[RTTY] GU0SUP BARTG Sprint

[Phil Cooper]

Hi all,

Well, that was different! Starting a contest with a new PC, running Win7 for
only 2 weeks, AND using the Microham MKII for the first time in a contest
was all very different!
Since getting the new PC, I have spent some time learning new things for
Win7, and I have had to install all my software from scratch, so that was
rather daunting too.
MMTTY worked OK, as did various PSK programs, and Writelog appeared to
install without any issues. I am sure I will have forgotten to load at least
one contest module add-on, but time will tell.
Still can't quite get used to the slow RTTY sent from the Microham, but as
more and more appear to suffer the same, I guess it won't make much
difference, and I will get used to it!
Prior to the MKII, when MMTTY had stopped sending the text, the Tx would
stop, but now, after MMTTY has stopped, there is still one at least one full
callsign still being sent.

So, after starting almost 2 hours late due to other problems, I started with
a bit of S&P to get used to things, as Win7 does things a little
differently!
I got 4 contacts logged, and then got a blue screen from Win7, which I had
not bargained for! After 2 re-boots (needed because after the 1st, it did
not see some peripherals), I started again, but a bit more cautiously.
I then started to find that the key mapping was obviously set to the default
settings, and that I had changed them to suit me on my previous PC. Some
were easy enough to change, or so I thought, but then I found that under
Win7, the Writelog.ini file isn't where it used to be! So then I make
changes to the correct ini file, and some more things are working. Fine so
far.
A bit later, I started CQ'ing, and then found yet another key that did not
behave as I wanted.
Previously, I have always used the INSERT key to put a highlighted call into
the call field and send a report (F2). It wasn't doing this, but was sending
the contents of F10. I did find the line in the INI file, and changed that,
but sometimes it worked, and sometimes it sent F10 again.
I also found that the mousewheel tuning appears to operate wherever the
mouse cursor is. Under WinXP, this only used to work if the cursor was
actually in the callsign field. Under Win7, it seems to operate no matter
which window has focus.
I even tried going to the packet window, clicking in that window to make it
active, and trying the mousewheel to see if it would scroll through the
spots. No, it changed frequency!

All of the above slowed me down a huge amount, and after that first blue
screen right at the start, I kept wondering if it would happen again, but
no, the PC held up after that.

Lots of new calls logged and also seen from here, which is good to see.
Had a few problems with folk calling over each other, especially as a lot of
folk only sent TU 001 001 001 BK, with no callsign.
I had to re-call H2E on 15m, as a UT station started calling CQ over his
exchange, and then heard me, and sent a report. As a consequence, I wasn't
sure who the report was from. I also had the usual niggles of folk calling
me, then QSY'ing 100Hz and CQ'ing, which made life difficult.

Anyway, here is what I managed:
 	 QSOs
80m: 	39
40m:	32
20m:	177
15m:	6
10m:	0
Total:	254
Continents:		5
Call Areas:		14
DXCC:			46
Total multipliers:	60
Score:			76200

I did miss out on W6, and sadly missed VE6, and no VK/ZL or any other OC for
that last continent.
It was good to see so many W7's around too!

My log is already on LoTW, and paper cards are always welcomed.

73 all

Phil GU0SUP


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