[TRLog] TRLog in Multi Environment

[Phil Goetz]

Didn't realize that the reflector didn't accept attachments.

Here's OZ5WQ's original question regarding use of TR in a networked
multi-multi situation.  KL7RA has already responded.   My comments
follow, other observations welcome!  -N6ZZ

 

OZ5WQ, "Peter Vestergaard" <jpvest@mail.tele.dk> wrote:

> Maybe one of you can us a Hint?
> 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.
> The network incoorperates 4- 6 pc's connected together with the N6TR-
> network.
> Until now we always have passed all qso's to everyone pc.
> VHF- Packet has also been avaiable to all, for the running band, but only
> monitoring.
> Packet is controlled by one of the pc's in the network.
> We have installed Smartwork.
> All the pc's are 75MHz Pentium with 16Mb ram.
> 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.
> Calculating the value of a qso gives app. 80 Bytes. The manual says app. 8
> Bytes?
> Could you give me an example of a LOGCFG.DAT configured for our purpose?
> Thank you in advance.
> Peter oz5wq

N6ZZ responded:

Hi Peter....

I'm probably not the most qualified of the folks that you wrote to, but
I can provide some practical information for you.

Each year, I travel with a group of friends to some DX location to
operate the CQWW Contest in October.  We always use TR, and use whatever
notebook comupters we happen to have at the time.

The computers are networked using their serial ports.  Taking last
year's operation as an example, we had 5 computers set up in different
hotel rooms (on Palau, where we operated as T88CC).   We do not use
packet, nor are any of the computers interfaced with the radios.  The
total length of cable between the computers was probably around 75
meters.

By the way, we use shielded audio cable with RCA connectors for our
network.  At each computer, there is a serial plug with two 2-meter
cables attached to it, one ending with a female and the other with a
male RCA connector.  The male is the output from the computer, the
female is the input.  We then have a good selection of audio extension
cables of various lengths with a male connector on one end and the
female connector on the other end....since our stations were separated
quite a bit in Palau, we used quite a few of these extension cables to
string our network between the various rooms where the stations were set
up.  Also, it's very easy to remove one computer from the network, in
case of a problem with it (or if it turns out to be too slow to handle a
heavy QSO load).

We have always configured the network to pass all QSOs from all
stations.  We like this approach, because the entire log is on each
computer in the network, so we don't have to deal with floppy-disk
backups, as well as giving each operator a complete picture of what is
being worked on other bands during the course of the contest.  That
information can be very helpful in passing multipliers!

This year, we made over 9600 QSOs.  As I recall, we had about 130000
showing in the upper right corner of each computer at the beginning.  On
some of the machines, that dropped to as low as 35000 by the end of the
contest, and I think that there were some very minor delays in the
logging program near the end of the contest, but it wasn't too bad.

Generally, I think that the performance of the network is limited by the
weakest computer in the network.  In our case, I felt that the weakest
link was my personal computer....it's a Toshiba, is 6 years old, it has
639K of memory and the processor is 50Mhz.  I'm in the process of
replacing it, not because of it's performance but more because the
keyboard is getting sticky, and you really have to hit some of the keys
hard to get them to log.  In any case, it appears that the computers you
are using are much more powerful than this old Toshiba, so you certainly
shouldn't have any problems making 10000 QSOs in a networked
environment.

You might consider setting up the network, just as you had it at the end
of the contest when you were experiencing the delays, and then remove
one computer at a time from the network to determine if there is one
individual machine that is causing the problems.  If you have a heavy
QSO load in LOG.DAT, like 10000 or more QSOs, the problems of adding
another QSO to the network may become more evident.

I suspect that the problems you're experiencing have to do with things
like how DOS is loaded in the computer, whether you have TSRs running in
the background, whether you're running TR using a DOS window or booting
the computer directly in DOS rather than anything you might have in the
LOGCFG.DAT file.

A few days ago, Rich, KL7RA, provided some excellent examples of very
simple AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files that work well with TR.  I'd be
inclined to put those files onto each of your computers for use during
contest operation so that various startup programs are loaded into the
correct part of the computer, or not at all.

But most important is to take the time (outside of a contest!) to do the
analysis of your network to determine where the problem lies.

Good luck, and I would be very interested in what you discover!

73,

Phil, N6ZZ