[3830] FlQP N5DO(@K5FD) SOABCW LP

[webform at b41h.net]

                    Florida QSO Party

Call: N5DO
Operator(s): N5DO
Station: K5FD

Class: SOABCW LP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
   40:   77      
   20:  294      
   15:           
   10:           
--------------------
Total:  371     0  CW Mults = 65  Ph Mults = 0  Total Score = 96,460

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

We've had tremendous wind in west Texas causing some major wildfires and also
causing my antenna mast to break the pin on the rotor and spin like a windmill.
 I got that fixed, but the antenna itself is now inoperable, probably due to
broken control wires.  I'll have to get someone to climb the tower and fix that
problem.

I needed somewhere to operate from.  My friend, K5FD, has a relatively new Flex
5000, so I decided to operate from his house and see how a contest with a top of
the line SDR would be.

It was obvious that the Flex 5000 was not contest ready (maybe the rig was
ready, but the software wasn't)-- it was a major undertaking on Thursday and
Friday nights to try to get everything working correctly.  We had PowerSDR
running the rig and N1MM as the contest logger (and several other programs
running in the background to ensure everything was compatible).  There were two
monitors, with PowerSDR on the left one and N1MM on the right.  We were trying
to get it so logging and rig control could both be done from N1MM.  A lot of
searching on the Internet found a program called Hotwheel that would allow me
to be logging on N1MM and using the mouse wheel to change frequencies, but we
couldn't get it to work.

The contest started with me moving the cursor from one monitor to another --
over to the left to change frequency and back to the right monitor to work the
station and log it.  This led to lots of confusion and mess-ups on my part. 
The cursor would be on the rig side and I would start to type the call I wanted
to work, without moving back to N1MM.  Suddenly the rig would change to another
band!  Swearing, I would move back to the right band, have to move the power
slide bar back to 100 W (using the mouse), find the station again, move the
cursor back to N1MM, and make the QSO.

James, K5FD, wandered out to see how things were going, and I let him know that
things were not going well.  He said he would see if he could find out what was
wrong with Hotwheel and went back into the house to check on it.  After much
swearing and frustration on my part with this clunky arrangement, he came back
about two hours into the contest.  He had found the problem -- PowerSDR had
added a trademark symbol to their name and that was causing confusion.  James
made a minor change and suddenly I could operate in a more normal manner,
without having to switch back and forth from one monitor to another.

After using the Flex 5000 for 20 hours I got better at using it, and almost
reached a point where I liked it.  I think the radio part of it is very good,
in particular the software filters were outstanding.  On transmit the CW
sounded choppy to me.  With more time, that could have been solved.  However,
more work needs to be done on the user interface -- computer gurus who say it
is OK to use a mouse wheel to change frequency on a radio have never operated a
contest for 20 hours.  If I ever do it again, I will spring for the accessory
tuning knob.  But that doesn't help with other knobs that one is always toying
with during a contest -- RF gain, AF gain, etc.  Moving a cursor around on a
computer screen with a mouse to raise or lower a virtual knob takes longer and
is more of a pain than just reaching up and tweaking an actual knob with your
hands.

The contest itself has been adequately described by others.  Conditions seemed
down from last year (I had about 100 more contacts, and a sweep, last year). 
The mobiles were fantastic, and saving 10 khz for the mobiles was great.  Using
the bandmap in N1MM, and writing down the call signs and the county they were
last in, I could quickly check the 10 or more active mobile stations at any one
time by clicking on their call in the bandmap.  I was able to take 5 or 6 short
walks around the neighborhood as I waited for the mobiles to reach a new
county.  All in all a fun, although unusual, contest.


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/