Zone Issues

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N6VH
Old Man
Posts: 186
Joined: 07 Nov 2015, 15:41

Zone Issues

Post by N6VH »

There has been a great deal of discussion on these forums, as well as others, about the zone issues in Log4OM. I see there is a new version coming out that might solve these issues. Here are my suggestions for the way I think the zones should be handled. It might be too late for the next version, but possibly for a future one if they aren't already implemented.

1. When a new QSO is being logged, whether manually, or from JTAlert or similar, or from an adif, if the zone is present there (JTAlert, etc.) then do not overwrite the zone, even if lookups (QRZ, etc) are activated. If the zone is wrong in the original source, then the fault will be with that source and not Log4OM.

2. If the zone is not present, then use lookups if enabled.

3. If zone is not present in the lookup, or if lookups are not enabled, and the zone can't be derived from the call (US, Canada, several others), then put a "0" in the zone field instead of an actual zone number ("5" in the US, for example). That way, it is easy to filter for zone "0" and make whatever corrections are needed.

4. If downloads from LOTW, eQSL, etc, have a different zone that what is already in the database, then, and only then, overwrite the zone with what is in the download. The reason is that LOTW or eQSL confirmations are used by many of us for awards, and whatever data is in LOTW or eQSL is what would count for the award.

I hope this is helpful.

73,

Jim N6VH
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