[UK-CONTEST] Win-Test

[Simon Pearson]

Hi folks,

I came across Win-Test, a Windows contest logging program 
written by Oliver F5MZN (who also wrote the open source DX 
cluster software, 'DXNet'). From what I've seen thus far, it 
looks very promising!

There is a trial version available from the website at 
www.win-test.com. To register the program costs 30 EUR, which 
currently works out at around 20 GBP. Not bad considering what 
WriteLog costs!

The interface is very attractive and has some interesting 
tools. Namely a [decent] bandmap, greyline map, N+1 partial 
search and all the usual stuff found in competing contesting 
software. And, the interface looks fantastic! Window moving, 
resizing etc is actually easy and windows can actually 
'float', which can be very useful at times.

Of course, Win-Test supports most (if not all) SO2R switching 
devices (e.g. ZS4TX, W5ZD, WX0B, DX Doubler), CW interfaces 
(COM + LPT), soundcard DVK etc. It directly supports USB 
CAT/CW/DVK interfaces, too, such as the EZMaster from I4UFH 
and the microHAM USB interfaces.

The supported contest list is growing - it supports all major 
contests (inc IOTA and has direct support for the EU Sprint) 
and a few smaller contests, too (inc LZ DX, SP DX, SAC, CQ-M 
etc). Of course, we must not forget that the reason WriteLog 
supports such a wide number of contests is thanks to the 
third-party contest 'modules', written by various individuals 
- this is due to WriteLog's widespread use amongst major 
contesters.

Finally, Win-Test seems to handle multi-op environments well. 
In fact, it explicitally mentions the words "mult" and 
"passing" in the same sentence! So, a tool to win for the 
multi-op teams? Oh and one very last point: Win-Test was used 
by the TM0HQ team in IARU in 2004 on all stations.

If anyone has any experience of using Win-Test, I'd be 
delighted to hear from you! I'm seriously considering 
purchasing this software.

73,

-- 
Simon Pearson * M0CLW
   UK Young Contesters
   WW Young Contesters
      Chiltern DX Club
        Cray Valley RS