[Trlog] TRLOG Options

[G0MIC at aol.com]

Hi Tree. Seeing your note about saving memory by excluding extraneous bands 
has prompted me to write about a couple of minor problems and possible solution 
which just happens to tie in with your thoughts in the note.

The problems:

1. The 4 metre (70MHz) band is not catered for and is now being opened up to 
more of Europe and will therefore become more important to add to maintain the 
'one program for all contests' appeal of TRLOG.

2. I have an FT817 and TS2000X (includes 23cms) both of which perform in a 
similar way when changing bands under computer control. Where the bands are 
adjacent on the rig and in the program there is no problem using Alt B or Alt V. 
However, when a band does not exist on the radio such as 222 MHz or 902 MHz and 
you want to jump from 144 MHz to 432MHz (and / or 432 MHz to 1296 MHz in the 
case of the TS2000X) you cannot do it from the program. The program displays a 
jump to the next band which does not exist and then reverts back to the 
original band.  Similarly you cannot rotate through all the band in a loop as you 
can when there is no radio connected (the millimetre bands get in the way as 
well)  The work around /solutions are to change band on the radio or type in a 
specific frequency to go to.  The later option means that you do not return to 
your previously used frequency unless you can remember what it was.  I would 
expect a similar result from the IC706 but do not have access to one at the 
moment to test this out.

Suggestions for you to consider

Add a BAND SELECT command so that the user can set up which bands he wants to 
use.  Bands would be defined as 160, 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 10, HF, WARC, 6, 
4, 2, 222, 432, 902, 1GH, 2GH, 3GH, 5GH, 10GH and LGT. Possible variations 
are HFNW for HF bands without WARC bands and HFWW for HF with WARC bands  You 
may wish to consider 60 metres as well just in case! 

Sample set ups might be:-

For HF only (no WARC bands) contests maybe 
BAND SELECT = HF

UK VHF Field Day  running only 2 metres and 23cms from a single station maybe
BAND SELECT = 2 1GH

A single band contest on 70MHz
BAND SELECT = 4

General logging on the FT817 maybe 
BAND SELECT = HF WARC 6 2 432
or alternatively
BAND SELECT = 160 80 40 30 20 17 15 10 6 2 432

For those bands that are predominantly served by transverters (4 and 2GHz and 
up) the band information would be all zeroes as at present.

I know this means a lot more work on your part and maybe this will have to 
wait for version 7 but if you have the ideas now then at least you can plan 
ahead and incorporate parts of this in the code now in readiness.

Sorry this is such a long post.

Thank you for your efforts and hard work

Malcolm
G0MIC