AKA "All I want for Christmas is something big for WSJT-X 2.2"
I just finished the 2019 Washington Salmon Run (our state QSO party), both as a
contestant and a coordinator. My DX Club sponsors the event. See
www.wwdxc.org/salmonrun
This year, we were inundated with inquiries of "Can we use FT8 or FT4?", all of
which I had to answer "No, sorry, not this year". I see Nebraska supported
WSJT-X for their QSO party, but it required a totally separate log. Our Board
felt the Salmon Run is too big and popular to create a whole separate category
and scoring system, and I didn't want to see the use of FreeMsg frames being
blasted blindly into the ether with unacknowledged County exchanges. I felt it
was just abusive and counter to the vision of WSJT-X's smart design.
I do believe that adding direct support to all the State QSO Parties could be
the 'next big thing' for WSJT-X. Adding FD last year was a step in that
direction. So rather than just ask, I thought "well, what would it require?"
CQ WAQP W7CD CN87
W7CD K7ABC SPO (Spokane County)
K7ABC W7CD R KITS (Kitsap County)
W7CD K7ABC RR73
Thus, I submit a blind start:
// QRegExp message_alphabet {"[- A-Za-z0-9+./?]*"};
QRegularExpression message_alphabet {"[- @A-Za-z0-9+./?#<>]*"};
QRegularExpression WA_QSO_party_exchange {
R"(
(
AL|AZ|AR|CA|CO|CT|DE|FL|GA # 48 contiguous states
|ID|IL|IN|IA|KS|KY|LA|ME|MD
|MA|MI|MN|MS|MO|MT|NE|NV|NH|NJ
|NM|NY|NC|ND|OH|OK|OR|PA|RI|SC
|SD|TN|TX|UT|VT|VA|WA|WV|WI|WY
|NB|NS|QC|ON|MB|SK|AB|BC|NWT|NF # VE provinces
|LB|NU|YT|PEI
|DC # District of Columbia
|DX # anyone else outside WA
|ADA|ASO|BEN|CHE|CLAL|CLAR|COL # 39 WA counties
|COW|DOU|FER|FRA|GAR|GRAN|GRAY
|ISL|JEFF|KING|KITS|KITT|KLI
|LEW|LIN|MAS|OKA|PAC|PEND|PIE
|SAN|SKAG|SKAM|SNO|SPO|STE|THU
|WAH|WAL|SHA|WHI|YAK
)
)", QRegularExpression::CaseInsensitiveOption |
QRegularExpression::ExtendedPatternSyntaxOption};
Of course, it's not just that simple, I know....but I feel strongly enough
about the subject that I'm willing to try my hand at coding, something I've not
done since my FORTRAN77 and PDP-11 school days.
True, there are some arguments against putting in the effort.
- Texas has 254 Counties. My fingers ache just thinking about it.
- Not every State has a QSO Party. Out west, those states without the support
resources for their own QP (OR, MT, WY, etc) created the 7th Area QSO Party
(7QP), which is wildly popular. It's exchange field requires a field of 5
characters (2-ltr-State + 3-ltr County).
-Instead of a QRegExp for each QP, a matrix of AAAAA through ZZZZZ would
support any 5-ltr combo a particular State QP sponsor might devise. Of course,
that leaves it to the end user to populate them in Settings/Advanced. Texans
would think that insane. 7QP'ers would call it cruel and unusual punishment.
Am I the only Voice in the Wilderness that thinks this would be worth it? WA
is happily willing to shift from 4 letter County abbreviations to 3 letter if
it helps!
73 John W7CD
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