[CQ-Contest] What software to use...

[Jim Brown]

On 1/22/2022 12:53 PM, N9GG via CQ-Contest wrote:
> I welcome your comments and suggestions.

I've been contesting since 1957, mostly CD parties and SS. I was on and 
off the air for decades at a time until getting back on for good in 
2003. That was at a FD I visited, and they were using WriteLog, so I 
bought it and learned it.

Around 2007-8, the organizer of a FD team I was joining announced a few 
months before that we would use N1MM, so I installed it and started 
using it for a few contests. It wasn't long before I'd decided that I 
found it a lot more user-friendly, and by SS-SSB that year, I had made 
the switch. I've not looked back.

Comfort with contest logging software is STRONGLY dependent on having 
developed "muscle memory" with its operation, and knowledge of its 
"gotchas." I use ESM mode exclusively; one thing you have to know is 
that if you've sent (or started sending) an exchange once, you've got to 
revert to F-keys for His Call and Report.

Another thing that's critical is setting up F-Key files that make sense 
for the way you operate. My standard for most contests is that F1 is a 
"quickie" CQ, like "SS K9YC", F2 is the exchange, F3 is TU K9YC, F4 is 
My Call, F5 is his call, F7 is a 1 x 1 CQ, F8 is 1 x2, F11 is Wipe (to 
clear the entry window). The remaining keys are programmed for common 
fills. That's for the primary "Running" mode; for S&P, F3 simply logs 
the QSO. One thing I like about N1MM Plus is how easy it is to edit 
F-Key files and save them with names that N1MM Plus will, by default, 
pull them up the next time you start that same contest a year later. And 
there's a Tab in the contest setup for choosing from any that you have 
generated.

What I DON'T like are N1MM's default F-Key files -- I view them as a 
train wreck.

WriteLog and N1MM are both great for exporting adif to my main logging 
program, which is DXKeeper. I don't remember WriteLog's Cabrillo 
function, but N1MM's is excellent. N1MM's doc (pdf manual) is great; at 
the time I was learning WriteLog, the "manual" was a long email from the 
developer.

Our team for CQP, 7QP, and FD uses N1MM and I'm the computer setup guy, 
but we have at least one great op on every operation who is primarily a 
WriteLog user. At the beginning of each operation, I need to remind them 
of how N1MM works. It's all "muscle memory" that we take for granted 
when running our own logger.

73, Jim K9YC