On Jan 17, 2021, at 6:46 PM, NE1RD B. Scott Andersen via <bsandersen@...> wrote:

Fellow contesters,

?

I discovered the joy of contesting within the first few months of being licensed. It was 2002, sunspots were many, and I was working Europeans like they were next door. I was on an Icom 746Pro and a Power Mac G4 Cube running MacLoggerDX. It was CQ WW DX Phone and, to be honest, I don’t even remember where I stuffed the exchange information. I didn’t know I’d need it. At the end of the contest, when it was time to submit my log, I discovered the hole in my world. What was a Cabrillo file?

?

This prompted me to write the first scripts that would become CabConverter. Windows and DOS users had contest loggers, but nothing existed for that purpose for MacOS—so I wrote my own converter. In the intervening years, I published the first CabConverter 1.0 application written in RealBasic. When it became clear that I needed a way to allow users to build support for contests themselves, I rewrote the program as CabConverter 2 ten years ago.

?

I did all this because there wasn’t a solid contest logger for the Macintosh. That has changed. SkookumLogger is now a very mature logging program with a rich feature set. It is also free and available directly from the Apple App store. SkookumLogger is a far superior solution to using MacLoggerDX + CabConverter. I’ve used it in a couple of contests, and I must say I’m impressed.

?

I am recommending that all Macintosh-based contesters download and examine SkookumLogger. You can read about it here:?

?

This weekend I played in the North American QSO party. When the contest was over, I generated a Cabrillo file and submitted it quickly and without any issues. I then exported my log from SkookumLogger to ADIF and imported the data into MacLoggerDX. From MacLoggerDX I uploaded to LoTW, eQSL, and ClubLog, again without incident. I believe that other CabConverter users will have similar experiences.?

?

CabConverter’s purpose is now served much better by another program: SkookumLogger. I am therefore declaring that CabConverter’s end-of-life will be at the end of this contesting season (at the end of May). We (the two moderators and I) will continue to support the program directly through the Groups.IO platform. We will answer questions, moderate messages, help users through conversion and installation issues, and provide any other guidance you might find helpful through May.

?

After that, we’ll open up the group a little bit, allowing users to join without the level of moderation we currently have. We will monitor the traffic and remove bad actors as necessary, but otherwise allow more free access to the software and recipes. We will NOT remove the group or delete the files. CabConveter will be around for as long as people need it. This is a good time to remind people that the software is indeed free, source code is available, and JavaDoc provides reasonable commentary on the form and function, should anybody else want to make a project of this. But I’m guessing that won’t be necessary. Once you try SkookumLogger you’ll be happy to never think about Java or recipes again.

?

You should know that this has been a discussion between the other moderators and me for some time. We wanted to be sure that there was a stable path without CabConverter available for our users. I believe there is.

?

It has been an honor and a joy to provide this to the Macintosh Ham community. I still love MacLoggerDX (it is my main logger) and I still love contesting. Now I have better software for these efforts in SkookumLogger. I hope all of you find this change refreshing as well.

?

Sincerely,

?

— Scott (NE1RD and author of CabConverter)

Il giorno 18 gen 2021, alle ore 03:46, NE1RD B. Scott Andersen via <bsandersen@...> ha scritto:

Fellow contesters,

?

I discovered the joy of contesting within the first few months of being licensed. It was 2002, sunspots were many, and I was working Europeans like they were next door. I was on an Icom 746Pro and a Power Mac G4 Cube running MacLoggerDX. It was CQ WW DX Phone and, to be honest, I don’t even remember where I stuffed the exchange information. I didn’t know I’d need it. At the end of the contest, when it was time to submit my log, I discovered the hole in my world. What was a Cabrillo file?

?

This prompted me to write the first scripts that would become CabConverter. Windows and DOS users had contest loggers, but nothing existed for that purpose for MacOS—so I wrote my own converter. In the intervening years, I published the first CabConverter 1.0 application written in RealBasic. When it became clear that I needed a way to allow users to build support for contests themselves, I rewrote the program as CabConverter 2 ten years ago.

?

I did all this because there wasn’t a solid contest logger for the Macintosh. That has changed. SkookumLogger is now a very mature logging program with a rich feature set. It is also free and available directly from the Apple App store. SkookumLogger is a far superior solution to using MacLoggerDX + CabConverter. I’ve used it in a couple of contests, and I must say I’m impressed.

?

I am recommending that all Macintosh-based contesters download and examine SkookumLogger. You can read about it here:?

?

This weekend I played in the North American QSO party. When the contest was over, I generated a Cabrillo file and submitted it quickly and without any issues. I then exported my log from SkookumLogger to ADIF and imported the data into MacLoggerDX. From MacLoggerDX I uploaded to LoTW, eQSL, and ClubLog, again without incident. I believe that other CabConverter users will have similar experiences.?

?

CabConverter’s purpose is now served much better by another program: SkookumLogger. I am therefore declaring that CabConverter’s end-of-life will be at the end of this contesting season (at the end of May). We (the two moderators and I) will continue to support the program directly through the Groups.IO platform. We will answer questions, moderate messages, help users through conversion and installation issues, and provide any other guidance you might find helpful through May.

?

