DX_&_SECTION keyword not working as documented

[dl1jbe]

Man page states that with DX_&_SECTION keyword Multiplier is DXCC country or section from multiplier file

In last weeks there were at least two reports from DL3EAZ and F8CFE which states that the keyword does not work in that manner. A closer look to the code showed that it is tightly coupled to ARRL contests which often use a multiplier scheme where W or VE station can get multipliers for W/VE sections or other DXCC countries. So the keyword in its current form is useless for other contests like EUDX or Coupe du REF.

The current implementation of DX_&_SECTIONS works as follows:

If Country is W or VE do not count as country multiplier, all other countries are mults
If Country is W or VE do count sections as multiplier, for all other countries ignore it.

So country and section multiplier are mutual exclusive . That is also the case for Coupe du REF.
Some other contests (e.g. EUDX) count country AND multiplier for the EU countries.

I think a way to solve the problem can be the following:

• Rename DX_&SECTION to ARRL_DX&SECTIONS keeping the behaviour and adding a new DX&_SECTION which simply counts DXCC countries and sections both as multipliers. If you have to exclude your own country from getting country points (see Coupe du REF) use COUNTRYLIST= and EXCLUDE_COUNTRYLIST.

• The new DX_&_SECTIONS together with EXCLUDE_COUNTRYLIST can also handle ARRLDX contests if it is guaranteed that no stations outside of W and VE uses sections in their reports.

Before starting to implement solution some feedback would be good.

[zcsahok]

Good question. In addition to multiplier handling there was also a complaint that mult screen is empty. So changing the logic would just fix the actual mult counting. Renaming the config would interfere with existing logcfg/rules (assuming this option is used).

I would simply update the documentation and focus on getting it covered by the plugin approach (i.e. adding generic mult handling). But this is just my 2 cents.

[zcsahok]

As DX_&_SECTION came up for Portugal Day contest in #346 I made a quick check of contest rules.

Contest	Multipliers	Section/DXCC clash
--legacy--
ARRL DX	W/VE sections or DXCCs	yes, solved by internally hardcoded logic
--exclusive--
Coupe du REF	F depts + non-F DXCCs	yes
HADX	HA counties + non-HA DXCCs	yes
--inclusive--
EUDX	EU regions + DXCCs	n/a
Portugal Day	5*(CT districts) + DXCCs	n/a

Contests with exclusive multipliers can be modeled with the single multiplier support of TLF. If there is a clash between sections and DXCCs, then sections can be prefixed to make them unqiue. This is done for example in case of HADX: all counties get a HA/ prefix to avoid the clash between HA county HB and Switzerland.

Inclusive contests -- provided that they follow the N*(own mults)+DXCCs logic -- can be relatively easiely supported by adding worked DXCCs to the total number of multipliers in get_nr_of_mults().
Log line could accomodate the extra multiplier info like this (for EUDX):

5    6         7         8
56789012345678901234567890
exchange      mult    pp
AT01     OE.. AT01    10
AT02     .... AT02    10
1234     PY.. ....     5

(dots just show field width)

One way of configuring it could be

MULT_DXCC
MULT_WEIGHT=5

Even if we have rules for it, the ARRL 10m contest is not fully supported. It has simular rules to ARRL DX, but multpliers are counter per mode (CW/SSB). In addition to this, "local" countries also include Mexico. So DX_&_SECTION won't work here.

Update: there is a clash in Coup du REF due to dept 2A.