[TRLog] Re: trlog

[KL7RA]

Hello Peter

I agree with all of Phil's comments and suggestions, here
are mine that might help as well.

>We are using TRLog in Multi/ multi operation for 4 years now, but increasing
>number of qso's gives us a growing delay of the single qso logged into the
>program as the contest develop.

This is an error and should not happen. There should be no delay from the
first qso to the last. 

With a network of six P90's and a seventh used as the internet interface
we logged 11000 QSO's in the WW. There is no delay and we use all
features including SCP, bandmap with spots flowing, interfaced radios.
Each PC holds the complete log. They start around 140K and at the end
of the contest with the bandmap clean they showed around 70k.

The problem may be one or more PC's in the network is not set up right.

To start troubleshooting this problem I would remove the network and make 
sure each PC will log a QSO without delay. The cursor should jump to either
line in an instant, without delay, regardless of the size of the log, trmaster, etc.

You will see a delay on older machines that have a problem with the overlays
and also on machines that have loaded the DOS defaults. These defaults are
too low for TRLog after version 6.34 or so.  If the machine uses windows
defaults at bootup then it should be okay. Windows also loads Smartdrv
correctly, DOS 6.22 defaults will not.

>We have installed Smartwork.
Peter, I do not know this program. TRLog requires the hard-disk controller
to be buffered to allow fast transfer of the overlays required by Turbo Pascal. 
Most everyone will use DOS Smartdrv.exe to do this. It must be installed
correctly as the DOS defaults are wrong. I use the following arguments which
allow TRLog to run as fast as possible:

LH /L:0;1,42384 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE 

>All the pc's are 75MHz Pentium with 16Mb ram.


I use 90 MHZ Pentiums also with 16MB ram, very little difference. I found
486 100 MHZ machines are about the lowest you can go in a network and
486 50 MHZ start to show problems, as Phil mentioned.

>When we start the contest we have typically 130.000Kb in upper right corner
>of the program page. After app. 2500 qso's the program start to delay the 
>accept of a qso, and about 4000 qso's it's realy a problem to keep the timing.


I'm going to guess this a memory management problem where DOS wasn't
moved to high memory (UMB) or more probably disk-caching is not set up
correctly or being used. 

>Calculating the value of a qso gives app. 80 Bytes. The manual says app. 8
>Bytes?

I believe the manual is correct but you may be seeing the "reserve" blocks
being taken. For example after a fresh start enter one call and you will
see the memory drop a large amount as the program reserves that
area for more calls similar in nature.

>Could you give me an example of a LOGCFG.DAT configured for our purpose?
>Thank you in advance.
>Peter oz5wq


I'm not sure that would be of much value, in my case everything is "on".

One thing I noticed, you said you use one PC for spots. It is on the web?
How do you run TRLog and the internet? I have noticed in the past
that a lot of problems have come up when trying to run TRLog from
windows. This might be someplace to look. 

I have one windows machine running spots with DXTelnet that is
connected to the internet. It sends spots to the network via the serial
port. One of the six network machines has a packet port assigned to
except the spots and it relays them around the network.

TRLog only runs on DOS 6.22 machines in my six PC network plus the 
seventh PC that is used for the internet connection.

Hope some of this helps, 73 Rich KL7RA