I need some help!
I bought WL a year ago specifically to use in RTTY contests. But, although I
have used it in several contests--SS, Sprint, WPX-- none were RTTY contests.
So this weekend's big CQWW bash finally provided the stimulus to GOMA and
set up for RTTY.
I am using the included stuff--RTTYWrite and the little Telnet app. I
figured: do this contest with the included features, then look into MMTTY
and DXTelnet (all prior efforts were unassisted). I was readily able to get
the soundcard operating, as well as my much-modified PK232MBX, with no
hitches, by relating to my DX4WIN experience. After looking at both modem
choices, I decided to use the PK232--I know what it can and cannot do. It's
working fine and I have made a cuppla hundred Q's this first night; no
problems with the basics. But I feel I must be missing something.
Some of the same annoyances are present that have irritated me from day one
with WL, including the Jumping Windows and all the other funny stuff that
occurs when one tries to resize or move things around. And I just love it
when the log disappears behind the WL window that has suddenly snapped
across the entire display. But the Big New Annoyance is having to mouse
between the RTTYWrite window and the Log Entry. My mouse hand went numb!
Surely this is not the way this works! Send a CQ from the main WL screen,
click on the RTTYWrite window to see who answers, click back to main WL
screen to send the exchange, click again to RTTYWrite to see the response,
jump between to clean up the log entry and enter the QSO? And then do it all
over again for the next QSO? Surely there must be some way to have the whole
thing present on one screen! This is primitive! I know this cannot be
right--no one could last 48 hours doing this. So help me out here!
The callsign highlighting is unimpressive. It flat misses 90% of the JA's,
period, and does not do too swift on non-JA's. What part of "DE" does it not
recognize? Why does it mistransmit calls that are being repaired on-the-fly
in the Entry window, ahead of what is transmitted? Never had a problem with
CT. On many calls, JA's included, RTTYWrite highlights a piece of the call
that it recognizes---like jK6SEe.
The little packet/telnet window is a joke...or is it? Can the .ini file be
modified to offer a choice of telnet nodes? Can't see how. I put a stack of
addresses in the .ini file, but WL takes the first one it comes to, and
ignores the others. Can you click on a spot and have the radio go there?
Can't see how. But DX4WIN, which is not a contesting program, does these
things.
OK, OK I haven't camped out on the K9JY and AA5AU websites. But I did not
wait until 30 minutes before the contest, either. :-)
Just point me in the general direction of the answers--I am not averse to
reading. But it should not take more research than an advanced degree.
Thanks in advance. I am having fun in the contest--but my wrist aches.
Garry, NI6T
__________________________________
160 meters---not a band but an obsession
|