[WriteLog] Anyone have RTTY problems during Roundup?

[Ed Muns]

I ran 11.01F on three networked computers, one radio per computer on two of
the computers.  The third computer did not have a radio this time and was
the network "server" that the other two PCs linked to in WriteLog.  Windows
7, 32-bit, fully updated.  

All of this was set up on Monday prior to the contest and never re-booted.
Even WriteLog itself was not exited and re-started after about Wednesday.  I
simply opened a different *.wl file from within WriteLog.  I had a SO2V
configuration on each radio, with the second receiver in the K3 having its
own Entry window in WriteLog and its own MMTTY Rttyrite window.  The main
receiver also had a MMTTY Rttyrite window, plus a clone receive-only
Rttyrite window for the DXP38 decoder.

WriteLog was setup for Last-One-Wins interlock as I've used for several
years now in RTTY mode.

I had the following problems during the contest:

1.  Sunday afternoon, about 18 operating hours into the contest and close to
3000 QSOs, messages on both PCs would randomly stop toward the beginning of
the message.  It was behaving as though the interlock was having an effect,
but of course the other WriteLog PC was not transmitting.  It got worse and
worse until I finally turned off the interlock to see if that would help the
problem.  It did, I never had interrupted messages again.  Prior to this,
the function has worked perfect on RTTY.  (However, I've never been able to
keep First-One-Wins interlock working on CW, but that's another report
sometime.)

2.  Also, shortly after problem 1, WriteLog froze up on one PC.  I couldn't
get the computer to respond with anything.  The keyboard was locked out.
Eventually, I pulled the battery and power cord on the laptop and forced a
shutdown.  It came back up fine with no errors or complaints and I loaded
WriteLog and operated the rest of the contest.  I can't identify anything I
did or anything that happened to cause this lockup.

3.  When WriteLog came back up on the frozen computer, only two of my three
Rttyrite windows came up, and they came up with errors.  It looked like the
parameters got mixed between at least two of the windows:
	
	a.  The main receiver MMTTY Rttyrite window came up in its correct
position, but its MMTTY display did not.  Instead, the MMTTY display for the
sub-receiver MMTTY Rttyrite window came up and indeed it was pointing to the
right channel of the soundcard where the sub-receiver audio is.  I changed
to the left channel and that worked fine for the rest of the contest.

	b.  There was no MMTTY Rttyrite window for the sub-receiver.

	c.  The DXP38 clone Rttyrite window came up with its separate tuning
window OK, but it was looking at the right channel (sub-receiver) audio and
I couldn't figure out how to move it to the left channel, so I just ignored
it.

This is probably the worst experience I've had with WriteLog.  That said, it
worked great otherwise.  And, the K3 SO2V integration is simply outstanding.
It works very smoothly with the only limitation being operator skill at
using it in a high-rate contest environment.  I did not have the message
delays that started this thread, however I have had them in the past at
times.  But, it was never bad enough or long enough to look into or report.

Ed - P49X (W0YK) 


Don, AA5AU, wrote:
> I had an issue this weekend and so did Steve, AI9T.  My issue was an
> occasional delay from the time I hit a function key to the time
> the actual message went out.  This only happened maybe 20 times, maybe
> more or less, I was too busy to keep track.  When I hit a
> function key, the transmitter would key but the message did not go out
> until 4-6 seconds later.
> 
> Steve had this problem as well as a problem with received text not
> scrolling across the Rttyrite screen appropriately.  He describes
> it as "stuttering" where the text would not scroll across the Rttyrite
> screen as it was being received but instead come out in
> spurts.  To me that sounds like a buffer situation but I'm not familiar
> enough with how that works.
> 
> Mike, K4GMH, did not have any issues.  All three of us were set up for two
> radios on one PC.  I had a third radio connected to a
> laptop on the network but did not experience any problems on that
> computer.  Steve and I were running 11.01F.  Not sure what Mike
> was running.
> 
> Did anyone else have these, or any other kind of problems with WriteLog
> this weekend?  If so, please let us know only if you did
> have a problem and if so, what version of WL you were running.  Thanks!