[3830] NAQP CW WX0B(AD5Q) Single Op LP

[webform at b41h.net]

                    North American QSO Party, CW - January

Call: WX0B
Operator(s): AD5Q
Station: WX0B

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Dallas
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   20    13
   80:  171    36
   40:  184    46
   20:  203    45
   15:  218    45
   10:   53    27
-------------------
Total:  849   212  Total Score = 179,988

Club: DFW Contest Group

Team: DFW Contest Group Polaris

Comments:

My main objective for this contest was to transition to new software. I mostly
like N1MM, but there is a "feature" that is causing a lot of problems and there
is no way to disable it. This was to be a dry run using WinTest. I encountered a
lot of problems in the 3 days I set aside to learn it and configure for SO2R.
Some were definitely bugs, and the only way around them was to use a goofy
TRLog emulation that required parsing through 2 additional popups. I thought I
had something usable for when the contest started, but no. WinTest disabled my
arrow keys, the Home key, and the Delete key. The backspace key still worked.
In other words, any kind of correction to a callsign or other QSO information
was very awkward. I operated the whole contest with it this way. There were
many other problems. The experience was horrible. 

The antennas played great, but rates really suffered in the early hours. After
1700z the rates held well above 100 for the rest of the contest, but I hadn't
taken any offtime yet - choosing to fight with the software rather than moving
to 20 early or taking a break to cool off from all the cussing. 80 was a blast,
even with the bad QRN, but I didn't attempt running on 160. I ran out of time
with the rate above 150.

After the contest, I figured out most of what was going on with the program's
internals. I got up at 5:am and played with it for 3 hours. The main problem
was not a bug, but a "feature": "Shift Key binds Secondary Radio". It can be
used to send the F key messages to the 2nd radio, but has the side effect of
forcing NumLock on, even though the keyboard light is off. So now all I have to
do is learn the LUA scripting language, tweak the ESM scripts to eliminate the
need for that TRLog kludge, plus a few more mods to optimize headphone
switching. I might succeed very nicely. WinTest does have some very desirable
features.

Roy -- AD5Q


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