[RTTY] N1MM and AutoHotkey

[Dennis]

I, too, am looking forward to N2AMG's new N1MM code.  At the suggestion 
of someone, I tried AutoHotkey for the first time, and I have to say it 
worked great, and could be used to enhance any of the popular logging 
programs.  Here's what I did with it for SO2R operations:

1. PgUp Key: I'm one that likes to know where the Focus always is.  So I 
reprogrammed the PgUp key to send the keystrokes {PAUSE}{F1}.  Wherever 
the foci were, they were brought together and a CQ was called.  Since I 
operated the entire contest as SO2R, as soon as the first CQ was 
completed, I would again press the PgUp key, the foci would shift to the 
other radio and it would call CQ.

2. PgDn Key: If I got an answer to my first CQ, as soon as the second 
radio CQ was complete I would press the PgDn Key.  That would send the 
keystrokes {PAUSE}{F12}{F5}{F2}{SPACE}.  In English, it would switch the 
foci back to the first radio, GRAB the top call in the grab box (in 
N1MM's F12 was just the macro {GRAB}, send his call, send the exchange, 
and push the cursor to the RcvNr line for my input.  When the station 
sent his number, I keyed it in manually and manually pushed the ENTER 
key when I was sure I had it correct.

3. Home Key: I set up the home key to emulate the "NEXT" function.  It 
would send the keystrokes {F11}{F10}{F5}{F2}{SPACE}, or in English, F11 
in N1MM was {LOG}, F10 in N1MM was "TU {GRAB} NOW", F5 sent his call, F2 
sent the Exchange, and Space put the cursor into the RcvNr window.  
Unfortunately, this worked sometimes, and didn't work other times.  
Sometimes, when I sent the TU message to the first station I worked, 
N1MM would send his call again and he would go back to the top of the 
Grab window.  Sometimes, when I sent the TU message, his call wasn't 
sent and the "NEXT" work fine.  I haven't figured out what triggered the 
call being sent.  When this worked right, it didn't matter whether I was 
SO2R or SO1R- it accomplished the NEXT function.

4. Scroll Lock: While I was at it, I reprogrammed this key to emulate 
the ESC key.

5. End: Also, while I was at it, I reprogrammed this key to emulate the 
ENTER key.

The last two keys were done so that I could emergency escape sending 
without having to move my hand all the way to the ESC key, nor have to 
move a hand or finger to the ENTER key. 

AutoHotkey is a free program.  If anyone would like a copy of the script 
I wrote, please send me an email. 

Necessity, of course, if the mother of invention.  I have arthritis in 
my fingers and wrists, and after the ARRL RU (where I did all the 
keystrokes manually) my hands/wrist hurt bad for 2 days.  After the WPX 
this past weekend, my hands barely hurt more than normal.  I figure the 
above macros and AutoHotkey saved me over 10000 keystrokes this past 
weekend, and made the keystrokes that I did make much easier on my bod.

Dennis W1UE/AJ1I