[SD-User] ARRL DX Contest

[Kenji Rikitake JJ1BDX]

Folks: I've just put this to the eHam.net review.  I'm pretty much
impressed by the performance of SD.

BTW I've been a software and Internet engineer for 20 years, and "an IT
specialist who happened to be a contester" (see SD manual). 

I believe in simplicity and character-based interface than a fancy (slow
and resource-consuming) graphic interface, and I should say a true IT
specialist should develop something like SD - not something like (name
withheld but you find out many graphic-based Windows logging software).
:-)

I measured the memory consumption of SD during the contest (of 117
QSOs in total), and it took only 5.4Mbytes in the process memory space
on a Windows XP SP2 Japanese version machine.

73
// Kenji Rikitake, JJ1BDX(/3)
// operated JO3FUO on ARRL DX CW 2007 (single-op 20m low-power)

I've tested SD on ARRL DX CW 2007 Contest, and SDX on other daily CW
operations, with K1EL's WinKeyer USB using Winkey V21 chip.  

SD's no-mouse and simple design philosophy attracted me, because I was
sick and tired of the feature-rich and too-many-graphic logging programs
available for Windows.  Of course I suggest you first to consult the
manual (of only 18 pages) to configure and learn the flow of making and
recording contacts, but once you set up the software you don't have to
deal with too many commands.  Switching between running and S&P modes is
equally simple and easy to go back and forth.  In most QSOs, all you've
got to do is to type the Space key, and that impressed me a lot.

While SD is specifically configured for a contest, SDX can be used for
other daily activities, including chatting and calling in a pileup, evey
if you are not in a situation to work a pileup.  Though you can't log
much on SDX, it works very well as a keyboard-sending interface for
Winkey.  

I should also note that Paul, EI5DI is very enthusiastic on supporting
the user community.

[end of review]