Hello all,
I've spent many hours tinkering with settings in a rules file and nothing works as I expect, so there must be something fundamental that I don't understand.
First I tried the elegant approaches like MULT_LIST plus CONTINENTLIST and COUNTRYLIST, inclusion, exclusion, etc.
What I'm trying to set up is where all U.S. states, plus DC, plus Canadian provinces, plus all 30-odd North American DXCC countries are mults per band.
So, if my first contact is in Ohio, two mults, one for the state of Ohio, and one for the USA.
Second contact California, 1 mult.
Third contact Alaska, 2 mults. (US state plus NA DXCC country)
Fourth contact Belize, 1 mult.
Fifth contact Germany, scores a point but zero mults. Germany is not an NA DXCC country.
Sixth contact Hawaii, 2 mults.
Seventh contact Alaska, second contact, zero mults.
It seemed to me that the elegant approach is to use a MULT_LIST of states and provinces and set CONTINENTLIST=NA. Done. Doesn't work. Tried the DX_&_SECTIONS directive, too.
My last attempt was a brute force approach with a MULT_LIST containing the states and provinces, plus a COUNTRYLIST file containing all NA DXCC countries. Doesn't work.
The relevant bit in the rules file for the last attempt looks like this:
#
CONTEST_MODE
CONTEST=arrl_naqp
LOGFILE=arrl_naqp.log
NO_RST
ONE_POINT
MULT_LIST=mymults/arrl_naqp.mults
COUNTRYLIST=mymults/na_country_list.mults
COUNTRY_MULT
SECTION_MULT
#
Maybe somebody can set me straight on how mults work.
73 de Phil, KW2P
PS. (After mastering this, the next challenge is another contest that has no mults but where QSO points are driven by the
exchange. So, four possible exchanges, worth 1,
5, 10, or 15 points, depending on which exchange is received. I'll deal
with that after I get mults figured out. ;-)