[TenTec] New Computer

[Jim Brown]

On 10/29/2017 1:48 AM, rick at dj0ip.de wrote:
> For the non-contesters, CT is the old DOS-based contest logging software.
>
> I stuck with CT until WIN-TEST announced.
I started contesting in 1956 or 57, all CW. It was paper logs and paper 
dupe sheets. As I went through life, I was on and off the air for 
decades at a time, and the next time I contested was in the '70s. Still 
paper logs and paper dupe sheets, but I had a programmable AEA keyer 
that could do serial numbers! From a very modest station on a postage 
stamp sized Chicago city lot, I placed 1st or 2nd in a LP CW SS. All the 
great ops must have been running HP. :)

Fast forward to 2003, and I was doing research into RFI to audio gear. A 
friend arranged for me to set up the gear next to his club's Field Day 
antennas. After I'd finished those tests, I saw an empty chair at one of 
the CW stations and asked if I could sit down. I got up 5 hours later. 
They were using WriteLog, and I had a terrible time with it. Did OK with 
the CW though -- thanks to my early proficiency, it always came back for 
me.  I got back on the air at home, first with an antenna that ran 
through my attic and partially outdoors, and eventually the antenna farm 
that's on at least one set of Power Point slides. I bought WriteLog, got 
back into contesting, and got pretty good with the software.

When I move to W6, I immediately joined NCCC, a great contesting club 
centered between San Francisco and Reno, and was invited to join the 
multi-op team at N6RO's super station. Depending on the contest, they 
used CT or another popular DOS logger, both of which I found varying 
degrees of inscrutable. Around 2007, my second FD in W6 was with a group 
whose leader advised a few months before that we were going to use N1MM 
for logging, so I downloaded it, installed it, and started using it in 
some contests. Within a year, I had dumped WriteLog and have used N1MM 
ever since.

> We actually did the premiere announcement of WIN-TEST on our "Appello" booth
> (the TEN-TEC booth) in Friedrichshafen, either the first or second year that
> the Orion was launched (can't remember which).

A few of my friends out here who are great contesters love WinTest. It 
does not support CQP, and maybe not RTTY, so I haven't bothered to buy 
and learn another one. I'm quite happy with N1MM.

> The French authors gave us
> all a free license for WIN-TEST so I finally dumped CT and went Windows for
> logging - but still on a laptop.
>
> Rapid recovery in contests was the reason I continued with a laptop.

That's certainly part of it, and also a reason why I won't do contest 
logging on a computer running Win 10.  But i leave my computers running 
24/7, so protecting them from power failures is a primary reason.

> NOW:  Jim, if we are both honest with ourselves, I don't think either of us
> old men are ever going to win a contest again.  I haven't won a contest
> (overall) since 2005.  And we're not getting any younger.

I occasionally place well, and even win for my ARRL Section or Division 
in my class, and a year ago, set a world record for 80M in All Asia CW.  
That's a contest for which I have the same advantage of location that 
stations in W1 have in WW DX contests.

> I put ferrite (clamps) over both ends of all the cables and so far I haven't
> had any trouble with it interfering with the station.

Simply placing a ferrite clamp on a wire is pretty much useless for HF 
-- multiple turns are required.

73, Jim K9YC