[WriteLog] WriteLog Digest, Vol 234, Issue 7

[Alan Maenchen]

Jeff, WK6I wrote:

>
> I am noticing postings where people refer to FT software that is not
> WSJT-X.
>
> If you did use something other than WSJT-X, if you could please share with
> me what software you did use and why you chose that.
>
> I'll compile them as part of my QST writeup. Thanks - jeff wk6i
>
>


Jeff,

I used DR in full SO2R mode for FT4. It worked fine although I'd like to
see some improvements. Namely:
1)  Reduce timeout from five tries (cycles) to two for contests  (user
selectable)
2)  For things like in this contest, identify when someone sends a signal
report instead of grid, I don't know of a good solution other than just
ignoring it. Send GRID?  Or send S/N and hope to get the grid next cycle?
Or dump the caller from the queue?

The user interface for DR is way superior to WSJT although WSJT may be more
capable of sending random text such as GRID?   Not sure since I didn't try
that in DR. I'm not very familiar with WSJT, but I hear complaints about
situations where DR simply works and WSJT gets stuck in the sequences. For
example, if a QSO fails to complete and I move on to make other QSOs, then
the missing station comes through with their final - DR will complete the
QSO and log it while WSJT won't.  I'm not 100% sure of that, but I think
that was the case.

I also tried out the FULL AUTO feature in DR just to see how it plays. It
did quite well with SO2R although it got stuck a couple of times when
getting a signal report instead of grid. I could do a little better with
manually controlling call priority based on S/N and point value, and
stopping unworkable QSOs before wasting more cycles. Granted, that makes my
log illegal, but I wasn't serious in the contest and I wanted to see how it
played.

73, Alan  AD6E / KH6TU