The file APRLMAIL.ZIP has been upladed to the special requests area of TML
if anyone is interested.
It is spreadsheet done in Excel 3

Quite a few people lost a small amount of mail in the drought.

By way of explanation....

The date used for entries, is the date the message was posted

The headings S H B  stand for Sydney (711/934), Hobart (670/213) and Brisbane
(640/305)

Mail was picked up from all three places for the duration of April.

The messages were picked up from each location using three seperate mailers.

The messages were tossed into three seperate  message bases.

Where there was a discrepancy I have gone back (if possible) and checked the
figures again.

No guarantees in relation to infalliability are claimed.

To make sense of some of the figures you need to take into consideration
the location the poster puts his messages into the system.

The spreadsheet is in colour to make identification of the pickup point easier
Sydey is Blue Hobart is red and Brisbane is Purple.
Mono monitor readers could experience some difficulty

The sheet is in Split mode to allow the Row and column headings to remain
stationary as the sheet is scrolled.

The totals at the bottom of each column will give an instant indication of
mail discrepancies between locations.  A check upwards on that day will
show the particular person whose mail has a discrepancy.

The totals at end of the month for each poster are simply a total of all
three pickups divided by three.  A total figure with a decimal component
will indicate that you have lost mail (maybe)

One exception to the above (and there may be others) is Rod Speed who on
occasion has more messages arrive in Brisabane than left Sydney. This is
caused by a system north of Sydney splitting some of his lengthier message
into two or three parts.

In relation to some differences I have noted the explanation below the column totals

A more detailed and informative arangement could have been designed but
time of setting up was a priority.  (and I have other things to do now)

============================_


For those who wish to delve a bit deeper into the mysterys, the sheet needs
to be loaded into Excel  so that the figures under each entry can be seen.
You will then discover the following...

Messages from 711/934 posters  (RS and BL particularly) will usually have a
single or double entry under the S heading for that day. eg. 14 (7+7)
Checking the H and B entries for the same day will show that even though
the messages received at those places were the same as what left sydney,
their arrival at both Hobart and brisbane was not in the same order. Some
system in the path to both Hobart and Brisbane was splitting up Bob ands
Rod messages and interspersing them with others (from anywhere), thus the
entry may be made up of a lot of smaller numbers. e.g 14  (4+3+2+4+1)

Messages from any other point in Australia that were passed INTO 711/934
could suffer the same fate.  eg  a SA poster of 10 messages on a given day,
would have their messages arrive in Brisbane and Hobart in the same block
of 10 in the same order. But on TML  could have them interspersed with
messages from any other person (regardless of their location)

By following the paths, the only system that could achieve this unique
shuffling of messages (it was occurring in both directions) is 711/809.
This is the same system that hung up and caused the temporary drought.
The possibility that there are two systems who shuffle and mix the messages
in exactly the same order is too remote to consider.
The same messages that passed through 808 in either direction north and
south did NOT get shuffled.
The shuffler IS 809 !   No doubt about it!

For interests sake..
I would be pleased if any sysop who is familiar with mail tossing, and has
had more experience than I in the matter, could explain how this would
occur.
For a simple pass through system I can NOT see ANY way that the shuffling
could occur, but then I am only familiar with two tossing applications.

I also understand that Dave Hatch handles a LOT of mail and may have some
special arrangement on mail passing between his two systems that could also
cause this shuffling to occur. If you are reading this Dave, I would be
interested to know the solution to this mental puzzle I have stumbled
across {fx} Hopes Dave Hatch does a Michael Butler and has his name
searcher on :-)

This shuffling may disappear if Pauls feed from 809 is changed to 808 as
has been indicated.

So far during May no great number messages have been lost.  I have not
double checked the odd case of a one message discrepancy due to lack of
time.
This lack of time has been due to the arrival of a beautifully
proportioned, extremely attractive, redheaded lady, (21 years of age) into
my life, which I am sure you will all agree is of greater importance than
message counting.
Whether I will be able to continue the checking for the duration of May as
I had intended, is now in some doubt.

Cheers
Niels Petersen

--- FMail/386 0.98