> Below is the latest announcement. I am excited as WriteLog is the only > contesting software package that will support the D-STAR Contest as > outlined on the ICOM Japan website.
I don't know if I'll do anything in this contest - I am a contester but this is not what most of us would consider as a contest. Anyway, you don't need to purchase WriteLog. You can use any logging program with a "generic QSO" type of contest, generate a Cabrillo file from your log, edit the contest name in the Cabrillo log, then submit it. That is the whole idea of Cabrillo - you just submit your log in that format and the contest manager dupes and verifies your log (log checking against other logs submitted), then calculates your score. I'm starting to use http://www.n1mm.com/ more, and the VHFDX contest under General Contest Logging will work, just leave the GRID field blank in your log. N1MM is FREE. After the contest, generate a Cabrillo log, edit the header, and you are done. The rules say nothing about (not) using "spotting nets", so looking for possible QSO's on www.dstarusers.org should be fine. I haven't been there in a while - are the JA's running dstarmon yet? That would really help in this event, to see which JA is on which gateway. I think you will want to have the JA (and as many other) gateways as possible programmed in your radio so you can make slash routed calls quickly rather than having to constantly program gateways on the fly. Again, what a shame that each DStar radio has a different computer interface so that you can't control them and program them on the fly with one program. More later perhaps, 73 -- John
