I tried a few variations on remapping the Up/Down arrow keys, and found a
combination that should work very well for SO2R:
1. Map the '[' key to LShift+Down
2. Map the ']' key to LCtrl+Down
3. Map the '\' key to LShift+Down and LCtrl+Down
The keys are labelled as follows:
1. KBD (for "move keyboard focus")
2. XMIT (for "move transmit focus")
3. RADIO (for "toggle between the radios")
In my remapping package, all three mappings have to be setup as macros. On
some remapping packages, only sequence #3 will have to be a macro. These
three keys are handy on the keyboard, and don't require moving your hands. I
have remapped my '-' key to Insert, and my '=' key to "+" (labelled "Work"
and "Log", respectively), so all of the special keys are very close to each
other.
Most of the time, you just have to use the KBD key, which is used to toggle
the keyboard focus back and forth between the run and S&P radio. Assume you
start with the keyboard and transmit focus united on the run radio, where
you have a Timed CQ with Auto Restart going. You hit KBD once, which moves
the keyboard focus to the S&P radio. You type in the call of the station you
want to work in the S&P entry window, dupe it by hitting space, and hit F4
to drop in your call. The CQ stops, your call is sent on the S&P radio, and
the CQ resumes. If the station on the S&P radio responds, you hit F2 to
send the exchange. The CQ stops, the exchange is sent, and the CQ resumes.
Finally, you hit Enter to log the QSO.
Should someone respond to your CQ while you are working on the S&P radio,
simply hit KBD again and the keyboard focus will be moved back to the run
radio. You would also do this to unite the focus on the run radio if you
have finished S&P operating on the other radio for a while. Thus, KBD acts
as a simple toggle for the keyboard focus, and that's all you need most of
the time.
Every now and then, the station you are working on the S&P radio will ask
for a fill. If you're lucky, you can answer by using a function key or one
of the message buffers above the entry windows (that's what I use them for.)
But often I've found that I need to respond with the paddles. This is the
one case where I would use the XMIT key. This moves the transmit focus to
the S&P radio, uniting it with the keyboard focus. It also happens to
interrupt the CQ, and it won't be automatically resumed.
You can use the RADIO key to toggle the state of the two radios. Normally,
when the transmit and keyboard focus are united, you can use this key to
toggle which radio is active. The special sequence used in the RADIO key
avoids popping into log edit mode! In other words, you can jump back and
forth between the radios without detouring through the edit window (which
had caused me a great deal of grief since that feature was added to
WriteLog.) You can still get into the edit menu by using the up or down key,
so that feature is preserved. If the focus happens to be split, RADIO will
toggle the split focus. I can't think of a good use for this.
I hope SO2R ops like this suggestion. If you find a Windows keyboard
remapper that you really like, let us know on the reflector.
73, Dick WC1M
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