After that, we’ll open up the group a little bit, allowing users to join without the level of moderation we currently have. We will monitor the traffic and remove bad actors as necessary, but otherwise allow more free access to the software and recipes. We will NOT remove the group or delete the files. CabConveter will be around for as long as people need it. This is a good time to remind people that the software is indeed free, source code is available, and JavaDoc provides reasonable commentary on the form and function, should anybody else want to make a project of this. But I’m guessing that won’t be necessary. Once you try SkookumLogger you’ll be happy to never think about Java or recipes again.

?

You should know that this has been a discussion between the other moderators and me for some time. We wanted to be sure that there was a stable path without CabConverter available for our users. I believe there is.

?

It has been an honor and a joy to provide this to the Macintosh Ham community. I still love MacLoggerDX (it is my main logger) and I still love contesting. Now I have better software for these efforts in SkookumLogger. I hope all of you find this change refreshing as well.

?

Sincerely,

?

— Scott (NE1RD and author of CabConverter)

On Jan 17, 2021, at 20:46, NE1RD B. Scott Andersen via <bsandersen@...> wrote:

Fellow contesters,

?

I discovered the joy of contesting within the first few months of being licensed. It was 2002, sunspots were many, and I was working Europeans like they were next door. I was on an Icom 746Pro and a Power Mac G4 Cube running MacLoggerDX. It was CQ WW DX Phone and, to be honest, I don’t even remember where I stuffed the exchange information. I didn’t know I’d need it. At the end of the contest, when it was time to submit my log, I discovered the hole in my world. What was a Cabrillo file?

?

This prompted me to write the first scripts that would become CabConverter. Windows and DOS users had contest loggers, but nothing existed for that purpose for MacOS—so I wrote my own converter. In the intervening years, I published the first CabConverter 1.0 application written in RealBasic. When it became clear that I needed a way to allow users to build support for contests themselves, I rewrote the program as CabConverter 2 ten years ago.

?

I did all this because there wasn’t a solid contest logger for the Macintosh. That has changed. SkookumLogger is now a very mature logging program with a rich feature set. It is also free and available directly from the Apple App store. SkookumLogger is a far superior solution to using MacLoggerDX + CabConverter. I’ve used it in a couple of contests, and I must say I’m impressed.

?

I am recommending that all Macintosh-based contesters download and examine SkookumLogger. You can read about it here:?

?

This weekend I played in the North American QSO party. When the contest was over, I generated a Cabrillo file and submitted it quickly and without any issues. I then exported my log from SkookumLogger to ADIF and imported the data into MacLoggerDX. From MacLoggerDX I uploaded to LoTW, eQSL, and ClubLog, again without incident. I believe that other CabConverter users will have similar experiences.?

?

CabConverter’s purpose is now served much better by another program: SkookumLogger. I am therefore declaring that CabConverter’s end-of-life will be at the end of this contesting season (at the end of May). We (the two moderators and I) will continue to support the program directly through the Groups.IO platform. We will answer questions, moderate messages, help users through conversion and installation issues, and provide any other guidance you might find helpful through May.

?

After that, we’ll open up the group a little bit, allowing users to join without the level of moderation we currently have. We will monitor the traffic and remove bad actors as necessary, but otherwise allow more free access to the software and recipes. We will NOT remove the group or delete the files. CabConveter will be around for as long as people need it. This is a good time to remind people that the software is indeed free, source code is available, and JavaDoc provides reasonable commentary on the form and function, should anybody else want to make a project of this. But I’m guessing that won’t be necessary. Once you try SkookumLogger you’ll be happy to never think about Java or recipes again.

?

You should know that this has been a discussion between the other moderators and me for some time. We wanted to be sure that there was a stable path without CabConverter available for our users. I believe there is.

?

It has been an honor and a joy to provide this to the Macintosh Ham community. I still love MacLoggerDX (it is my main logger) and I still love contesting. Now I have better software for these efforts in SkookumLogger. I hope all of you find this change refreshing as well.

?

Sincerely,

?

— Scott (NE1RD and author of CabConverter)

On 24 Jan 2021, at 18:32, Fred Dalzell via <dalzellf@...> wrote:

Scott - I'm still a novice operator (even though I've reached the General level) and found CC easy to use for those contests in which I participated.

That said, I just got an email back from Bill K1GQ after asking about Winter Field Day. He indicated that the rules are too different from other contests and it would be best to use Field Day and then edit the Cabrillo file.

I thanked him but feel that is an invitation to creating errors. I'll continue to use CC until I can't and maybe then SL or some other software will provide the Cabrillo export we need.

Thanks again for all your work,

Fred KI7BCL

On Jan 24, 2021, at 13:19, David Ferrington, M0XDF <M0XDF@...> wrote:

As Scott said, we will continue to support you as best we can, but will not update CC, it’s becoming more and more difficult for smaller ‘one-off’ type programs to be run on Mac OS due to Apples increasing security controls.

73 de David, M0XDF

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. -Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (9 Nov 1934-1996)?

On 24 Jan 2021, at 18:32, Fred Dalzell via <dalzellf@...> wrote:

Scott - I'm still a novice operator (even though I've reached the General level) and found CC easy to use for those contests in which I participated.

That said, I just got an email back from Bill K1GQ after asking about Winter Field Day. He indicated that the rules are too different from other contests and it would be best to use Field Day and then edit the Cabrillo file.

I thanked him but feel that is an invitation to creating errors. I'll continue to use CC until I can't and maybe then SL or some other software will provide the Cabrillo export we need.

Thanks again for all your work,

Fred KI7BCL