1. Use verbose element and attribute names.

Suggested name changes:

Old Name	New Name	Comment
contest	contest
call	call
ops	ops	Although "ops" is an abbreviation for "operators," ops is a well understood ham radio term.
stn	station
class	class
pwr	power
qth	qth
grid4	grid4	4-character grid square
grid6	grid6	6-character grid square
arrlsec	arrlsection
cqzone	cqzone
iaruzone	iaruzone
callarea	callarea
cntry	country
stprvoth	n/a	See suggested change no. 8 below
cnty	county
brkdn	breakdown
qso	qso
bnd	band
mde	mode
mlt	mult
typ	type
score	score
timestamp	timestamp

As suggested by comments 1 and 8.

2. Add web link element.

Add zero or once element to contain URL of a web link associated with the submitter

<!-- URL of a web link associated with the entrant -->
<!ELEMENT url     (#PCDATA)>

As suggested by comments 4.

3. Add comments element.

Add zero or once element to contain free text comments by the submitter

<!-- Free text comments -->
<!ELEMENT comments     (#PCDATA)>

As suggested by comments 3 and 10.

4. Add operating time element.

Add zero or once element to contain cumulative operating time during the contest up to the point in time of the results submittal in hh:mi:ss form (e.g. 01:12:00 = 1 hour and 12 minutes of cumulative operating time).

<!-- Cumulative operating time (hh:mi:ss format) -->
<!ELEMENT optime     (#PCDATA)>

As suggested by comment 2.

5. Add VHF and above band designations.

Add additional wavelength/frequency designations to allow specification of all possible ham bands. Question is whether to specify bands in terms of wavelength, frequency or combination of the two. Possible approaches are:

• Use wavelength designators for 160m through 2m, frequency (MHz) through 903 MHz, and frequency (GHz) above 1 GHz
  Designations would be: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, 2, 222, 432, 903, 1.2, 2.3, etc.
• Use frequency designators for all bands, in units of MHz below 1000 MHz and in units of GHz above 1 GHZ
  Designations would be: 1.8, 3.5, 7, 14, 21, 28, 50, 144, 222, 432, 903, 1.2, 2.3, etc.

As suggested by comment 13.

6. Add e-mail address element.

Add zero or once element to contain e-mail address of submitter

<!-- E-mail address of submitter -->
<!ELEMENT email     (#PCDATA)>

7. Add continent to list of QTH elements.

Add zero or once element to contain continent descriptor for location of submitter's contest operation

<!-- Continent within which contest operation occurred -->
<!ELEMENT continent     (#PCDATA)>

8. Change geographic designation hierarchy to provide broader generalization.

Eliminate stprvoth (state/province/other) and cnty (county/parish/department) elements from list of QTH elements. Add two new zero or once elements: countrysubdivision and countrysubsubdivision

<!-- First level geographical subdivision of a country -->
<!ELEMENT countrysubdivision     (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST countrysubdivision type (state|province|territory)     #REQUIRED>

<!-- Geographical subdivision of the first level subdivision of a country -->
<!ELEMENT countrysubsubdivision     (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST countrysubsubdivision type (county|parish|department)     #REQUIRED>

9. Change QSO/multiplier subtotals to be band-centric.

Organize QSO and multiplier subtotals so that they are grouped by band. Examples are:

Contest with no QSO or multiplier types:
<breakdown>
  <band id="tot">
    <qso>123</qso>
    <mult>23</mult>
  </band>
  <band id="160">
    <qso>5</qso>
    <mult>3</mult>
  </band>
</breakdown>

Contest with QSO types, but no multiplier types:
<breakdown>
  <band id="tot">
    <qso mode="CW">61</qso>
    <qso mode="PH">62</qso>
    <mult>23</mult>
  </band>
  <band id="160">
    <qso mode="CW">4</qso>
    <qso mode="PH">1</qso>
    <mult>3</mult>
  </band>
</breakdown>

Contest with both QSO and multiplier types:
<breakdown>
  <band id="tot">
    <qso mode="CW">61</qso>
    <qso mode="PH">62</qso>
    <mult mode="CW">17</mult>
    <mult mode="PH">6</mult>
  </band>
  <band id="160">
    <qso mode="CW">4</qso>
    <qso mode="PH">1</qso>
    <mult mode="CW">2</mult>
    <mult mode="PH">1</mult>
  </band>
</breakdown>

As suggested by comment 7.

The following comments require more discussion:

1. Comment 5 - security function/authentication
2. Comment 6 - compatibility with RSS feed
3. Comment 9 - predefining tags vs. standard tags with contest-specific extensible tags (although this seems to be addressed more to using XML for log submission, which is out of scope for this discussion)
4. Comment 11 - use Cabrillo names of contests
5. Comment 12 - use Cabrillo class/category designations
6. Comment 14 - add distance and azimuth indications (need to understand how this is relevant to realtime results reporting)