[CQ-Contest] Awesome Morse Trainer

[Dale L Martin]

>> * When working at high speeds, I am used to press <insert> to send 
>>the
>> station's rprt + number *while* entering the callsign,
> 
> This function is implemented in Morse Runner 1.4, please download 
>the latest
> version from http://www.dxatlas.com/morserunner
> 
>
That should be interesting to play with and experience.
  
> The primary purpose of MR is to help contesters improve their 
>skills. QSO
> editing is a kind of skill that, IMHO, does not require any special
> training. To the contrary, one must learn to use it as rarely as 
>possible.
> It takes much less time to correct one's input before hitting Enter, 
>when
> the data are still in the box and the cursor is at the right place, 
>than to
> recall the data when it is already saved. MR just helps creating 
>good
> habits - or at least what I consider good habits ;-)
> What do you guys think about this? Am I missing something?
> 
I think the idea of instilling good 'behavior' while in the callsign, 
rst, serial number boxes is an excellent idea.  However, there are 
times when one just plain makes a mistake that could and should be 
correctable in the log.

> Instant error reporting is a valuable feedback that helps one 
>correct his
> style of operation on the fly and thus improve skills faster. I 
>would not
> like to sacrifice this feature for the ability to edit saved QSO.
> 
I think the reference the other op had to this was the temporary 
appearance of NIL while the software was processing the QSO.

When I hit Enter and see that red NIL appear next to the logged entry, 
it's always a cause for worry and concern that I blew the QSO somehow. 
 That it disappears is always a relief, but by then, my blood pressure 
has gone up a point or two just worrying while the red NIL was there.

If you could cause it to NOT appear until and unless it was an actual 
blown QSO, that would be great, Alex.


I have one more suggestion (in this e-mail):

Can you open up the RUN drop-down listbox (keep the listbox open) so 
that one KNOWS for sure which mode/category one is operating in?

The other night, I spent an hour working hard at what I thought was 
the Competition mode, only to find I was in the Pile-up mode (and that 
was my best ever score, too!!!).

I guess I figured the category would remain in what I was in when I 
ran the program earlier.  When I rebooted the program, I blithely 
clicked RUN without looking at the mode/category.  If the three 
categories could be displayed and the active category highlighted, 
that would help deadheads like me.

Thanks for a great program, Alex.

73,
dale, kg5u