A while back I posted a suggestion for mapping the arrow keys when running
SO2R. I tried it in ARRL DX CW this weekend, and thought it worked very
well.
I map the keys as follows:
"-" --> INSERT (labelled WORK)
"=" --> + (labelled LOG)
"[" --> SHIFT-DOWN (labelled KBD)
"]" --> CTRL-UP (labelled XMIT)
"\" --> CTRL-UP + SHIFT-UP (labelled RADIO)
"~" --> macro to split audio (labelled STEREO/MONO)
"`" --> macro to unsplit audio (labelled STEREO/MONO)
The WORK and LOG keys are moved to be more conveniently located on most
keyboards, especially those that lack a numeric keypad (like my special
small contest keyboard.)
The KBD key splits the focus by moving the keyboard focus to the other
radio. This is the key to hit when you want to dupe a call on the S&P radio.
Hitting the key again reunites the focus on the run radio for entering a
call in response to your CQ.
The XMIT key moves the transmit focus. This is useful when the focus is
split and the person you called on the second radio needs a fill that can't
be made with a function key.
The RADIO key moves both the keyboard and trasmit focus. I use this one to
switch radios without driving the annoying "feature" that the up-arrow puts
you in the edit window (which I *never* want it to do!) This works well, but
you have to be careful not to use it when the focus is split -- the result
isn't very useful unless you are switching the roles of the run and S&P
radio.
The WORK, LOG, KBD, XMIT and RADIO keys are all clustered close together, so
the fingers don't have to move far to hit any one of them. The only downside
to that is I tend to hit the LOG button fairly often when I mean to hit the
WORK button. It's relatively harmless (WL sends "TU"), but have think about
a way to avoid that.
The STEREO/MONO key is sort of a toggle. You have to press SHIFT to split
the audio, but can return to mono with just a quick press of the key. This
feature is essential for good two-radio operation. When I'm S&Ping on the
second radio, and someone calls me on the run radio, I often want to focus
my full attention on the run radio, especially when the bands are noisy. I'm
learning to switch to mono mode less in order to improve my ability to do
two things at once.
I use a freeware keyboard mapper that seems to be defunct now. I'm sure any
decent mapper with macro capability will do. I've generally felt that WL
doesn't have to have this feature since there are freeware remappers
available, but when mine disappeared from the web I decided that it might be
better to have this feature built-in. With or without the feature, Writelog
should offer a toggle key for Stereo/Mono -- CTRL-S would be fine (then I
could map it to "`".)
Note that the above suggestions make sense when using WL's advanced
two-radio features, including Auto Resume. One of these days I'll write up
how I use these features for rapid two-radio switching. For those who are
familiar with the features, note that I prefix the CQ message with a %X in
order to be able to restart a CQ when the focus is split.
73, Dick WC1M
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