[ct-user] CT rate calculation

[Steve Lund]

Joseph Agius, WA1WFH, wrote:
> 
> Does anyone know how CT calculates time 'on' and time 'off' as displayed in the
> rate window?
> 
> During the last contest, I was on for many more hours than the time indicated.
> It indicated 12 hours on and 18 off.
> In reality I was on more than 12.
>
This is a bug that I reported 2 weeks ago. Ken has sent me several
updates, but they did not fix the problem.

The problem is that with certain computers, the time ON is not being
updated properly. It is recalculated after each QSO, but the display has
resolution to 0.1 hour so they update rate appears to be every 6
minutes. On certain computers, it only updates once an hour and only
displays to one hour accuracy. Consequently, your actual operating time
might be as much as 2 hours more than that indicated by time ON. For SS,
with its 24 hour limit this might be a rude suprise!

After my post two weeks ago, I have received emails from others who have
the same problem. In every case the computer has either had an i486SX or
a ti486SLC. The ti486SLC was used in all of the 'Rev to 486' upgrade
processor kits. Both of these processors do not have an on-chip math
co-processor. My suspicion is that this is a compiler problem. The time
ON function works fine on my computer using CT 8.53, but not with CT
9.45. I haven't had a chance to try CT 9.27, which was the last version
on the old compiler. So if your computer is using either an i486SX or
ti486SLC, check the time ON function before this weekend.

The only solution that I've found to work is to run your BIN file
through 9to8.EXE and run the converted BIN in CT 8.x to get the actual
time ON.

Steve K6UM

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