Hi all,
A PUBLIC thank-you to Don, AA5AU, my RTTY Guru, for taking the time to give
me a very complete answer to my "Friend.ini" question!
Personally, I'm not going for a top score....just having fun using my
favorite radio (Ten-Tec Omni VII) and a favorite modes (CW/RTTY) going as
fast as I can (without being frenetic) for only the joy of it. The closest
analogy I can think of for my situation is a dog with his head out of a
fast-moving car window, with that enthusisatic look on his face, not really
caring where the car is headed or if the car is going 45 or 65...he's just
happy!
I've worked Gary AL9A several times in contests and know I've seen his name
many times with his call sign on the Reflector, but at that very moment, it
doesn't come to mind. Friend.ini will fix that!!!
So thanks, Don, and everyone on the Writelog Reflector - let's all have a
happy, prosperous, and healthy 2010!!!!
73,
Ray N6HE
Message: 5
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 11:52:25 -0800 (PST)
From: DONALD A HILL <aa5au@bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: [WriteLog] Friend.ini
I believe the friend.ini file on the AF4Z is the most complete file
available publicly. According to the his website, it was updated this month.
The friend.ini file is basically a text file. You can create your file or
add to Don's file. Just open the file with a text edit and add:
callsign=name
If you create your own file (it must be named friend.ini), the only
stipulation I am aware of is that you must put [HI] as the first line in
the file like this:
[HI]
2E0MLR=NICK
2E0TEC=CARL
3DA0CA=JON
etc. etc. etc.
A few years ago there were some RTTY contesters sho believed the friend.ini
file was a waste of their time in that they didn't want to see their name
in your exchange because it made the exchange longer and they were more
interested in getting to the next contact. Although I do not use the
friend.ini feature of WriteLog because my SO2R RTTY operation has been
streamlined for the smallest possible buffers to get the message across and
not have to make stations wait for their report on the other radio, I am in
favor its use by others if they wish.
Sometimes when S&P I'll call a station and not see my callsign when they
come back with a report. But when I see my name in the report I know the
report is for me and I don't have to ask for a repeat. Although this
doesn't happen a lot, it does happen enough to know that by seeing my name,
there is little question the report is for me and that saves me time.
Have fun with friend.ini. It's a great way to remember names
too! Something else you can do is to use the friend.ini file outside of
contests. Since I use WL for my everyday RTTY operation, I hate it when I
see a call of a station I have worked hundreds of times in contests but
can't remember their name. It's embarrassing! So instead of having to
look the name up on QRZ.COM, I use the friend file in a buffer.
73, Don AA5AU
--- On Fri, 1/8/10, Ray Day <rayday@cox.net> wrote:
> From: Ray Day <rayday@cox.net>
> Subject: [WriteLog] Friend.ini
> To: writelog@contesting.com
> Date: Friday, January 8, 2010, 12:38 PM
> Hi all,
>
> I'm loving Writelog and am doing more contesting now...
>
> I have a "friend.ini" file loaded, and it works fine with
> Writelog. It's
> from the AF4Z site. Very cool.
>
> So here are my "newbie-to-friend.ini" questions for the
> group:
> Is there a more complete one available?
> What are you using?
> Do you add names manually?
> Is there possibly (Oh, be still, my heart...) someone who's
> devised a way
> to "mine" contest logs like NAQP that have names in the
> exchange to add
> them to the friend.ini file??
>
> Thanks in advance ofr any help,
> 73,
> Ray N6HE
>
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