I promised to learn WL for a contest this summer and have been
struggling with it since December. It is difficult for a new user to
adopt WL. “Help” is unhelpful—-a prime example: writelog.ini is
discussed throughout, but no longer exists. Most of my recent Help
searches have not answered my issues, hence this post.
As background, I’ve entered ‘a few’ contests over the years, and started
confuzer logging with CT, progressed through TRLog, TR4Win, then to
N1MM+. I’ve heard glowing reviews for WL over the years, but need expert
suggestions to optimize the experience. Bluntly, the way it runs seems
rather clunky.
I have mostly figured out running.
BUT… How to S&P in WL? The way I’ve been doing it is awkward.
Enter call, then Spacebar.
If Non Dupe, F4 to send my callsign, then “,” or F2, which is programmed
to autolog without requiring a further ENTER.
If Dupe, F12 to clear it from the callsign window, then turn the big
knob. Is there way to autoclear this dupe to eliminate second keystroke?
F12 is in the middle of a row on craptop, so not as easily located as
with a full-size keyboard. While a key redefinition would work, I’d
rather eliminate this redundant keystroke and have it flash off a few ms
after pressing the spacebar (and still show up in the bandmap, of
course). Is this possible?
In both cases, there are extra keystrokes from various places around the
keyboard. Isn’t there a more efficient technique? I’m used to TRLog/ESM
functionality where the ENTER key is my friend.
Bandmap:
When we tune back to same frequency, the callsign is not automatically
entered unless I mouse click on it (and the recorded bandmap frequency
may no longer be zero beat). Can this be automated? Any way to avoid
using the rodent?
General Functionality
Editing my frequent mistakes has been difficult. Why does the cursor key
move between fields?! If the cursor is in the middle of a callsign, I
don’t want to have to watch and count the keystrokes to edit a prefix or
suffix. I just want to hit “lots” of arrows to guarantee the cursor is
at the beginning or end of a field, and then fix the call. For example,
5 keystrokes generally assure me that I’m at the correct spot in all of
the other logging programs. But in WL, I could be in a completely
different part of the exchange. Sometimes. It isn’t consistent. Isn’t
there a better way?
Why does the default contest setup have fields for “Country” (full name,
spelled out) and “C” fields? These seem unnecessary and exacerbate my
cursor movement problem. What the heck is “C”? Any downside to
eliminating them from the entry window?
Nice Features Hiding or Missing?
The other loggers have features that I can’t find in WL.
Multiplier Window. How do I:
—DX contest—show the world, not just one continent.
—Show both Zones and DX mults at the same time?
Partial check. In the contest I’m preparing WL for, SCP databases are
verboten, but we are allowed both full and partial calls from our own
log. How is this done? If the SCP window is the only way, how does one
clear out the SCP file? I really miss seeing possible callsign matches
winnow down as more letters are entered. Or watch the “duplicity” of a
callsign that I’ve tuned before typing the entire thing (and hitting the
spacebar!).
Bandmap decay time. Is it adjustable?
I’ll end on a minor nit: in WPX RTTY, INSert kept selecting my callsign
and I then called myself. This was addressed by logging myself on each
band so that I became a dupe. How is this avoided?
Suggestions are appreciated. TU!
73 de Bob, K6XX
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