[Fourlanders] contest computer update

[Bob Lear]

Well, finally they all seem to be working.  Biggest problem is that we 
really don't know why we had problems or exactly what we did to get them 
fixed other than just time and magic.  We have found some idiosyncrasies 
with Writelog running under Windows 7 and I'm planning to send info to 
the WL guys about those.  And we've found some things to NOT do when WL 
is up and running.  We will warn about those at the contest, but they 
shouldn't affect our operation.

Right now all three stations with the new contest computers here, 6m, 2m 
and 222, are set up, running WriteLog, calling with voice recordings, CW 
messages, Live PTT audio and networked to the server.  I also connected 
my new PC (which was ordered along with the contest ones) to one of my 
radios on 432 and to the network, so basically everything is set  up 
just like it will be for the contest, except for the spoofed 432 
station.  I plan to leave it all on, test calling with recorded messages 
and live audio periodically for the next couple of days, thunderstorms 
cooperating.  Ron will bring his 432 station (or the 432 computer) later 
for testing with the system but no problems are expected now.

The network is running on my new NetGear switch and the house router.  
We've set the house router to the same address as the cradlepoint router 
we use in Great White.  We also tested the original and the backup 
cradlepoint that Ryan KK4OSG donated to us. All working fine.  I have 
eliminated the daisy-chained routers that I had been using for the past 
6 years.  Bill helped with some of the networking problems.  The house 
router is now responsible for the coded addresses and DHCP and we 
shouldn't have to change settings on the computers or the routers 
anymore when we operate here or on the mountian.

In case someone has useful experience with WL12 and Win7 to share, one 
of the things we've found is that apparently if a 'Save Configuration' 
under the Ports menu is done, things get flaky.  Our workaround is to do 
the setup needed, 'save configuration', save the WL file, get out of WL 
and restart it.  Then things tend to work smoothly although there are 
unexplainable instances of live audio just stop working.  There we found 
that if we 'change operator' to another op, call with that recorded 
message, then 'change operator' back to the original, then it works 
again.  No explanation for that behaviour but I will inform the WL 
programmer.  I have found that it is necessary to do a 'save 
configuration' to keep the radio setup and other items we enter in SetUp 
in [Ports]

I think my SoundBlaster MP3+ has a problem.  I've substituted Ron's 
spare and now have all three of these stations running with identical 
setups using the MP3+.  Still to test mine to see if it really has a 
problem or it's some of the random weird behavior we've been seeing in 
WL and the audio setups.  I also swapped headphones, mics, Heil 
adaptors, audio cables and other stuff trying to find problems.

That should be about it for the computer and software update.

Ron and I have spent considerable time on all this, beside his work 
putting all the software on and commissioning  the new computers. I'm 
surprised that we haven't worn them out from the number of restarts 
we've had to do!!!

73, Bob