I definitely agree with Doug. Even though I'm not adept at it, I've found
that SO2R with NA is much slicker than with CT; especially with the K8CC 2
Radio Switch Box.
I'll also echo Doug's comments on the use of a wild card with check partial.
It would be very beneficial to be able to insert a wildcard (? or *) and
have super check partial go to work. It's especially needed when the missing
character in in the middle of the call. Also, when spacebar-ing back to the
call sign field, have the cursor return to the missing character and be able
to insert rather than needing to backspace/delete.
Unless something has changed in v10.44 (I used v10.43 during ARRL 10 meter),
I seem to remember getting a flashing red notice across the bottom of the
screen whenever I worked a new mult. Of course, I nearly always had the
"check mult" window active, so I didn't notice if I didn't get it if the
window was closed.
I was a SSB only entrant and my *.brk file was also not generated correctly.
It showed breakdown by PH and FSK (??). No big deal as the totals seem to
be OK.
I've been using NA v10.42 or v10.43 exclusively this season and have not had
a crash or other significant problem. CQWWPH: 1500+ QSOs, SSPH: 1100 Qs &
10meterPH: 1300+, all low power.
Using a 586/133 machine with WIN98 installed but booting to "previous
version of DOS" v6.22. Also have SMARTDRV and RAMDRIVE called at boot-up.
73 James / k1sd / Rhode Island / k1sd@arrl.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Brandon [mailto:dab@home.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 1999 3:32 AM
To: na-user@contesting.com
Subject: [na-user] NA observations
Here are some NA comments and suggestions I came up with after operating in
the ARRL 10m contest. I used version 10.44 beta. A lot of my comments
come from being a long time CT user who until now only used NA for sprints
and NAQP. Some of my "wishes" may already be implemented, so please
enlighten me if this is the case. Also, some of my problems may be related
to using a beta copy.
I finally used NA in true SO2R one computer mode, and I have seen the
light! I feel like a dummy for ever having used a two computer
network. NA makes SO2R so easy, I could almost do it in my sleep. I think
it will definitely help my scores from now on. Until now I had convinced
myself that there must be a lot of weird complicated SO2R commands, so I
avoided looking into it. I was very wrong!
** snip **
I wish check partial recognized ? as a wildcard character like CT does. If
I catch the first part and last part of a call, but miss something in the
middle, check partial is pretty useless. In CT, I can enter "JA2?NN" and
it shows me JA2BNN while NA shows nothing. Same thing if you only catch
the end of a call like 7X. If I could enter ?7X, it would give me some
possibilities to listen for next time, especially if the guy is weak. This
is VERY powerful!
In regards to ? in the callsign field, if I space to the exchange field,
and then space back to the callsign field to fill in the call, when the
cursor is over any ? character, it should overwrite the ? instead of
inserting a new character. Currently, it takes extra keystrokes to delete
or backspace away the ?'s.
** snip **
NA only tells me when a QSO is a new mult if I have the check mult window
open. It would be nice if it always checked the mult status for new QSOs
and showed a message if it was a new mult. This was most apparent when I
had the bandmap open (which covers the check mult window) before sunrise
while doing S&P.
I was a CW only entrant, and the QSO breakdown by continent in the .BRK
file was not generated correctly.
I sure hope it doesn't sound like I'm bashing NA, I'm just offering some
suggestions to make a great program even better. I'm officially throwing
away all of my other contest logging programs!
73 de Doug, N6RT
/*-------------------------------------------------------------------*/
Doug Brandon http://members.home.com/dab dab@home.com
--
Submissions: na-user@contesting.com
Administrative requests: na-user-REQUEST@contesting.com
WWW: http://www.contesting.com/datom/
Questions: owner-na-user@contesting.com
--
Submissions: na-user@contesting.com
Administrative requests: na-user-REQUEST@contesting.com
WWW: http://www.contesting.com/datom/
Questions: owner-na-user@contesting.com
|