[WT-support] Correct zones?

[Jim Reisert AD1C]

I was scanning the reflector archives and ran across the "correct zones" discussion.

Here is the long answer:

Win-Test determines the CQ Zone from the country file by prefix or full callsign.  There is no way for the program to know that some N4s are in CQ Zone 5 (Florida, Virginia, etc.) and some are in CQ Zone 4 (Alabama, Kentucky, etc.).

CTY.DAT does not contain a complete prefix-to-zone mapping for USA.  That is because CT (and some other programs) determine the zones from the prefix inside the program itself, and therefore they zones don't need to be listed in the country file.

WriteLog does *not* do this.  Therefore, the WriteLog country file (WL_CTY.DAT) has special "rules" for mapping USA prefixes to zones.

Win-Test does not do this either.  Therefore, the Win-Test country files (CTY_WT.DAT and CTY_WT_MOD.DAT) both have the complete prefix-to-zone mappings for USA.

Note that China (BY), Asiatic Russia (UA9), Canada (VE) and Australia (VK) all have similar issues.  Fortunately, there are few callsign exceptions for these countries.

The country file also contains mappings for *some* USA calls to their correct zone.  First, I extract all the USA calls from K5ZD's master callsign database.  Then, I look up each call in the FCC database to determine whether the correct zone can be determined from the call's prefix.  So W8s in West Virginia, KC7's in Wyoming, etc. (and AD1C in Colorado) will be flagged as callsign exceptions.  I take the most-worked 500 or so of these calls and add them to the country file.  I do this every couple of years, though I probably should do it every year just before CQWW.  The end result is that the most popular "out-of-zone" USA calls are added to the country files.  This goes for all programs that use CTY.DAT, WL_CTY.DAT, CTY_WT.DAT and CTY_WT_MOD.DAT.

Please don't get me started on ITU zones, since there are many prefixes that map to multiple ITU zones.

Is there a chance you'll work someone whose zone doesn't match what the country file says?  Absolutely.  But the important thing is to log what you receive, rather than what the program tells you to log.


73 - Jim AD1C

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Jim Reisert AD1C/Ø, <jjreisert at alum.mit.edu>, http://www.ad1c.us