[RTTY] Tools and contesting

[f6irf at free.fr]

>From:  "ws7i " <ws7i at ewarg.org>
>Prior to WF1B I used Scotchlog. It  was best used while drinking Scotch! But I
did win contests with it as well.

Good to see, that not everybody is taking it too seriously...
>From a few of the emails received, was about to think that "abuse of contesting
may affect your sense of humour"...


>From:  "DESLOOVERE DIRK" <d.desloovere at skynet.be>
>Some reasons :
>- the countless updates drive me nuts

Easily agree with this...  and as already mentionned the worst being to see old
"fixed bugs" coming back...
Understand, that for many it is a sufficient reason to stay away...

However based on the 8 past contests, version 4 seems to have reach a kind of
maturity (mean: experienced  a few problems but none of them did affect the
final score... IE never needed to reboot, never lost any QSO). Obviously it
does not mean it will never happen... but let say that with the number of QSO's
already done with it,I have now built a sufficient level of confidence...

Good recommendations would be:
- don't downlowad/install latest release just before the contest
- test the contest module entering dummy QSO's... make sure scoring / mult count
is according to latest rules
- make sure the software never freeze or becomes unstable, even when trying
silly things... (each PC is different... something which works on a machine may
not work on another...)
- keep older "tested" releases for "downgrade" if required (did several
times...)


>From:  dl4rck at t-online.de (Walter Dallmeier)
>the WAEDC Contest is celebrating the 50th anniversary (13/14. Nov.
>RTTY).
>RCKRtty is freeware in 2004 specially for this contest to increase the
>activity.

That's an excellent initiative Walter, and really hope it's going to boost the
participation in the WAE...  For sure gonna give a try...