[WriteLog] Problem, network & serial number

[Don Hill AA5AU]

I am addressing this to the whole group as there may be others that
may want to know about this.

Vince, the first problem is the laptop not sending the QSO to the desktop.
Until you clear this up, you will always have a problem.  I don't have
any suggestions on how to fix this, but you must clear it up first.  When
you log a contact on one computer, it should immediately show up on the
other computers log.  If not, you have some sort of networking situation.

Now a word about serial numbers when using two computers networked.
Problems can arise in certain situations.  The most common problem is when
you have a callsign in the entry window of both PC's.  WriteLog will assign
the same serial number to both.  It's best to always keep the callsign field
in the Entry Window clear unless you are making a contact or about to make
a contact.

There will be times when you want a callsign in both Entry windows.  When
this happens, there are several things that can happen.  First off, you need to
make a QSO on PC "A", so you send the serial number showing for that
PC and let's say it's number 100.  As you come off your transmit, and waiting
for the other person to send his serial number to you before you can log it,
you may need to send the station on PC "B" a serial number.  If this happens,
the best way I've found to do this is to set up a separate buffer other than
your regular QSO Exchange buffer that goes like this:

%C 599 %I BK%E

What happens here is that the radio will key and send the other stations callsign,
then 599, then a small dialog box pops up where you can manually type in the
next serial number 101, hit return and "101" is sent out along with BK and the
transmitter unkeys.  It's pretty slick really and works great.  I normally use F3 for
my regular QSO Exchange buffer and Shift+F4 for this special "insert" QSO
Exchange buffer.

Now you can go ahead and log the QSO on PC "A" since the serial number was
correct.  However, if you log the QSO on PC "B", it will also have QSO serial
number 100, so you must change this.

There are a couple of things you can do here.  What I like to do is log the QSO
on PC "A" as soon as possible, then click on the highlighted callsign on PC "B"
of the station you are working (if it's highlighted on your screen).  What this does
is put the callsign back into the Entry Window on PC "B" and changes the
serial number to 101 next to it.  Now all you have to do is add the other stations
serial number and log the QSO.  It takes some getting used to but it's not that
difficult.

Let's say you make a mistake.  You log QSO "A" with serial number 100.  You go
ahead and use your special "insert" QSO Exchange buffer on PC "B" and type in
"101" and all goes well, but then you go ahead and log the QSO and it shows up
as "100" in the log.  You now have two QSO's that have the same 100 serial number.
All you have to do to correct this is to double click on the serial number in the log
and another dialog box will pop up where you can enter the correct serial number.
You type in 101, or use the arrow keys to increase 100 to 101 (a different option)
and hit return or OK and WL asks you if you want the next serial number to be 102.
It's all pretty slick.

If for some reason the callsign on PC "B" is not highlighted, you have to clear the
QSO Entry window on "B" with ALT-W and manually re-enter it in order for WL
to give it 101.  The only time you really have a problem is when you have already
entered the serial number of the other station on PC "B".  You have to remember
what this serial number is, because if you click on the station's call in the Rttyrite
window, it will repopulate the QSO Entry window and wipe out the serial number
you have entered.  This is really not a problem because you can always get the other
station's serial number off the Rttyrite screen even if it has scrolled off.

But the key is to keep the Entry Window clear of any callsigns unless you need
one in there.  Many times I will click on a callsign so I can put it on the bandmap
or for whatever reason.  I immediately clear the entry window with ALT-W as
soon as I am through doing whatever I was doing with the callsign in the Entry Window.

But first things first.  You need to fix the networking problem between the two PC's.

Hope this helps.  Maybe someone else can help you with your networking problem.

73, Don AA5AU

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Vince Walton" <hamradio@earthlink.net>
To: "Writelog Reflector" <writelog@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, August 19, 2002 12:11 PM
Subject: [WriteLog] Problem, network & serial number


> I have started doing SO2R here, using two computers networked, one is a
> desktop and the other is a laptop, both the same speed, when working the
> SARTG RTTY contest this last weekend, the desktop computer sent the
> contacts to the laptop computer with no problems, but when I used the
> laptop computer for a contact, it would not always use the correct QSO
> number, sometimes it would use the same number as the last QSO, and
> sometimes it would jump a number, and sometimes it would use the correct
> QSO number, any ideas as what would cause this?, also the laptop did not
> always send the QSO entry to the desktop computer, do not recall having
> these problems before, and I am using the same computers as before. And I
> never could find a way to correct this. I am using version 10.30b of
> Writelog.
> 
> 
> --- Vince Walton
> --- hamradio@earthlink.net
> 
> 
> 
> 
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