A Cabrillo Primer, by Don Field G3XTT

The RSGB Contest Committee has adopted the Cabrillo format for RSGB HF contest entries.

Why Cabrillo?

The first thing to say is that it makes the Adjudicators' job a lot easier if logs are in a common format.

ARRL faced exactly the same issues as RSGB in dealing with many log formats, and asked Trey N5KO to work on a standard which would meet their requirements for something which was simple to implement, but would give them what they wanted. The thinking behind Cabrillo is essentially:

1. Text based, with no html or other tags, both for simplicity of implementation and with the added benefit that a log can easily be viewed as a text file to determine whether it contains the required information.

2. All information in a single flat file, rather than having separate log and summary files, which would need to be sent as attachments. As a result, the log can usually be sent within the body of an e-mail if necessary, or uploaded to a web site.

3. Header information (name, mode, power, etc.) is, as far as possible, generic, rather than contest-specific. This simplifies the job of the software authors, but when correctly implemented the contest sponsors should easily be able to determine which category has been entered.

4. Each QSO record contains all data relevant to that QSO (callsign of both stations, band, mode, etc.), allowing the log to be sorted in various ways for checking, but easily recreated as required.

5. The data format, while specifying desired character position and format for each item of QSO data (time, call, band, sent and received exchanges, etc.) is actually very undemanding. Essentially, provided there is white space (tab or space is fine, no slashes, commas or full stops please!) between each element, the adjudicator should be able to make sense of the log.

Cabrillo deliberately doesn't ask for data which can perfectly well be determined by the Adjudicator. So, for example, it doesn't ask you to indicate multipliers, QSO points, duplicate contacts, off periods, etc. Too many entrants get these things wrong, or handle them in disparate ways. All can be figured out as and when required by the checking software.

What does a log consist of?

Lets have a look at a typical Cabrillo log:

START-OF-LOG: 2.0
CONTEST: CQ-WW-RTTY
CALLSIGN: G3XTT
CATEGORY: SINGLE-OP ALL-BAND HIGH-POWER
CLAIMED-SCORE: 484750
OPERATORS: G3XTT
CLUB: Chiltern DX Club
NAME: Don Field
ADDRESS: 105 Shiplake Bottom, Peppard Common,
ADDRESS: Henley-on-Thames, RG9 5HJ
ADDRESS: England
QSO: 21000 RY 2002-09-28 1146 G3XTT 599 14 DX RV3WU 599 16 DX
QSO: 21000 RY 2002-09-28 1146 G3XTT 599 14 DX SP9LJD 599 15 DX
END-OF-LOG:

Much of this will be common to all contests, but obviously the actual QSO data varies (typically the contest exchange). So the early part of the QSO line will remain the same (Band, Mode, Date, Time, MyCall) while the rest will vary by contest. To deal with this, preferred formats are specified on N5KOs Web page, and for RSGB contests there are links from the rules pages on the Web. Software authors support the preferred format for the various RSGB events. In the IOTA contest, the majority of logs are generated from just a handful of popular contest logging programs, which all create the correct format.

That's about all you need to know. For many contests which have already adopted Cabrillo, the server runs a little routine to check for key fields in the log, and will generate an error message back to the sender if data is missing or suspect (for example if the dates and times don't correspond to the contest which is being entered). Entrants are then able to resubmit their log, when the problem has been fixed. This saves the adjudicators a lot of time which might otherwise have been spent in correspondence.

Just as a final little anecdote, I'm occasionally asked what is the deep meaning of the term Cabrillo. And I discovered from Trey that, unbeknownst to me, I had actually sowed the seeds for the name some time ago. On a visit that Trey made to my QTH several years back we had been talking about Maidenhead locators and I had explained that John G4ANB, who devised the Maidenhead locator system, had named it such for the simple reason that he was living in Maidenhead at the time. Guess what .. Trey lives in the township of Cabrillo, California. So he adopted the same approach to nomenclature. Simple as that!

Happy contesting, de Don, G3XTT