Country file default ITU Zones - info & a request
Posted: 21 Oct 2018, 19:25
Hi Everyone
I noticed a long time ago that most of my US log entries were showing the wrong ITU Zone and since then I usually check each one from their grid square at https://zone-check.eu/ (formerly http://epc-mc.eu/zones.php). The default in the country file for US (DXCC 291) is ITU 6 and CQ 5 (I think this is may be an impossible combination in fact), while for a very large number of east coast stations it should be ITU 8 and CQ 5 which is preferable as a default. Here are the manual adjustments I make to my country file for the most common ones (in my log) that have multiple zones. These match the provided CQ zones which are correct for the majority of hams in those countries and are (in my opinion) the best ones to use by default:
edited country.xml to show default ITU zone for:
Asiatic Russia as 30 (was 20) <Dxcc>15
European Russia as 29 (was 19) <Dxcc>54
Brazil as 15 (was 12) <Dxcc>108
United States as 8 (was 6) <Dxcc>291
this will need to be done after each country file update.
There may be other common ones that I don't see often enough to be aware of.
Would it be possible to incorporate the above "default" ITU Zones in future country files? This would save me having to edit my file every time it gets updated.
P.S
I know that Chuck K7PT who provided the data for this file very sadly became silent key recently so I guess this file will be updated from another source in future.
Thanks & 73
Tony YO3IPR
I noticed a long time ago that most of my US log entries were showing the wrong ITU Zone and since then I usually check each one from their grid square at https://zone-check.eu/ (formerly http://epc-mc.eu/zones.php). The default in the country file for US (DXCC 291) is ITU 6 and CQ 5 (I think this is may be an impossible combination in fact), while for a very large number of east coast stations it should be ITU 8 and CQ 5 which is preferable as a default. Here are the manual adjustments I make to my country file for the most common ones (in my log) that have multiple zones. These match the provided CQ zones which are correct for the majority of hams in those countries and are (in my opinion) the best ones to use by default:
edited country.xml to show default ITU zone for:
Asiatic Russia as 30 (was 20) <Dxcc>15
European Russia as 29 (was 19) <Dxcc>54
Brazil as 15 (was 12) <Dxcc>108
United States as 8 (was 6) <Dxcc>291
this will need to be done after each country file update.
There may be other common ones that I don't see often enough to be aware of.
Would it be possible to incorporate the above "default" ITU Zones in future country files? This would save me having to edit my file every time it gets updated.
P.S
I know that Chuck K7PT who provided the data for this file very sadly became silent key recently so I guess this file will be updated from another source in future.
Thanks & 73
Tony YO3IPR