[WriteLog] Triathlon DX Contest

[Gary AL9A]

Anyone going to give this new one a try this weekend?  If so, here are a few suggestions for trying to get a WL module ready to go.

The contest sponsors web site indicates that if your logger lacks a specific contest module for this one you can just use the CQ WPX module.  The problem is in WL there are three WPX contest modules - CW, RTTY and SSB.  Since this contest uses all three modes at various times over the 24 time limit this is a problem.  The contest sponsors indicate that non-sequential numbers of the various modes is ok, they will sort them out after the contest.  So, you could set up the three different modules of WL for the various modes needed.  But then you have to create three different Cabrillo files and probably cut and paste their contents into a single Cabrillo for submission.  This seems like too much work to me so I've been trying to figure out a way to use WL to do all three modes in a single log.  After a bit of playing around I think I've found a work around.

Since RTTY is the first mode in this contest I started with the CQ WPX RTTY module first.  I quickly discovered that I could log RTTY contacts ok, but if I tried to log a SSB or CW contact it logged with the red 'B' meaning I was out of band.  Also, if I tried to work the same call on the same band, but a different mode WL called it a Dupe.  A bit of checking the WL Help manual led me to try changing the Band frequency limits to allow working the same call on the same band, but in different modes and be in band.  Here is what I did.

In the WPX RTTY module I went to Bands/Setup Bands... and hit the Clear All Bands button.  The WL Help manual says you aren't supposed to do this in a contest module that does mult scoring, but the scores are not to going to calculate correctly anyway so what the heck.

After clearing all the band definitions I created three new ones, one for each mode.  For each I set the Low frequency to 3500 KHz and the High edge to 29700.  Then I cleared off all the mode check boxes except for FSK, set the title to RTTY and clicked on "Add this band".  Then I created another band definition with the same frequency limits and checked just the CW mode, set the title to CW and Added this band.  Finally I created a third band definition, again with the same frequency limits, checked only the LSB and USB boxes, set the title to SSB and Added this band.  When done WL showed me a list of the three different band settings called RTTY, CW and SSB.  This now allows logging the same calls on the same band with a different mode without being a dupe and without the red B indicator.  This also means all the calls logged will be numbered sequentially and can be exported in a single Cabrillo adi file.

Now I needed to get around the macro message problem for the RTTY and CW modes.  In Setup/CW/RTTY/SSB messages... the CW and RTTY modes share the same allocation of F keys for a bank of macro messages.  This is a problem because the format of the message are different.  SSB F key assignments are not a problem.  The way around this was to create another new contest log for the Triathlon using the WPX CW module.  I then modified the Band/Setup Bands... configuration as above.  Then in Setup/CW/RTTY/SSB  messages... I created the CW message macros that I wanted.  Then, and this is critical, I saved this file with a slightly different file name from the first file.  This second log setup will not actually be used in the contest.  It's only purpose is to provide a location where the CW message macros can be loaded into the first log that was setup by use of the Browse button in Setup/CW/RTTY/SSB messages...  This will then over write the RTTY macros and replace them with the CW macros, which is what is desired once the RTTY segment is over.

As for scoring the contest, the sponsors indicate you can just send in the log and they will score if for you or you can download a Cabrillo Evaluator by W3KM to check your score post contest.  I've downloaded the Cabrillo Evaluator, but haven't had a chance yet to bone up on it.  Probably won't do that until after the contest when I have an actual Cabrillo output file to play with.  If it's too complicated I'll just send in my Cabrillo log and let the sponsor do the score calcs. 

73,
Gary AL9A