Strange WAS award problem

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WA2SQQ
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Strange WAS award problem

Post by WA2SQQ »

I reached out to the the support team on a strange problem and I’m wondering if US hams can check to see if you have this problem also. I asked Terry if it would be OK to post this request and he had no objections. Both Terry and Claus have been very cooperative, definitely first-class support!

I’ve been working on getting WAS on all HF bands. While working FT8 on 80m I started realizing that JTALERT kept telling me that WV (West Virginia) was a new state. It wasn’t, so I initially suspected that JTALERT might not be picking up that state correctly. I reached out to Laurie. After studying my ADI file he informed me that I only had 3 WV contacts, and they weren’t verified. I sent him screen shots from LOG4OM showing more than 12 contacts, all shown as “V” (verified).

Looking closer I discovered that while the station’s address correctly showed “WV”, the STATE field shows VIRGINIA. I manually edited one QSO and changed VA to WV. I rescanned the JTALERT database and WV now showed it as a confirmed state. But wait, it gets stranger.

Last night I worked WV8DOH in WV on 80m FT8. I checked the contact and the STATE was correctly listed as WV. This morning I checked to see how many of last night’s contacted were verified by LOTW. Guess what, West Virginia is now Virginia for the contact with WV8DOH. So it appears that something with the LOTW verification process changes the STATE field. I’ve only found this happening with WV QSO’s, and not on all bands.

I’m wondering if some of you can check, especially on 80M contacts, to see if your VERIFIED WV contacts are being saved as Virginia? It’s easy:

> “View” - Award Status
> Select the WAS award
> Scroll down to West Virginia (80m if possible) and click on the “V”. (assuming you have verified contacts)
> Select a recent QSO from the list and click on it.
> Click on “QSL Info” tab and verify that the contact is VERIFIED by LOTW.
> Look at the “Contact’s Details” tab. If the problem exists you will see the STATE as Virginia, while the stations address is West Virginia. (See the attached photo)
Attachments
WV vs VA.jpg
WV vs VA.jpg (183.67 KiB) Viewed 2508 times
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G4POP
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Re: Strange WAS award problem

Post by G4POP »

Note

It's only the state field in the ADIF file that LOG4OM, LOTW and other programs use to define the state, the reference to a state in the address line is not used anywhere

Also note.

The state recorded in the QRZ or other on line lookups is usually defined by the owner of the call, QRZ ETC dont use the address field.

Further note

The information received via the QRZ API is not always the same as shown on the web site

Final note

If the data received from external software like wsjt contains a state name it is that that is used by log4om - We assume the incoming data is correct and what the user wants, it's not our prerogative to decide that the data is incorrect e.g the other station might have moved QTH be operating away from home etc.

That said we are still checking and I am still waiting for the support request from Bob
73 Terry G4POP
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KI5IO
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Re: Strange WAS award problem

Post by KI5IO »

Bob,

I don't have any 80m WV Q's to check, but on all other bands (40, 20, 17, 15 & 12) I noted a mixed bag of WV having been changed to V.

Most of my Q's are CW, thus direct input by my fingers into the main UI. I've been stacking up a number of those Q's with my SST participation. One OM in particular is in WV and all of his Q's are logged as V. He has also confirmed everyone via LOTW.

I'll do some more searching to see if I can find more anomalies with WV vs V.

I do recall, from many months ago, that Lele was working on a fix as we had noted many Q's being put in V and they should have been WV. I'm not sure of the details of those issues.
73 - Nolan Kienitz - KI5IO
Plano, TX
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KI5IO
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Re: Strange WAS award problem

Post by KI5IO »

Bob,

Using QSO Manager I did a filter for "VA" and was noting that I had several (about 12 out of 50-60) Q's that were actually WV, but State was noted as VA.

All had been sent/confirmed via LOTW as well.

Combination of bands, modes. Easy to ID due to "county" ID.

Did a bulk edit and resolved those anyway.
73 - Nolan Kienitz - KI5IO
Plano, TX
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KI5IO
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Re: Strange WAS award problem

Post by KI5IO »

G4POP wrote: 17 Sep 2021, 15:18 Also note.

The state recorded in the QRZ or other on line lookups is usually defined by the owner of the call, QRZ ETC dont use the address field.

Further note

The information received via the QRZ API is not always the same as shown on the web site

That said we are still checking and I am still waiting for the support request from Bob
Terry,

I can't change my state in my QRZ.com profile unless I do an FCC Update. A few additional steps involved to make that happen so I don't see that happening on an ad-hoc basis.

If QRZ is relying on the FCC d/b for the core/basic information (at least for USA calls) why would the QRZ API modify/change that?

.
73 - Nolan Kienitz - KI5IO
Plano, TX
WA2SQQ
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Re: Strange WAS award problem

Post by WA2SQQ »

Terry
I just posted formal request for assistance with both problem. WAS and the WAC issued I discovered.
If this was an isolated case involving one or two stations I'd easily agree that the source data was to blame.

Once again, I'd like to thank you and the team for responding so quickly - it is very much appreciated! Reach out to me if you have any questiions

Bob, WA2SQQ
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G4POP
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Re: Strange WAS award problem

Post by G4POP »

WA2SQQ wrote: 17 Sep 2021, 17:49 Terry
I just posted formal request for assistance with both problem. WAS and the WAC issued I discovered.
If this was an isolated case involving one or two stations I'd easily agree that the source data was to blame.

Once again, I'd like to thank you and the team for responding so quickly - it is very much appreciated! Reach out to me if you have any questiions

Bob, WA2SQQ
I am still waiting for your support request that I requested two days ago!

This is generated from the help menu see https://www.log4om.com/generating-a-support-request/ or our user manual
73 Terry G4POP
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G4POP
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Re: Strange WAS award problem

Post by G4POP »

I can't change my state in my QRZ.com profile unless I do an FCC Update. A few additional steps involved to make that happen so I don't see that happening on an ad-hoc basis.
Well I can change the state in QRZ call sign edit as below

Screenshot 2021-09-18 103900.png
Screenshot 2021-09-18 103900.png (53.79 KiB) Viewed 2465 times

If QRZ is relying on the FCC d/b for the core/basic information (at least for USA calls) why would the QRZ API modify/change that?
Trust me there are many times when the QSZ API does not send us the same information that is recorded on QRZ similarly sometimes the Clublog file that we receive does not match data shown on the clublog call checker.

So just because the web site shows West Virginia does not mean that the API does not send just Virginia
73 Terry G4POP
WA2SQQ
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Re: Strange WAS award problem

Post by WA2SQQ »

Terry
Very sorry that I misunderstood the process. I posted it in the forum. I'll submit it later today
WA2SQQ
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Re: Strange WAS award problem

Post by WA2SQQ »

Just sent you the files
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