[UK-CONTEST] Software Poll

[Bob Henderson]

Surely we're all grown up enough to understand that "Best" only has value 
when qualified by "Purpose".

We can take it for granted that any user fully satisfied with his logger 
will currently feel it the best for his purposes.  It's reading about the 
"how & why" folks feel a particular product to be the best that's useful and 
informative to others.  I would think this might help the unfamiliar guage 
the liklihood of a product meeting their particular requirements.

I am one who openly admits to not knowing which is the "Best" contest 
logger.  At this point in time I don't even know which is the best for me. 
And that's after 40 years of contesting and around half that time using 
computer logging.

The first commercial contest logger I purchased was Paul's SD.  I was 
delighted with it.  My rate improved overnight and I suddenly had no more 
paper logs to wade through and rewrite legibly for submission.  I was 
delighted with SD but outgrew it.  This was because I wanted to contest in a 
multi radio environment and SD lacked the necessary support.

Next I moved to CT which filled the gap in SD capability but was also a DOS 
program.  CT was always excellent but when the rest of my world became 
heavily invested in Windows I found switching to DOS for contesting a 
nuisance.

I moved over to Writelog which I have used for 8 years now and which has 
mostly been excellent but which now suffers from what I perceive as a lack 
of interest in on-going support & development by Wayne Wright, the owner. 
In particular, requests made over a long period for ESM to be extended to 
properly address S&P requirements have fallen upon deaf ears.  A further 
significant problem is that the computer networking required for multi radio 
use is very flakey.  Many users, myself included, experience network crashes 
with poor recovery for no identifiable reason.  It has become the norm to 
end a contest with every machine showing a different score.

The MD4K gang came here for CQWW Phone last month and wanted to use 
Win-Test.  So we did.  What a refreshing change.  Everything about the 
product was rock solid.  Not a glitch in sight throughout the whole weekend 
and all machines ended with the same score.  Based upon this experience we 
will use Win-Test for our M2 effort in CQWW CW this month.  My only 
disappointment is that WT doesn't yet have ESM functionality.  I'll have to 
wait until next year for that but in the meantime we can live without it for 
the greater benefits of robustness & reliability.

Bob, 5B4AGN, P3F


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ian G3WVG" <g3wvg at btinternet.com>
To: <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 9:30 AM
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] Software Poll


> Hi Peter , Bob
>
> Well it was a bit tongue in cheek ..I suppose my point was that getting
> objective advice on which is the best logger is like asking which is the
> best rig or which is the best car ..
>
> The answer will be entirely predictable. "The best one is the one that I
> currently use".  Then there will be a justification of that system 
> followed
> by a mild denigration of what others prefer.  Possibly with a few ageist
> comments thrown in. (Bob!)
>
> Hence my use of the word "futile".  But you are of course correct I don't
> have to read the postings.
>
> 73 Ian
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Peter Bowyer
> Sent: 06 November 2007 09:05
> To: UK-Contest
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] Software Poll
>
> Why do you consider it futile to discuss the capabilities of logging
> software? Feel free not to read it if it doesn't interest you, but
> this thread has brought up some points which are bound to be of
> interest to someone looking to choose what has become almost as
> important a tool for contesting as a radio and antenna...
>
> Peter G4MJS
>
> On 05/11/2007, Ian G3WVG <g3wvg at btinternet.com> wrote:
>>
>> Aaaaagh ...lets stop this futile thread ..please.
>>
>> Ian G3WVG
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> UK-Contest at contesting.com
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>>
>
>
> -- 
> Peter Bowyer
> Email: peter at bowyer.org
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