NA Users:
Tim, K9TM called me tonite to report that there are some significant bugs
in the "Restart CQ After Alternate Sending" when used for SO2R on
phone. NA 10.53 added some hardware to the SO2R interface to let NA detect
when the voicekeyer was finished. While this appears to work for contests
where you work the station on the alternate radio by simply sending the
exchange (i.e., pressing F2) it does not work for SS where you need to do
some manual sending (your number, and perhaps his call) before pressing
F2. Under these conditions NA gets into a condition where it thinks you're
on the alternate radio but you're really on the main radio.
This problem does not appear if "Restart CQ After Alternate Sending" is
turned OFF.
Another problem found by K9TM concerns the repeat time for CQing. In NA
versions before 10.53, the program could not detect when the voicekeyer was
done sending, so NA assumed the CQ was some fixed duration (I think it was
four seconds) and started timing from when the CQ started. For example, if
you set the CQ repeat interval to three seconds, NA actually timed seven
seconds from the start of the CQ. In version 10.53, something about the
delay calculation is hosed - K9TM timed the CQ repeat interval at seven
seconds with the delay set at one second.
It should be noted that none of these problems apply to CW.
It is recommended that NA users running SS SSB this weekend planning to use
CQ repeat should revert back to NA version 10.52 for operating during the
contest. This version is available for download on the DATOM web site
download page http://www.datomonline.com.
We apologize for the late discovery of this bug. We'll be sure to have a
new version with the problem corrected before the next phone contest (ARRL
10M).
73,
Dave Pruett, K8CC
DATOM Engineering
datom@contesting.com
http://www.datomonline.com
|