[TRLog] 6.60 Observations ...

[Billy Cox]

Some notes from the Phone SS ...

Two rigs, two computers, networked together, both have the 
K1EA DVK boards ... been using this with TR for years now.

First issue ... contest started OK ... somewhere along the way TR 
"forgot" the DVPTSR had been loaded ... Never seen that before. 
Exited TR, unloaded the TSR and then reloaded it ... all OK after 
that. Only happened once, and on PC-B. Not a biggie at all.

TR has a sequence that allows "record on the fly" with the 
DVK ... I'd like to have a Control-J option that PREVENTS that ... 
as in the WW SSB and the SB SS, I'd fumble something at the 
keyboard and managed to wipe out my F1/etc. message ...

Granted that's a minor nit. I have NO idea of what the exact
pattern of keystrokes is ... but "trust me" it works ! <sigh>

Next up ... The following happened near the end of the contest: 
Here's a snapshot of a portion of the log on PC-A:

15SSB 18-Nov-01 22:06 1072B K7RFI ...
40SSB 18-Nov-01 22:06 1073A WO8HIO  ......
15SSB 18-Nov-01 22:08 1073B AC4IK      ......

See the problem ?   1073 was assigned TWICE !

Here's PC-B's log ... for the same time slice ...

15SSB 18-Nov-01 22:06 1072B K7RFI ...
15SSB 18-Nov-01 22:08 1073B AC4IK      ......

Two things ... Now PC-B was OFF by one number AT TIMES,
<more on that as we go forward here> and where the heck is 
the WO8HIO QSO ... and nothing I did ... close log, restart, etc. 
made any difference. So I started a hand log with the actual 
# number for the rest of the contest for PC-B as it kept showing 
the wrong QSO number, being OFF by one or so ... UGH. 

>From when I first noticed this at the TR PROMPT on each 
computer screen here (I saw one was at #1107 and the other 
at 1108, I DO have a list of what I DID send to the stations 
until the end of the contest from # 1107- #1152 ... and plan on
editing the *.DAT file that I will submit to indicate what I sent, 
but ... what about the missing #'s ?)

Doing an ALT-L and searching for WO8HIO on PC-B's log
finds nothing ... I've never seen this before. Any idea what 
happened to cause this ? More important, what is the right 
way to recover from this during a contest ?  I can see how I
might have fumbled at the keyboard as to the 'double #'
perhaps ... but why didn't PC-A send the WO8HIO QSO
date to PC-B at all ... everything else before/after went FB ?

Now ... keep in mind that with QSO # 1073 being used
TWICE ... no other QSO numbers were lost ... as in #1072
and QSO# 1074 show up on BOTH computers ...

I thought that was it ... but now, after looking closer at the log.
Same thing "sort of" happened again ... several times.

15SSB 18-Nov-01 22:36 1101B N4FR
80SSB 18-Nov-01 22:37 1103A W1NG
15SSB 18-Nov-01 22:40 1103B K5QQ
15SSB 18-Nov-01 22:40 1104B WE9A

There is NO QSO # 1102 ... W1NG should have been # 1102 
... but I am certain that I sent him whatever the TR screen 
showed ... and that would have been #1103.

So W1NG AND K5QQ BOTH have the same serial number from 
AA4NU. I'm screwed, but they should not be penalized for this !

Same thing at 1114, no 1113
Same thing at 1130, no 1129
Same thing at 1135, no 1134
Same thing at 1137, no 1136
Same thing at 1139, no 1138
Same thing at 1150, no 1149

Examples: PC-A's log 

20SSB 18-Nov-01 23:36 1150A K9MI ...
15SSB 18-Nov-01 23:38 1150B WZ2T ...

PC-B's log 

20SSB 18-Nov-01 23:36 1150A K9MI ...
15SSB 18-Nov-01 23:38 1150B WZ2T ...

This time ... the data went correctly between
BOTH computers, but the #'s were used twice ?

This is very different from the WO8HIO QSO ...
But the problem started with the WO8HIO QSO,
and that started only AFTER hitting "the four digits".
Was there something about the WO8HIO callsign ?

And each time this happens, there is a loss of another 
QSO # ... now but this is different from # 1073 situation.

So why ZERO problems until I hit the four digit serial numbers
and AFTER WO8HIO ? 

I used the same Run/S&P or S&P/S&P style all thru the contest. 
It was NOT every QSO made on a different band that did this "use 
same one number twice and lose 1 number." There are some that 
logged OK ... In every case with the RUN radio on PC-B, it was
on 15M ... that I see as a common data point.  However I used
both computers as the RUN stations on other bands ... so don't 
think that is it ...

I was feeling great about my best ever SS score, now
I am feeling rather sick as to the impact on other stations.

Biggest question I have ... as looks like my SS log might be
at best a large check log ... what should I do about the QSOs 
where I gave indeed in a few cases did pass identical serial 
numbers to the other stations? Since I have the hand log, it 
won't be that many ... however ...

They should not be penalized for whatever went wrong here. 
Ideas ? Or will the corrected CABRILLO format make these 
errors OK when what I sent is compared to what they put in 
THEIR logs ?

No other burps or lockups, in fact it's been quite awhile since 
I can recall anything other problems. TR was solid for 1170 
Qs in the SSB WW.

Other wish list items ?

TR provided interlock between PC-A/Rig-A and PC-B/Rig-B
TR provided dueling CQing between PC-A/Rig-A and PC-B/Rig-B
<these two would seem to be very related as to programming?>

Seems like some MS setups for SS/etc. could use the above also.

Would appreciate your thoughts on how to address this for the 
moment, and what to do to prevent this from reoccurring again 
in the next similar contest.

I have now learned that another SO2R station, using only 1 
computer also lost a QSO in both the CW and SSB SS in a 
similar fashion ... this may or may not be related to what has
happened here with my log.

TU 73 Billy AA4NU




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