2.5 KiB
Domain, callsigns and bands
Chat-member identity
Full callsign variants can be distinct chat identities.
Examples:
DN9APW
DN9APW-2
DN9APW-70
Do not globally strip suffixes when identifying chat members.
Category is also part of identity. A practical key is conceptually equivalent to:
FULL_CALLSIGN|CATEGORY
Do not allow messages from one category to attach to a same-looking member in another category.
Base-call operations
Some features intentionally operate on the base callsign.
Confirmed examples:
Worked state
Worked status is shared across suffix variants of the same base call.
If the base station has been worked on the relevant basis, variants such as CALL-2, CALL-70, CALL-144, CALL-432 should not become independent worked identities merely because of the suffix.
Monitoring
Monitoring a station entered as DN9APW-2 or DN9APW-70 should monitor the base call DN9APW.
This is intentional: a user monitoring another station's skeds should not have to create one monitor entry per SSID.
Do not extend base-call matching to unrelated features without approval.
Suffix semantics
Do not assume a suffix always means a band or category.
Historical examples have shown the same base calls with different suffix conventions in different chat categories.
Therefore:
- preserve exact full-call identity where needed;
- normalize only for explicitly approved base-call features;
- never infer missing band/category semantics from the suffix alone.
Categories
KST4Contest's central VHF/UHF usage focuses on ON4KST categories 2 and 3.
However, other categories can occur.
Rules:
- unsupported/uninteresting categories must be ignored or handled safely;
- they must not produce index, switch or null errors;
- do not let their values contaminate category-2/category-3 band logic.
Band availability
Band activity can be derived from several signals including name/text parsing and explicit/manual information.
Confirmed invariant:
NOT-QRV overrides positive availability indications.
Known-active-band and B+ handling should use one consistent interpretation across the program.
Do not implement separate slightly different parsers in multiple UI/features if a shared existing mechanism is available.
Current QRG
Features that depend on propagation/band/frequency should use the current relevant QRG or the approved band calculation.
Never silently reintroduce a universal hardcoded 144 MHz fallback.
When a frequency is ambiguous and no approved fallback exists, ask rather than guessing.