[WriteLog] W4AN Suggestions and Up/Down Arrows

[Dick Green]

Bill,

Glad to see you're trying WriteLog. Some comments on your posts:

1. If you don't want to see the Country and C fields, but don't want to edit
the QSO Exchange fields for every contest, just add the following line in
the [Multipliers] Section of Writelog.ini:

ShowCountry=0

That'll get rid of those fields in every contest.

(tnx to K5ZD for that suggestion.)

3. I agree that "New Country" should be omitted in the Check Country window
(it might be nice to have the QSO number in there for worked stations, so
you can CTL-G to it from the entry window -- I always want to do that when I
see obvious typos in the exchange.)

4. I like your idea of multiple "mult" windows. In CQWW I networked my
laptop to the main computer and had it keep a second copy of the log for
backup. That way I could display mults, breakdown reports, Greyline program,
propagation reports, etc., without messing up the main WL screen.

5. Personally, I like the old CT-style rate meter. In case you haven't found
it in the help file, you can right-click on the rate window and select
either style (plus rate by band or all-band.)

7. No support for LPT is indeed MS's fault. The interface drivers aren't
available in NT or Win2K. I use the W5XD+ outboard keyer board, which
provides CW keying and optimum two-radio switching from a COM port. I
integrated the board with my old NA relay box so either program can drive
the switching (not that I would ever go back to NA...) It's also setup so WL
can use either the LPT interface or the W5XD+ keyer. The outboad keyer
avoids potential timing problems in Windows. If you have badly behaved
programs running on your system (like certain HP scanner drivers), the
PC-generated CW can stutter. A reasonable fast machine without such drivers
will work fine for most people -- stutters will be very rare and most people
won't notice them. I'm picky, so I prefer the keyer. The keyer also supports
paddles, which can't be done from the LPT port like the DOS-based NA. The
keyer provides two-radio CW switching via two separate keyer output lines.
Finally, the keyer is the only way to get split audio switching or to use
the audio latch feature (I haven't gotten used to the audio latch, but it
might have potential.)The keyer can share the same COM port used for one of
the rigs. Note that SSB mic switching is done via the soundboard.

8. I know one of your favorite NA features is the two-radio switching. The
most recent version of WL includes an Auto Resume feature, which allows
similar operation: you can start a CQ on one radio, then move the keyboard
focus to the other radio's entry window by hitting SHIFT-UP or SHIFT-DOWN.
This is how you do a dupe check (like ALT-D in NA.) Note that the little
green oval stays with the first radio. That indicates which radio has
"transmit focus". The highlighted window tells you which radio has "keyboard
focus". Anyway, after you split the focus and do a dupe check, you can drop
in your call with F4. The CQ stops, your call is sent on the second radio
(the green oval jumps to the second radio), then the CQ resumes (the green
oval jumps back to the first radio.) To activate this feature, check the
Auto Resume box in the Timed-CQ dialog box (hit ALT-T to bring it up.) Any
function key that does not contain a %X command will cause this action. This
lets you choose which function keys change the context. I put a %X in my F1
key so that I can hit ESC to stop the CQ and hit F1 to resume it manually
(without %X in F1, the CQ would be issued on the second radio.) If someone
calls you on the first radio while the focus is split, you can hit UP or
DOWN to reunite the focus. Be careful -- there's a new feature that causes
the arrow keys to rotate into the log edit window. This usually gets me when
I need to move the transmit focus to the second radio. That can be done
explicitly with CTL-UP or CTL-DOWN, but I often forget and use UP or DOWN,
with bad results (see next item.)

9. On the UP and DOWN keys, I never thought about it, but you're right that
moving your hands to the arrow keys several thousand times during a contest
is annoying. However, there's a good solution -- use any of the abundantly
available keyboard remapper programs for Windows. I use one now to map the ~
and SHIFT-~ keys into macros that select Normal and Split audio from the
Radio Menu (there's no hotkey for those commands.) I also map INSERT to the
"-" key, which puts it right next to the "+" key. Just now I tried mapping
UP, DOWN, SHIFT-UP, SHIFT-DOWN, CTL-UP and CTL-DOWN to the punctuation keys
(semicolon, period, brackets, etc.) and that works fine. By the way, I use
labels on the mapped keys instead of trying to remember what they do. I
happen to use a shareware program called Keyboard Remapper, made in Hungary
I think. I checked the website address and it's no longer valid, so maybe
you should try a different one. There are lots out there. This particular
one requires using a macro for mapping SHIFT and CTL sequences. I'm sure
Wayne could include a remapping feature in WL, like NA does, but given the
availability of cheap (or free) Windows programs dedicated to this function,
I don't think it's worth his time.

I wish I'd thought to remap those arrow keys this weekend! Hope you'll stick
around and make more suggestions.

73, Dick WC1M



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