Does anyone know if there's any way to add to the handful of useful CW
prosigns already present? I use all but one of them (AA), but wish there
were a way to send a BK smoothly instead of as two separate letters:
According to the documentation there are the following six already
available:
AA AR AS BT KN and SK.
These are sent as single characters, but it seems strange there's no way to
send a BK from the WL keyboard except as two separate letters. ( I also
miss SN, which I've used for years.) These prosigns are all available
directly in XPWIN for the KAM, and the KAM Plus firmware allows the user to
custom define prosigns either permanently or on the fly by preceding letter
elements to be combined with a single backslash. (Then there are the many
non-English characters and prosigns, which actually get occasional use on CW
in German, etc. )
1. "Well, " you say, "then why don't you just use the KAM ?" a)
Because the KAM is **only operable on RTTY mode** in WriteLog! For some
reason the PK-232 will also do CW inside WL, but not the KAM. b) The WL CW
decoding routines in the RttyRite soundcard window are nothing short of
phenomenal. If you've not tried it, and love CW, you really should take a
look at this seldom discussed feature in WL. It will spoil you for anything
else. Read the description in the Help file of the multiple fast algorithms
used. It's mind-blowing! c) The KAM's CW decoding seems below par except
when locked at a single speed. d) XPWIN is a fine program for some things,
but definitely not designed for contest-style logging. e) Finally, the CW
prosigns are assigned to different keys in WL from other software. That's
fine, but one set of these is enough to remember, in addition to the vast
number of WL key combos and Function key messages.
2. "Why don't you just use the paddles for these prosigns?" I do, but I
find moving a hand from keyboard to paddles and back is a nightmare. Seems
hard to believe some really do this, but I guess you can get used to
anything. There are those who think of CW ops as masochists anyway ...
Wayne, Ron, I really love what WL does with CW! I use it happily as is, --
even have it carefully interfaced to my boat-anchor collection. Imagine
what CW sounds like on an HT-46 or even a little Drake 2-NT when keyed by
WriteLog at 40 wpm!
Many thanks for all that's been done already, as of v. 10.27G with MMTTY
..... 8}
Jon K1US (ex OE2ZDL)
"Not just an RTTY contester..... "
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