[WT-support] US zone guessing in CQWW

[Laurent HAAS - F6FVY]

Hi again Ben

Ben DL6RAI a écrit :

>>2/ If not found, search is the CQWW.DTB file (which contains all current 
>>SCP file stations, and US zone is extracted from the current FCC database).

> However, something must have 
> gone wrong in step (2) because the zone always showed 05
> unless we had worked the station before. 

The CQWW.DTB file must be located in the Win-Test installation directory.

One more remark : Maybe my explanation was not clear enough. The 
CQWW.DTB file *doesn't* contain ALL the FCC database. It only contains 
US callsigns which are in the K5ZD SCP file, and their associated zone 
(which has been looked up in the FCC database).

Thus, if the callsign is not in the CQWW.DTB (nor in the CTY_WT.DAT), 
the default zone (5) is filled in the zone field.

Note : Just in case you thought about it, entering the full FCC database 
  in a "home-made" CQWW.DTB file is a *very* bad idea, for 2 reasons :

1/ The loading and search algorithm in this file has not been optimized 
for very large files. It *would* work, but I'm afraid it would be pretty 
slow.
2/ The Check Partial (F10) and N+1 searches are also based on this file. 
If the file contains *all* US callsigns, these searches would not be 
relevant.

> Interestingly, the 
> zone guessing works right with the UA9's and UA0's - which proves 
> it can be done right.

These zones are resolved in the CTY_WT.DAT (this is the main difference 
between CTY_WT.DAT and CTY.DAT). You must know that CT resolves these 
zones *inside* its code (aka hardcoded), and not from the CTY.DAT file.

> There is no doubt that the operator will have to copy what was
> sent - however, when I hear the QSO partned say the default zone,
> I'd like to save myself two keystrokes (SPACE and 4 or 3 
> respectively).

We do agree, of course !

> this is 
> really nit-picking I must admit!

Saving 3 keystrokes for several hundreds QSOs is not nit-picking. It 
definitely makes sense.

73

Larry - F6FVY