Argh, it doesn't work as advertised! Failure to completely check it out
first. The modified module now doesn't dupe check correctly. If you've
worked a call on any band it shows as dupe when you work them on another
band. Must be something in my band setup, but don't have time to check it
out now. I've reverted back to using a different WPX module for each
different mode segment of the contest.
73,
Gary AL9A
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary AL9A" <al9a@mtaonline.net>
To: "Writelog Reflector" <writelog@contesting.com>
Sent: January 29, 2013 1:36 PM
Subject: [WriteLog] Triathlon DX Contest
Anyone going to give this new one a try this weekend? If so, here are a
few suggestions for trying to get a WL module ready to go.
The contest sponsors web site indicates that if your logger lacks a
specific contest module for this one you can just use the CQ WPX module.
The problem is in WL there are three WPX contest modules - CW, RTTY and
SSB. Since this contest uses all three modes at various times over the 24
time limit this is a problem. The contest sponsors indicate that
non-sequential numbers of the various modes is ok, they will sort them out
after the contest. So, you could set up the three different modules of WL
for the various modes needed. But then you have to create three different
Cabrillo files and probably cut and paste their contents into a single
Cabrillo for submission. This seems like too much work to me so I've been
trying to figure out a way to use WL to do all three modes in a single
log. After a bit of playing around I think I've found a work around.
Since RTTY is the first mode in this contest I started with the CQ WPX
RTTY module first. I quickly discovered that I could log RTTY contacts
ok, but if I tried to log a SSB or CW contact it logged with the red 'B'
meaning I was out of band. Also, if I tried to work the same call on the
same band, but a different mode WL called it a Dupe. A bit of checking
the WL Help manual led me to try changing the Band frequency limits to
allow working the same call on the same band, but in different modes and
be in band. Here is what I did.
In the WPX RTTY module I went to Bands/Setup Bands... and hit the Clear
All Bands button. The WL Help manual says you aren't supposed to do this
in a contest module that does mult scoring, but the scores are not to
going to calculate correctly anyway so what the heck.
After clearing all the band definitions I created three new ones, one for
each mode. For each I set the Low frequency to 3500 KHz and the High edge
to 29700. Then I cleared off all the mode check boxes except for FSK, set
the title to RTTY and clicked on "Add this band". Then I created another
band definition with the same frequency limits and checked just the CW
mode, set the title to CW and Added this band. Finally I created a third
band definition, again with the same frequency limits, checked only the
LSB and USB boxes, set the title to SSB and Added this band. When done WL
showed me a list of the three different band settings called RTTY, CW and
SSB. This now allows logging the same calls on the same band with a
different mode without being a dupe and without the red B indicator. This
also means all the calls logged will be numbered sequentially and can be
exported in a single Cabrillo adi file.
Now I needed to get around the macro message problem for the RTTY and CW
modes. In Setup/CW/RTTY/SSB messages... the CW and RTTY modes share the
same allocation of F keys for a bank of macro messages. This is a problem
because the format of the message are different. SSB F key assignments
are not a problem. The way around this was to create another new contest
log for the Triathlon using the WPX CW module. I then modified the
Band/Setup Bands... configuration as above. Then in Setup/CW/RTTY/SSB
messages... I created the CW message macros that I wanted. Then, and this
is critical, I saved this file with a slightly different file name from
the first file. This second log setup will not actually be used in the
contest. It's only purpose is to provide a location where the CW message
macros can be loaded into the first log that was setup by use of the
Browse button in Setup/CW/RTTY/SSB messages... This will then over write
the RTTY macros and replace them with the CW ma
cros, which is what is desired once the RTTY segment is over.
As for scoring the contest, the sponsors indicate you can just send in the
log and they will score if for you or you can download a Cabrillo
Evaluator by W3KM to check your score post contest. I've downloaded the
Cabrillo Evaluator, but haven't had a chance yet to bone up on it.
Probably won't do that until after the contest when I have an actual
Cabrillo output file to play with. If it's too complicated I'll just send
in my Cabrillo log and let the sponsor do the score calcs.
73,
Gary AL9A
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