I realize it's beta, but I ran with CT946Win in the ARRL Phone DX and got
by, but I shouldn't have done it. I should have run DOS. I am not
complaining...I was just planning to dabble in the contest and thought this
would be a good test, but the great propagation, the best I have ever seen
bit, me and I ran up 900+ Q's and about a dozen reboots.
I have a trusty old ICOM 781, and with CT for DOS I have zero communication
problems between the radio and the computer, its worked perfectly for years.
But with CTWin, on a much newer and faster computer, I had regular 'radio
not responding' or was it 'radio not echoing'. These messages are so brief
or I was so busy I don't recall the exact wording. I do know that the
computer is capable of working well with my 781 as my regular logging
program, DXBase2K for Win98 has no communications problems with my radio.
Actually it did not work well with the software originally delivered with
DXBase2K, however that program has a user accessible file which the user can
adjust delay times and other commands specifically for each supported radio.
I had to lengthen certain 'waits' to permit the radio to complete its
commands before hitting it with another. As a result DXBase2K now controls
my radio just fine, but a little slowly, whereas CTWin controls it much
faster, but sometimes fails. Often using the packet window point and shoot
I had to shoot two times to get the frequency to 'take.' I have the
impression that CTWin is 'overrunning' my 781, sending commands too quickly,
before the radio can complete the previous command.
Often the CTWin program would freeze. It appeared to me that this freeze
was closely connected to a radio command. The only way out was
ALT-CTRL-DEL. The good news is that no Q's were ever lost as a result. By
the way I ran the radio link at 1200/8/N/1, the same as I use in DXB2K and
have always used with CT for DOS.
There are quite a few advantages of running CTWin, if the freeze problems
can be corrected. I was able to run DXTelnet in another window and use it
to feed spots to CTWin using a null modem cable, i.e. a port to port cable.
By switching to the DXTelnet window I could get a much larger packet screen
when needed. It was also very easy to quickly switch to other internet
clusters. If CTWin will have a built in telnet client in the future the
need for DXTelnet or a similar program could be eliminated. When the XF4
was spotted I was able to open my regular log program in a separate window
to see if I needed them on CW. I didn't.
As it currently stands I will need to maintain a separate DOS 6.22 machine
to run CT reliably plus a second computer (Win98) to provide internet spots.
I don't know if the problem is with CTWin or with Win98. It could be both,
but I do know that other Win98/95 machines running entirely unrelated
software experience freezes/crashes. Perhaps Win98 is simply not ready for
'prime time.'
Anyone else use CTWin in the contest? Successfully?
Ron N5IN
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