Yup.
That's me. Typical lid CT user. Naturally, I waited until about an hour
prior to the Sprint to learn how to use the new version of TR that I
purchased in Dayton - virus free - by the way.
Anyway, I figure I'll run the simulator and get the hang of it again, after
all I've used it before and actually purchased version 4 before it went
free and used it back then. So I've used it from time to time and
anticipated some fun playing with the simulator, then a successful outing
in the Sprint. I should have known better. Last year, I wiped out my
entire log within 2 minutes of the contest ending by doing something with
the Post program that I shouldn't have but I don't know what it was that I
did since I'm so CT prone.
Anyway, back to the simulator idea. I try to run it and all looks good and
I call CQ and then my hard drive goes nuts forever and the PC is hung -
time for a 3 finger salute (Ctrl-Alt-Del). I do this several times
figuring that I answered the questions wrong to create the logcfg.dat file.
Nope. Still spins the hard drive constantly and doesn't stop.
Oh well. So I give up on the simulator and the program appears to work
well. The Sprint starts, and I realize that since I bought an old 30L1 a
few months back, I haven't operated on 20cw using computer keying since
whenever I hit a function key, it keys up constantly. Oh boy - another
rough start to the Sprint. So I end up running low power on 20m and have
a terrible time getting used to the way TR works.
I forgot to mention that I was reading the manual while my hard drive was
off in never-never land and saw that setting up a config file allows you to
set parameters up that get read in from the logcfg.dat file. Looks cool!
So I put in a few commands that look great but it turns out they negate the
built-in Sprint support functions - like why did I have the band map turned
on in the Sprint ? Duh?! It's because I'm used to seeing it on CT.
Nevermind that the bandmap is totally useless in the Sprint anyway, but
this is even pointed out in the manual - of course I didn't read that part
- I was doing the 3 finger salute during that part.
So anyway, it's now near the end of the first hour, I have about 30 qsos,
every one I'm working has 90 or more and I'm getting ticked. Suddenly, my
temporarily forgotten XYL sends my also temporarily forgotten daughter (who
is less of a lid than I am and does not know the entire code yet) to tell
me that dinner is ready. I'm at my wits' end here and she's calling me for
dinner ? Doesn't she know I'm up here doing something that I enjoy ?
No. She doesn't. During my enthusiasm for getting everything set up well
in advance of the Sprint, I neglected to tell her that I had planned on
ignoring the family for the evening. Since I was doing so well, I figured
I could afford to go and have a bite and then return.
So I come back and figure out what's wrong, get things working and I begin
to have real fun. No kidding. TR worked great! I was getting into the
rhythm and even worked K7RAT (I think he uses TR too!). I'm on 40 and
running my amp full bore at about 600 watts out and life is good. I go to
80 later and actually work stations coast to coast. Cool! Then a few
minutes before the end, the amp's 35 year old filter caps decided to vent
- but that story is for another reflector.
I end up with 176x38. Not bad with no real antennas and all the trouble I
had.
Questions: How do I get the simulator to work, and how do I get set up for
the automatic updates to the latest version of TR via Internet ?
73,
Bob N5NJ
Robert E. Naumann
N5NJ@worldnet.att.net
ex KR2J, W6V
Plano, TX USA
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