[WriteLog] CW Sweepstakes Anoyances

[Marty Tippin]

At 09:41 AM 11/09/2003 -0600, Ron NØAT wrote:
>Since you have to type Alt-W a lot, you may run into this problem.   You 
>push the Alt key, the menu at the top of the window gets highlighted.  The 
>'file' entry is the default.  If you push Enter by mistake, then push a 
>number by mistake, your log is gone.  Actually, a previous log is 
>loaded.  Is there any way to keep the menu at the top of the Window from 
>being activated with the Alt key?  Could be an Windows XP setting?

Don't press the alt key unless you're going to press the "w" key also. 
Problem solved.

This is a windows functionality issue; problems with it show a lack of 
experience with and understanding of Windows operation in general. There's 
no "fix" for this problem because it's not a problem, but an accessibility 
issue for those who choose not to use the mouse. Perhaps a different key 
combination could have been chosen by the author (Ctrl+w for instance) but 
it's easier to "fix" with a little education of the user community.

>Lastly,  my guest op got a bit upset when he found the serial number being 
>sent skips a number when you call a station on the 2nd radio, and you 
>don't work the station.    It looks like the problem exists because of the 
>use of two entry windows.  Anyone know the official explanation of why 
>this cannot be fixed?

It's been discussed ad nasuem on this reflector in the past. Suggest a 
search of the archives at http://dayton.akorn.net/pipermail/writelog/

Bottom line is that no contest *requires* serial numbers to be in exact 
sequence with no gaps so it's not worth the effort required to fix.

The "problem" has many dimensions, not least of which is SO2R operation 
using two entry windows. It occurs in muli-node network setups as well 
(multi-node may mean one operator using 2 computers or a mult-operator 
setup). The goal of assigning a unique, sequential serial number to every 
QSO in a multi-node situation clashes with the (more important) goal of 
allowing any node in the network to continue to operate autonomously in the 
event of a failure in network communications between computers. You can't 
achieve both goals.

-NW0L