[WriteLog] Redundancy in contests

[Bob McCormick W1QA]

>> Boy was I glad I kept FAT32 on the radio machine, 
>> when it went South (taking the network with it), 
>> and I was able to read the files and dump them 
>> under DOS, to a spare HDD after booting from a floppy.

Few other possibilities:

- install a second copy of whatever NTFS operating
  system you want on another disk (especially if 
  your system has more than one disk in it)
  If you can't boot your normal system ... 
  boot another disk, and then use standard operating
  system tools to analyze & recover the failing/failed
  disk.

- there is, albeit third party, programs that you can
  boot on floppy, CD-ROM, etc. that will give you basic
  access to an NTFS disk / partition ... so you could
  accomplish the same, if your disk was not FAT


>> If the radio machine dies in the middle of 
>> the contest, I can flip the KVM switch and 
>> carry on logging on the other machine 
>> transparently, but of course I have lost RS232 
>> control and automatic keying etc.
[snip]

Although I have seen instances where RS232 or
EIA-232-D cables have been put in parallel
(for example, the serial output of a satellite
data converter box, feeding two separate PC's
that ingest the data) ... this is not recommended.

What first comes to mind is the simple serial
A/B box ... a switch would also work fine in
the event you're also using the parallel port.

There are also a number of manufacturers that
make boxes that go from serial interface to
TCP/IP over Ethernet ... we typically use these
things to extend the reach of something that's
normally directly connected to the serial port
in a PC - to distances over a wide area network.

(Having said that ... I could setup WriteLog on
my system to interface to your rig in GW! ...
Hmmm ... for that matter, if you're running XP Pro,
I could remote desktop into your system ... 
and basically guest operate.  What a concept!
Just have to figure out that remote paddle thing ...)


Bob W1QA