[ct-user] New Band Change Rule

[Dave Hawes]

At N3RS, we did a M/2 in ARRL CW, and found the "6 band changes per 
hour" rule to be much better than a 10 minute rule.  Within limits, 
it has the same kind of flavor as the CQ M/S category.

Anyway, since the 10 minute rule is toast, it would be useful to have 
CT incorporate a new algorithm for counting the band changes.  We got 
tripped up at least once where, for example, the last QSO on 80 was 
at 0555, and the first QSO on 40 was on 0600.  Since we had to count 
the band changes manually, we would page up and find the beginning of 
the hour, and count down from there.  In the example, we made the 
mistake of not counting the 80-to-40 band change.

Instead of the "count down timers," currently employed within the CT 
display, how about a counter (reset on the hour) that either 
accumulates or decrements each time a band change is made?  This way 
it would be much easier to stay out of "band change pinch" and allow 
you to really plan.  At N3RS, we didn't come even close to using the 
allowed band changes, except for about 6 or 7 hours where we used the 
allotted six.  This is a shame, as it hurt our score to not take 
advantage of a quick change to another band to work a mult.

Also of use would be a replacement for the CHK_TEN utility.

It should be noted that we stumbled across the fact that the latest 
versions of CT are "network incompatible" with earlier versions in 
that the times are not compatible.  We didn't notice it during our 
pre-contest checks, but had to revert from 9.35 to 9.27 on two of our 
computers after about an hour into the contest.  Then we had to go 
around and Alt-F all the QSOs made by the 9.35 stations since they 
were off by several hours.

73 - Dave N3RD

--
Submissions:              ct-user@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  ct-user-REQUEST@contesting.com
WWW:                      http://www.contesting.com/ct/
Questions:                owner-ct-user@contesting.com