[WriteLog] Friend ini

[Barry]

On 26 Aug 2003 at 15:17, K4SB wrote:

> Jim Reisert AD1C wrote:
> >    A call has to show up in 'n' logs in order to be included.
> >    Increase or decrease 'n' until the database is the desired size.
> 
> Well, that certainly is a good idea except for one thing. Only about
> 10 individuals, in spite of my requests for logs, have responded with
> logs. NONE of these are from call areas 1,2,3,6,8, or 0 of the US. In
> fact, the majority of the logs are from DX stations.
> 
> I recently wrote a small search program, and it took .03 seconds with
> Win98SE to find the last call in the full friend.ini file. I hardly
> think that is excessive. If you think it slows your rate down, well,
> that's your decision.
> 
> Now, how about those contests where only North America stations
> participate, such as the NAQP. I reduced the file to only US calls,
> and it is about 63,000+ bytes. But, that leaves no room for our VE and
> other NA friends if my hunch that Wayne has set a max buffer size of
> 0FFFFh ( 65,536 bytes if I remember correctly ) for this file.
> 
> The ARRL survey showed 98SE only 2+% below those users of XP. If we
> then assume that the same 29% of WL users use 98, then the problem is
> not of a minor nature, and should be fixed.  
> 
> But, I am not going to cut out a single person who gets on in a RTTY
> contest just because he doesn't show up in "n" logs.
> 
> 73
> Ed

Ed,
Maybe the number of responses you're get is telling you something - 
like friend.ini files have nothing to do with contesting, and, if 
anything, slow down the rate with unnecessary information. 
As has been pointed out earlier, when WF1B introduced friend.ini, his 
intent was a way to personalize an exchange for one's HANDFUL of 
"friends" (hence the name FRIEND.ini), which is easy enough for each 
op to customize, and use or not use, as he sees fit. 
If someone asked me for a copy of my log, to update the supercheck 
partial file (as AA5AU has done), I'm the first one to volunteer, as 
that file has some use in contesting.
73,
Barry W2UP--
Barry Kutner, W2UP              Internet: w2up at mindspring.com
Newtown, PA                     Frankford Radio Club