I can confirm that this does happen. But it happens for a reason.
If you have the AFC box checked and a station calls you, the AFC will
center itself on that signal. When you click on that callsign, the box
becomes unchecked. If you look at the WriteLog RTTY Receiver
screen you will see that the lines are frozen where it copied that station
and stays frozen until you either log the station or clear the entry window.
At that point the check is back in the AFC box and ready to "capture"
the next signal.
It seems to me that it should work this way. If the AFC "captures" a
signal slightly off frequency when the station calls you, his signal should
be pretty close to the same point when he comes back with his report
so you want the AFC frozen at that point. If not, some other signal could
"capture" the AFC and you would miss his report.
I use the WriteLog RTTY Receiver only to receive and don't click on
calls in that RTTY window so I never saw this happen until you guys
mentioned it and I tested it myself. You're right, it does happen, but you
shouldn't have to go back and reclick the AFC to get the guy's report,
it should copy it OK because it copied his callsign at the same frequency.
Perhaps under battle conditions it may be better to have the AFC on all
the time. Maybe Wayne can make it an option in later versions. From
what I've seen in the past two contests (BARTG Sprint & XE) the AFC
appears to be fast enough to lock right on RTTY signals without missing
anything important like a callsign or exchange. Stations normally send
their call more than once and usually send your call before they send the
exchange. This is ample time for the AFC to lock, or relock if it must.
But
the problem comes when there's more than one signal coming in.
I used the PK232 in conjunction with the sound board again this weekend.
It's a winning a combination. Two "ears" are better than one. Even though
I find WinRTTY better in most cases against the PK232, I find the PK232
does just as good a job on a majority of the signals. The sound board is
far more superior on weak signals, but the PK232 is far better on signals
with polar flutter. I don't know why this is.
Here's a way you can have the best of both worlds. If you have stereo sound
board and using only one radio with it, try wiring your receive audio to
both
left and right input channels. Make your main entry window the Left Radio
and then open up a second radio (even though you really don't have a 2nd
radio). Make that entry window the Right Radio then open up a RTTY screen
for it. You should be receiving on both RTTY windows. When you are running
a frequency have both AFC boxes checked. This way, the Right Radio RTTY
screen will stay with AFC checked all the time.
Just a thought.
73, Don AA5AU
----- Original Message -----
From: WA9ALS - John <jfleming@shelbynet.net>
To: Joe Duerbusch <jduerbusch@netscape.net>; <writelog@contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2000 12:21 PM
Subject: Re: [WriteLog] WinRTTY AFC Problem/Feature?
>
> This drives me nuts too. I'm constantly re-checking the AFC box. I
> hope it's not a "feature" that it turns off. What I've noticed is that
> it turns off if you click on ANYTHING that's not highlighted. Sometimes
> there're perfectly good callsigns that don't get highlighted. If you
> click on them, things work fine except that the AFC gets unchecked.
> It's VERY easy to not realize that detail, then try to figure out why
> the copy got worse - then see the box unchecked, check it, and hopefully
> copy is back before it's too late.
>
> I hope Wayne will have time to look into this - It just started
> happening with the last couple of revisions someplace. v9.23 and some
> of the earlier v10.x were OK in this regard.
>
> AFC is a good feature - I hope this unchecking thing can be corrected.
> 73
>
> WA9ALS - John jfleming@shelbynet.net
> http://www.qsl.net/wa9als (now with Shack Cam!)
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joe Duerbusch" <jduerbusch@netscape.net>
> To: <writelog@contesting.com>
> Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2000 11:45 AM
> Subject: [WriteLog] WinRTTY AFC Problem/Feature?
>
>
> >
> > During the Rtty Roundup I had the opportunity to use the new WinRtty
> in a
> > contest. I was quite supprised how good it copies. Way better than
> the
> > earlier versions. When I was calling CQ and running stations I tried
> the AFC.
> > It worked very well. But I had one problem.
> >
> > When I captured a callsign and was in the entry screen, the "Check
> mark" in
> > the AFC box would be unchecked. When I then tried to get the report,
> I had to
> > go back to the RIT to tune him in. Once entered in the log, and the
> entry
> > screen was empty of a call, the "Check Mark" in the AFC box
> reappeared?
> >
> > I assume that once you selected a station, you might not want the AFC
> to grab
> > someone else before the exchange is completed. But it sure was a pain
> to
> > either grab the rit and find the guy before you lost the exchange or
> use the
> > mouse to re-click the AFC Box.
> >
> > So is this a feature or a problem?
> >
> > Joe K0BX
> > http://www.qsl.net/k0bx
> >
> >
> > ____________________________________________________________________
> > Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at
> http://webmail.netscape.com.
> >
> > --
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> >
> >
>
>
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