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FOC Marathon scoring & analysis Developed for FOC by |
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Welcome to Marabella IV Marabella is a Windows-based helper application designed to assist with scoring and fixing errors in FOC Marathon logs. It takes an export file (Cabrillo or ADIF) from your logging program and converts it into a fully scored set of HTML files that you can view using your usual browser. In 2025 almost seven in 10 Marathon participants used Marabella. Marabella 2026 Marabella will, once again, support the Marathon in 2026. Please review the latest update information! What Marabella IV does
Download Marabella If you know what you like and just want to download Marabella and get straight on with scoring your Marathon log then click on the big M! Want to know more? Read on. About Marabella The Marabella project was conceived in 2002, when G3WGV had a particularly successful Marathon and became frustrated with the time it took to check and submit his entry. Marabella was first made available to FOC members in time for the 2003 Marathon, so 2026 marks the program's 23rd anniversary. The original Marabella only worked with one type of Cabrillo file and had a very basic user interface but it became quite popular with members and so in 2006 I launched Marabella II with much better Cabrillo file support and the ability to process ADIF files. Remarkably, Marabella II kept going for ten years but the many changes in computer hardware, operating systems, etc. meant that an update had become essential. Marabella III was created in 2015 on an up-to-date development platform and gave six Marthon events-worth of useful life. By 2021, changes in the way logs are submitted to the FOC adjudicator meant that the built in submission facility was no longer needed and the Marabella output format was no longer acceptable to the adjudicator. Changes in Microsoft Excel made it necessary to move to an HTML-based solution and so Marabella IV was born. Marabella IV was updated for 2023 to reflect rule changes implemented by the Committee and again for the 2024 event to support Cabrillo V3 and improve file processing. Minor improvements were made for 2025 but (so far) no changes are needed for the 2026 event.
Marabella produces local web pages for cover sheet, tick sheet, logbook and warnings/errors, which can be viewed directly using your browser. Click on the thumnail for a larger image.
What you need to be able to use Marabella IV Marabella is a Windows 32-bit application, which should run on all versions of Windows from XP upwards. Your logging program must be able to create one of the following text formats:
Your logging program Cabrillo/ADIF file must include the FOC number for each member worked. The Marathon rules state that "the number determines the point" so that is how Marabella works. Running windows on other hardware/operating systems I am unable to support Marabella running on operating systems other than Windows. I have various reports of Marabella working to at least some extent on the Apple Mac under Parallels and on Linux. It seems that the update facility doesn't work reliably on the Mac, so it will be necessary to manually update using files and/or do a complete reinstall. The files are available on the downloads page. Availability Marabella IV is available free of charge to all FOC Members. Please do not copy the software to other sites - provide a link to this page instead. Always get updates from this official site. You may give Marabella IV to any other FOC Member but please do not circulate it outside of the club. Please only distribute the full installation package, complete and unaltered. Contacting G3WGVIf you need further information on Marabella or are having difficulties with the program then please contact me directly by e-mail. Please do not post problems with your use of Marabella on the FOC reflector. Acknowledgements Many thanks to Ken CT7AGZ/G4RWD and Pista VE3USP for their involvement as beta testers for the original Marabella IV release. Marabella IV is a better program as a result of their hard work. Thanks also to former FOC member Michael, G7VJR for the excellent Club Log Entities database which is used to help with scoring. What members have said about Marabella over the years One tends to hear more from users that are for whatever reason having problems than one ever does from the many people that just run the program and get good results. So it's always nice to get some positive feedback! "G3WGV's Marabella is superb, the club is very lucky to have someone with his skills working for the club." Ian, G3WVG "Thanks to John G3WGV for Marabella, which is a fantastic tool to use post-contest to allow accurate and uniform reporting of results." Dave, N3RD "One comment from a fresh FOC-member but pretty experienced contester: I find your tool very, very helpful. Not only does it provide a very user friendly interface and a nice contest summary output, but in addition the log-analyzing feature is extremely helpful." Andy, DL3YM "Marabella is a marvelous piece of work and I would like to thank you for providing it for us. It wasn't too many years ago that I spent hours filling in the tick sheets after the Marathon and was never totally confident of my score computation. Every time I counted the little blackened boxes I seemed to come up with a different count. This year, I was completely done with all of the paperwork 20 minutes after the Marathon ended." Bruce, N6NT "Marabella is very good, your work on it is commendable: To provide to members such an easy-to-use way of scoring and seeing the relevant details of one's log with just a few clicks is Ham Spirit!" Hans, OH2EA "I had never looked at this program before (Marabella) just sent in my log and prayed Hi Hi. What a nice piece of programming - and for me was easy install and run. The stuff some of you programmers turn out has to be a labor of love! Thanks for a great program." Hank, K7HP "Thanks for developing such a great program!" Phil, G3SWH "I am a long time user of Marabella and a huge fan of it. I sincerely appreciate G3WGV's contribution to Marathon logging. I believe I have used John's work since 2008." Vic, W9RGB "I managed to get Marabella set up properly, for my log ADIF now and its working super. What an awesome piece of software. I shall certainly be using this from now on." Pete, G0PNM "It worked right away and had no problem at all, very easy program to use, have used it several times in the past, and will also use it next year, if you still support it! Thanks a lot for supplying it to all of us in the club." Carsten, OY1CT "On Monday I manually did the working out of my score. A long and tedious process as you are so well aware. Then I took a closer look at the cover sheet and read the information on the Marabella programme, downloaded it, made an ADIF file of my marathon log, and 'bingo', all done in a couple of minutes flat, and also came up with the same score as my manual effort. I encountered no problems at all, and I can only thank you kindly for an absolutely amazing utility. I would certainly be happy to recommend it to other members. You have my total, utmost and unbounded appreciation. Go well. Keep up the good work." Joe, 7Q7BP "Just a quick email to say a huge thank you for all the work you put into making our lives so much easier with Marabella etc. It is all "magic" to me, I have enough trouble using software let alone trying to write any. I had to do some Pascal at Uni but it taught me that I wouldn't ever make a programmer." Tony, G3ZRJ "A big thank you for your support with Marabella! It works great." Karsten, DL8LBK |
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Copyright © 2026, John R Linford, G3WGV. Page updated 2026-02-05 |
