[3830] Rus DX AD5Q(@WX0B) SO CW HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    Russian DX Contest

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

Class: SO CW HP
QTH: Dallas/Houston
Operating Time (hrs): 2
Radios: SO2R
Remote Operation

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Countries  Oblasts
----------------------------------------
  160:    0     0         0        0
   80:    5     0         5        0
   40:   73     0        17        2
   20:    0     0         0        0
   15:    0     0         0        0
   10:    0     0         0        0
----------------------------------------
Total:   78     0        22        2  Total Score = 6,384

Club: DFW Contest Group

Comments:

I don't have a lot to say about the contest, as I started a little late (around
4:30am local). I only worked 3 Russians, some JA's and mostly USA. No EU at all
since 20 was dead. I actually put a lot of work into this, however. So I get to
write a long rant :-)

I was planning the trip to Dallas to do this contest, but with the solar
forecast so horrible (plus a prediction of an all day rain) I decided against
it. In conversation with one of our locals, however, I was asked about my
progress toward being able to remotely operate a contest. Hmmmmm. Can of
worms.

I've been connecting remotely to WX0B, but only to work major expeditions using
Ham Radio Deluxe and WKRemote (which I believe is the only SOFTWARE that
supports remote use of a paddle). Yes, I know there is a hardware solution -
but it's limited to the keyer features built into the radio (no Autospace). I
have a backburner project which I haven't touched in more than a year, and it
is a major upgrade to WKRemote which I have tentatively named the "WinKey
Toy". I've expanded WKRemote into a bare bones logger that can be used
either locally or remotely to control a WinKey. There are 36 message buttons,
plus the fields needed to enter basic Qso information (calls, name, qth, band,
comments, sig reports, not much more). It needs this, because the program is
primarily designed to automate everyday CW Qsos. Messages can be embedded into
other messages to form several formats of typical CW contacts, including
shorter exchanges for DX pileup contacts. The completed pre-fabricated Qsos
will sound like the ones we hear everyday on the bands. You can use your paddle
for sending, type to keyboard window, use the 4 buttons on the WinKey, click on
the message buttons with a mouse, or invoke them with hot keys - all
interchangeably. A minimal set of contest features make it possible to
configure message keys to work like your favorite logger (sorry, no ESM). It
will send a serial number, compute the rate, and dupe. After a contest (or an
evening of running EU's and Russians) you output the contacts to an Adif file
and import them to your regular logging software, and/or your contest software
to do the scoring and Cabrillo. I had it mostly working, but turned the source
code back over to K1EL. It will eventually be released by him, and I don't know
when. It's not finished.

So this was my plan to operate contests remotely. Meanwhile, K4VV is using
WKRemote 1.4 in their multi-multi operations. It's used only in situations
where you need to reach for the paddle - the message keying is done by their
contest software - probably N1MM. So I started thinking about how to remotely
operate a contest using WinTest, with SO2R. I started WORKING on this only 12
hours before the start of the RDX.

I thought it would be possible to run the contest on my local PC, where WinTest
would connect to Jay's station via 4 virtual comm ports over TCP/IP (2 radios,
the WinKey & the YCCC Box). I already had a TCP connection to the rotating
tower using pstRotator and Com2Tcp, so I thought it would be easy. It turns out
that Com2Tcp and most other free RFC2217 software only supports one port, and
those that support multiple ports are not only pricey but require additional
hardware. I spent much of the night learning this. I did, however, get this
setup mostly working using Com0Com and Hub4Com - only to find that the CW
connection was slow, choppy (space between letters) and unusable. This is
definitely not the right approach, and I figured this out about the time the
contest started. I went to bed. BTW: I am NORMALLY nocturnal.

Yawn! So with the contest nearly half over, I still had a lot of LUA scripting
to do. I use about 135 scripts, and they are assigned to nearly every key on
the keyboard. Several of these assumed that Radio 1 (an Icom 781) would always
be the run rig, and I have minimal control of that radio remotely. There was a
lot of revision. I also needed a RIT control on the run radio to tune stations
calling off frequency. I wanted to use my paddle with WKRemote, but couldn't.
(Whereas it's possible to share a device's comm port with multiple apps using a
program such as Hub4Com, the WinKey protocol will only accept ONE connection.)
Since WinTest would connect to the WinKey, the only way to remote a paddle to
the shack is to have a 2nd WinKey there - connected to the input of the YCCC
Box with a Y adapter. I have 3 WinKeyers but only one of them is at Jay's, so
no paddle.

The way I read the rules of this contest, there are no UNassisted categories.
This makes a connection to packet sort of, uh, necessary. Also, moving mults is
not allowed. So I figured out how to connect to packet in WinTest and configure
a cluster node to spew out RBN spots (not hard). This is the way some people do
unassisted contests. Hi Bob! (BTW: He got caught.)

I was finally ready to test all this 3 hours before the end of the contest. I
connected using pcAnywhere, with IPSound for the stereo audio. SO2R headphone
switching is fully automatic (one of my priorities). Everything mostly worked,
though I ended up with a list of 6 LUA bugs, including the one for the RIT. The
latency through pcAnywere was slightly worse than for the audio, and anything I
typed had to go to Dallas and back before I saw it on the screen - not bad
though. I think there are other programs with less latency, so I will
experiment with others such as Remote Desktop, VNC and maybe GoToMyPC. Some of
these don't forward some of the function keys I use and must have.

20 was dead, so my only opportunities for 2nd radio contacts were on 80 with
the IC781 running barefoot (I can't remotely control its amp). This worked
fine, but I had trouble copying because the lowband receiving antennas are
manually switched (I would have had to wake up Jay). The roar of 80 in my right
ear was so loud I could hardly hear stations calling on 40. But functionally,
the SO2R worked fine.

So this was an adventure and primarily a test. Since the contest I've completed
most of my LUA debugging, and may test further in the CQ/M. It's very possible
that I will do ONE major contest remotely sometime soon. This experience also
tells me that this is the way to go for remote SO2R contesting. In other words,
the contest features I've added to WKRemote (WinKey Toy) are not needed. I had
plans to add the ability to user configure this program to support any contest,
but now I really should REMOVE some of the contest features I've already
developed. This would bring the program closer to its release. Watch for this
on the K1EL site. It might even be free. Not my decision.

Roy -- AD5Q
Aspie Ducky Five QUACK!


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