All:
Thanks for K8MP, AC8E and K8MR for their suggestions on fixing the
recently released revised OHQSO.MLT file for OhQP this weekend. You
guys are all awarded the "Tom Swift Junior Scientist" award for deducing
the problem and figuring out solutions. I apologize for foisting a
defective file on the NA faithful. I did test the changes but I don't
know why it didn't crash during that testing.
I will say up front that both the AC8E and K8MP solutions will work.
But I have a tweak which you might prefer.
Here are the final two lines of the defective OHQSO.MLT:
Labrador: LB: VE:
CZ0,CZ2,CZ4,CZ6,CZ8,VO0,VO2,VO4,VO6,VO8,XO0,XO2,XO4,XO6,XO8;
DX Station: DX;
The text up to the first colon is a label name for that multiplier.
This is primarily for human readability of the file, although NA does
use it when trying to search multiplier names under the Alt-L function.
The text after the first colon and up to the second colon (with blanks
removed) is the NA "official" multiplier abbreviation. The text after
the second colon and up to the third colon (with blanks removed) is used
by NA to help format the on-screen multiplier lists (Alt-W, Alt-L and
Alt-M). If you examine the earlier parts of the file, you'll notice
that the Ohio counties have "CTY" in this field, the non-Ohio states
have "STA", and Canadian provinces have "VE". The actual text in this
field is unimportant, but when NA is drawing an on-screen multiplier
list, when this field changes (from "CTY" to "STA" for example) a new
column is started on the on-screen display.
The defective file caused NA to crash when it was looking for a third
colon on the "DX" line, but found none. K8MP's solution to change the
"DX" line in the file to:
DX Station: DX: : ;
fixes the problem because it provides a third colon for NA to find.
However, it creates a minor cosmetic problem in the Alt-M (Multiplier
List) display. Because the value in this field changes from Labrador's
"VE" to DX"s "", NA tries to start a new column in the Alt-M display.
But there isn't enough room, so the mult status for "DX" is invisable
off the right edge of the screen. But there is a simple fix - change
Joe's suggestion to:
DX Station: DX: VE: ;
OK, so a DX station is not a VE, but this tricks NA into putting "DX"
right after "LB" on the multiplier list, so the operator can see the
status of his "DX" mult on both modes on the screen.
By now, the sharp-eyed reader is wondering "But Dave, what is all the
rest of the stuff on the Labrador line after the third colon up to the
final semi-colon?" (i.e, CZ0,CZ2,CZ4,CZ6,CZ8,VO0,VO2...etc.). These are
the list of prefixes which NA will match to stuff a default location
into a new QSO line. So for example, if you enter "VO2AA" in the
callsign field of a new QSO and move to the next field, NA will stuff
"LB" into the location field. AC8E and K8MR suggested putting a list of
single letters in this area of the line, as was done in the PAQSO.MLT
file. While this doesn't cause any problems, it doesn't provide any
benefit either because these are assumed to be complete prefixes, which
will end with a numeral digit. So having "G" in this area will not
cause "DX" to be defaulted when you work G3MXJ; you would have to put
"G3" in the list. So the AC8E/K8MR solution should work OK, but I still
would suggest adding "VE" to the third text field on the line.
I've sent a corrected OHQSO.MLT file to webmaster Tom, WB8VMN to post on
the web site in place of the defective file. Once he alerts me it is
posted, I'll send out another note to the appropriate reflectors. Users
can either download this new file, or with the details in this e-mail,
just fix it themselves. Just make sure to use a simple ASCII editor
like Windows NotePad or DOS' EDIT.EXE to fix the file. A regular word
processor may make a jumbled mess of everything.
Sorry for the long e-mail, but I thought discerning readers might want
to understand what was going on.
Good luck in OhQP this weekend.
73,
Dave/K8CC
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