[WriteLog] digirite issues during the WW

[Randy Thompson K5ZD]

I can confirm the same.  Ability to decode did seem to degrade during the
contest.  And this was even when I had a number of hours away from the
radio, but with WL/DR still running and decoding.  Something to look for.

It is frustrating with the digi modes because there is no way for the human
ear to detect any differences.  You look at the waterfall and the SNR and
mutter...

Randy K5ZD

> -----Original Message-----
> From: WriteLog <writelog-bounces at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Ron
> Lodewyck
> Sent: Monday, September 02, 2019 10:26 AM
> To: Don Hill AA5AU <aa5au at bellsouth.net>
> Cc: Ken Beals <k6mr at outlook.com>; Writelog Forum
> <writelog at contesting.com>; Ron Lodewyck <ronl at csustan.edu>; Ed Muns
> <w0yk at msn.com>
> Subject: Re: [WriteLog] digirite issues during the WW
> 
> I agree with Don - there needs to be another RR73 follow-up when you are
> the CQer and the other guy repeats his report.
> 
> And I had the same issue as Ed (and also, as I recall, Ken K6MR)
> regarding mysterious end to QSOs.  I stopped getting replies to my CQ's
> as well as calls to others - some quite strong - around 0230 UTC or so
> when I switched to 80M. Rate went to near, but not quite, zero, for over
> an hour.
> Gave up in frustration.  Should have rebooted I think. Anyway, I checked
> on Ed's hypothesis that our clocks might have drifted or been off too
> much for
> FT4 by looking in the DigiRite Log (wow! it saves EVERYTHING decoded or
> transmitted. Impressive and useful.) I see no correlation between DT
> (clock
> difference) and success in either CQing or answering others from the
> beginning of the contest to when I switched to 80 M. From the very
> beginning of the contest there is a wide variation in decoded signals DT
> from (in my case) -0.1 to +1.0 and many successful QSOs on FT4. That same
> range of DT occurs later, when I switched to 80M, and the rate went to
> near
> zero.   So, clock synchronization does not SEEM to be the culprit - at
> least in my case. Something else was going on but beats me what...
> 
> See Don's comments on the two situations where RR73 needs to be sent
> again.
> 73,
> Ron N6EE
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Sep 1, 2019 at 10:31 PM Don Hill AA5AU <aa5au at bellsouth.net>
> wrote:
> 
> >
> > [Don AA5AU] The message doesn't appear fast enough in "Calculated next
> > to send" to know if something is going to be sent or not. I was
> > frustrated time and again when I went S&P to call a station while I
> > had CQ enabled. This is what happens.
> >
> > CQ W0YK CM97
> > W0YK AA5AU R EL49
> > AA5AU W0YK RR73
> > CQ AA5AU EL49
> >
> > I don't think this is right. We can debate it. I would think my last
> > transmission should be W0YK AA5AU RR73. I understand the rationale
> > behind going right back into a CQ. But it gets cloudy when I don't
> > receive the W0YK AA5AU RR73 message on the first try. It goes like
> > this:
> >
> > CQ W0YK CM97
> > W0YK AA5AU R EL49
> > nothing copied from W0YK
> > W0YK AA5AU R EL49
> > nothing copied from W0YK
> > W0YK AA5AU R EL49
> > AA5AU W0YK RR73
> > CQ AA5AU EL49
> >
> > W0YK may be thinking that the QSO is not complete because I went right
> > back into CQ without sending RR73 and he does not log it. We are both
> > out of a contact.
> >
> > I got good at turning off CQ. When I turned off CQ while S&P,
> > sometimes it sends the ending RR73, but sometimes it sending NOTHING AT
> ALL like this:
> >
> > CQ W0YK CM97
> > W0YK AA5AU R EL49
> > AA5AU W0YK RR73
> > ...DigiRite sends nothing...
> >
> > I'm sitting there looking at "Calculated next to send" and don't see
> > anything then realize nothing is getting sent. I finally use
> > "Alternate messages" to send the RR73 message but it's a cycle or two
> > too late. This was the biggest issue I had with DigiRite all weekend.
> > I use "Alternate messages" to send RR73 for probably half my contacts.
> >
> > .
> >
> 
> 
> > [Don AA5AU] The only other issue I can think of now is when you are
> > the CQ station, another station answers, you send RR73 but the other
> > station didn't receive it and sends their grid again and WriteLog then
> > sends R + Grid message instead of RR73. Like this:
> >
> > CQ WW AA5AU EL49
> > AA5AU VE6AX DO20
> > VE6AX AA5AU RR73
> > AA5AU VE6AX DO20
> > VE6AX AA5AU R EL49
> >
> > Why not just send VE6AX AA5AU RR73 again?
> >
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