[WriteLog] Suggestions from 2001 ARRL DX CW

[Dick Green]

Whew! 3578 QSos (actually, more like 3700 with dupes.) Here are some
improvement suggestions:

1. Character in Entry Window Should Stop Auto CQ (except when focus is
split.)

I use Timed CQ most of the time. Of course, any caller is heard in between
the CQs. When that happens, I concentrate on entering the call, with my
fingers typing away. Unfortunately, the next CQ often starts up before I can
hit the INSERT key to start working the caller (that stops the Auto CQ.) The
result is that I have to remember to hit ESC before I start typing the call.
Quite often I would forget, and the CQ would start up and obliterate copy of
the station that called me. This significantly increased the number of fills
I had to request. I was able to reduce the frequency of the problem by
lengthening the interval between CQ's, but this wasn't desirable on
high-rate bands and wasn't effective if the caller was long-winded.

My suggestion is that WriteLog should abort the Auto CQ when a character is
first typed in the Entry Window. This does *not* mean that any key should
act like ESC -- that's a different function and you wouldn't want any key to
abort a CQ in progress  because you might be dupe checking during the CQ.

The one exception is that this should not happen when the keyboard focus is
split. In that case, any character being typed in is for dupe checking on
the second radio and you don't want the Auto CQ on the main radio aborted.

2. Alternate Keys for Changing CW Speed on Second Radio

I usually set the run radio at a high speed and the S&P radio at a lower
speed. I switch the roles of the run and S&P radios frequently, and I often
find that the CW speed is too fast or two slow on one radio or the other.
Most often, I find myself calling at too high a speed on the S&P radio. When
the transmit/keyboard focus is split for two-radio operation, I have to
move the transmit focus to the second radio in order to change the speed,
which makes me have to temporarily stop the CQ on the run radio. I fumbled
around with this a lot during the weekend.

Could Writelog have an alternate means of setting the speed on the second
radio? Something like SHIFT-ALT F9/F10 or CTRL-ALT F9/F10 would be fine. I'm
not sure what to do if someone has more than two Entry windows open. Anybody
have a better way to do this?

3. Allow Multiple Multiplier Windows or All in One Window

I display WL's mult window on a second monitor so I can quickly see which
mults I need on which bands. Unfortunately, when  I want to check another
region, I have to select it with the mouse. This makes my hands leave the
keyboard. Worse, the focus changes to the mult window and I have to remember
to move it back to the Entry window before the next QSO.

I reduced the problem by displaying a second mult window on a notebook
computer that was networked to the main computer, but this only allowed two
mult windows at a time.

Can WL be enhanced to allow multiple Multiplier windows to be displayed? Or,
could the window have an option to display all regions at the same time? I
think all regions would fit on one screen at 1024x768 and maybe at 800x600.

4. Add Display for Total QSOs

I follow the practice of working almost all dupes. Because of missing serial
numbers, the number at the bottom of the log doesn't tell me exactly how
many QSOs I've worked. Could WL provide a counter somewhere on the screen
for the total number of QSOs? It would also be nice to know the number of
dupes and unclaimed QSOs.

Any comments on these suggestions?

73, Dick WC1M


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