC needs it.
Here are a few introductory videos I made to explain how to use the spreadsheet:
This spreadsheet should also work with the RAC Winter Contest. Here is the link to Download it.
I've licensed it under a Creative Commons By-Sa so you are free to:
- Run the scripts for any purpose.
- Study and modify the scripts.
- Copy the scripts to help others.
- Improve the scripts, and release the improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
Provided that you:
- Attribute the work to me by linking to <https://ptruchon.pagekite.me>
- Distribute any derivative work under the same license.
Here's a copy of the code that generates the Cabrillo file:
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REM ***** BASIC *****
sub cabrillo
'Get directory path from spreadsheet location. This will be used to create ./MyCallsign.log
Dim path as String
GlobalScope.BasicLibraries.loadLibrary("Tools")
path = Tools.Strings.DirectoryNameoutofPath(ThisComponent.url, "/") & "/"
'Define document and sheets
dim Doc as object
Doc = ThisComponent
Sheet1 = Doc.Sheets.getByName("Log")
Sheet2 = Doc.Sheets.getByName("Preamble")
'Note that for getCellByPosition(x,y): (0,0) = A1, (1,0) = B1, (0,1) = A2, ...
'Create Cabrillo file named "MyCallsign.log"
MyCallsign = Sheet2.getCellByPosition(1, 2).String 'Operator's callsign
filename = path & MyCallsign & ".log"
'Open MyCallsign.log and get ready to write to it
num = FreeFile()
open filename for output as #num
'Read "Preamble" sheet and create preamble of Cabrillo File
for i = 0 to 18 ' read first 19 rows as is.
print #num, Sheet2.getCellByPosition(0, i).String & " " & Sheet2.getCellByPosition(1, i).String
next
' Row 20 needs "@" before the callsign
print #num, Sheet2.getCellByPosition(0, 19).String & " @" & Sheet2.getCellByPosition(1, 19).String
Soapbox = Sheet2.getCellByPosition(1, 20).String
if Len(Soapbox) > 70 then
truncated = "y"
Soapbox = Left(Soapbox, 70)
Msgbox("SOAPBOX message can have at most 70 characters. It was truncated to:" & Chr(10) & Chr(10) & "'" & Soapbox & "'", 48)
endif
print #num, Sheet2.getCellByPosition(0, 20).String & " " & Soapbox
'Formatting Example. Comment out once finished
' print #num, "00000000011111111112222222222333333333344444444445555555555666666666677777777778"
' print #num, "12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890"
' print #num, "QSO: 1825 CW 2003-07-01 1044 VA1ABC 599 ON VE4EAR 599 MB"
' print #num, "QSO: 3510 CW 2003-07-01 1044 VA1AB 599 ON K4BAI 599 103"
' print #num, "QSO: 7155 PH 2003-07-01 1044 VE3KZ 599 ON K5MM 599 005"
' print #num, "QSO: 14205 PH 2003-07-01 1044 VE3KZ 599 ON K4LTA 599 10"
' print #num, "QSO: 21350 CW 2003-07-01 1044 VE3KZ 599 ON K1EA 599 55"
' print #num, "QSO: 28375 PH 2003-07-01 1050 VE3KZ 59 ON VE5SF 59 SK"
' print #num, "QSO: 50125 PH 2003-07-01 1055 VE3KZ 59 ON VE3EJ 59 ON"
' print #num, "QSO:146520 PH 2003-07-01 1055 VE3KZ 59 ON VE3CZ 59 ON"
MyCallsign = MyCallsign & space(14 - Len(MyCallsign)) 'pad MyCallsign to make it 14 characters long.
MyProvince = Sheet2.getCellByPosition(1, 3).String 'my province
MyProvince = MyProvince & space(7 - Len(MyProvince)) 'pad MyProvince to 7 characters
ContestDate = Sheet2.getCellByPosition(1, 21).String 'contest date
'read "Log" Sheet starting at third row.
i = 2 'first row is i = 0 so third row is i = 2
UTC = "anything" 'initial non-empty condition for knowing when to stop loop
while UTC <> "" 'while the time emtry is not empty, process each row
Freq = Sheet1.getCellByPosition(0, i).String 'frequency in column A (x = 0)
Freq = Format(Freq, "0") 'round to the nearest integer
Freq = space(6 - Len(Freq)) & Freq 'pad frequency to 6 digits
UTC = Sheet1.getCellByPosition(1, i).String 'time in column B (x = 1). Also used to stop loop.
Callsign = Sheet1.getCellByPosition(2, i).String 'callsign in column C (x = 2)
Callsign = Callsign & space(13 - Len(Callsign)) 'pad Callsign to 13 characters
RST = Sheet1.getCellByPosition(3, i).String 'received Signal Report in column D (x = 3)
RST = space(3 - Len(RST)) & RST 'pad RST to 3 digits
Exch = Sheet1.getCellByPosition(4, i).String 'received Exchange in column E (x = 4)
RSTGiven = Sheet1.getCellByPosition(5, i).String 'received Signal Report in column D (x = 3)
RSTGiven = space(3 - Len(RSTGiven)) & RSTGiven 'pad RSTGiven to 3 digits
Mode = Sheet1.getCellByPosition(6, i).String
'create line to print from "Log" sheet variables. The output should be something like this:
'QSO: 1825 CW 2003-07-01 1044 VA1AB 599 ON VE4EAR 599 MB
'QSO: 14165 PH 2003-07-01 1044 VA1ABC 59 ON K7AB 59 MB
'QSO:146520 PH 2003-07-01 1044 VA1ABC 59 ON VE4EA 59 MB
logline = "QSO:"
logline = logline & Freq & " "
logline = logline & Mode & " "
logline = logline & ContestDate & " "
logline = logline & UTC & " "
logline = logline & MyCallsign
logline = logline & RSTGiven & " "
logline = logline & MyProvince & " "
logline = logline & Callsign & " "
logline = logline & RST & " "
logline = logline & Exch
print #num, logline 'print logline to text file
i = i + 1 'Next row
UTC = Sheet1.getCellByPosition(1, i).String 'Look ahead to next time entry to see if it's empty or not.
' MsgBox(MyCallsign)
wend
print #num, "END-OF-LOG:"
close #num
msgbox ("Cabrillo log file has been created here: " & Chr(10) & Chr(10) & filename)
end sub
sub License
' This spreadsheet and its script by Patrick Truchon <https://ptruchon.pagekite.me>
' is licensed under a Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
' Unported License. <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>.
'
' You are free to:
' * Run the scripts for any purpose.
' * Study and modify the scripts.
' * Copy the scripts to help others.
' * Improve the scripts, and release the improvements to the public, so that
' the whole community benefits.
'
' Provided that you:
' * Attribute the work to me by linking to
' <https://ptruchon.pagekite.me>
' * Distribute any derivative work under the same license.
end sub
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