[UK-CONTEST] Writelog on CW

[Chris Tran GM3WOJ]

Hello again all

This may or may not be worthy of a separate thread.
(Thanks to Dave BUO and Don XTT for the detailed explanations
about log-checking, etc)

My only experience of WL is in a Multi-Multi environment (7 PCs
on a network) last November in CQ WW CW, so some of the
'problems' I'm talking about may be unique to networked WL, or
may be set-up problems - I'm always ready to admit blunders in
setting up software, but we did spend some time trying to make WL
behave exactly like CT, without total success.   The following
comments are specifically about CQ WW CW at a Multi-op, so
you can stop reading now if this is not of interest ....

1.   Callsign/Zone entry
>From my experience, it does not seem possible to configure WL
so that you enter the callsign into the callsign field and hit <return>
to log the QSO (setting aside how you want to reply to the station)
- with WL it appears that you MUST hit the <space-bar>, which toggles
you across into the 'Zone' field, then hit <return>    If you accidentally
hit the space-bar twice, then the 'Zone' entry is deleted, and you have to
re-type it. This extra <space-bar> step is time-wasting and unnecessary
- about 15% of all U.S. QSOs are now in different zones from what the
software guesses, and this figure is increasing each year, but for 99% of
all non-U.S. QSOs changing the zone is not necessary.

2.   Correcting callsigns while sending
Operating techniques vary of course, but the method I use is to try to
type the whole callsign into the field before hitting <insert> or f5, f2
As Tim suggested, I often start sending with perhaps the callsign prefix,
then fill in the suffix as it's being sent.   However, with WL, it seems
to prevent you correcting the whole callsign once it has sent the first 1 or
2 letters - it will send the complete callsign as you have entered it.
(even the last 1 or 2 letters that you may have deleted on the screen)
I've tested this on a 1200MHz PC, so don't think it is a PC speed
issue, but it could be a Windows or WL networking problem.
You might say "Just resend the corrected callsign", but this again wastes
a lot of time in a 48 hour event - you want to be replying to the next
station a.s.a.p.

Conclusion - I do not like Writelog - yes it gives you lots of info, but
unless you have a 17" or 19" monitor a lot of it is difficult to read in a
hurry, despite changing fonts, etc.   Also, in a Multi-op environment
it is almost impossible to prevent operators fiddling with the layout of
the screen during their operating time, and you may arrive at a PC
and find a very unexpected screen layout.   Writelog will get better,
(more complicated is not necessarily better) and until then I'm
using CT as often as I can !

Any help with configuring Writelog to overcome these 'problems'
will be greatly appreciated.

73
Chris     GM3WOJ