I would gladly pay for a contest skin which has a built in Contest logger as the Flex has so many other advantages once that focus issue is solved.
__________________________________________________________ Howard S. White Ph.D. P. Eng., VE3GFW/K6 ex-AE6SM KY6LA Website: www.ky6la.com<http://www.ky6la.com/> "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" "Ham Antennas Save Lives - Katrina, 2003 & 2007 San Diego Fires, 911" From: dan edwards [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 2:03 PM To: Dr. Howard S. White; William H. Fite Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [FlexEdge] Field Day, Focus and Contest Skins? I would probably have been just as confused if you sat me in front of a K3 for the first time during cqww, or arrl dx, either mode.....(where's my panadapter?) ( i have to get elbow cramp again from keeping my hand on the VFO for HOURS ?? ) i think n1mm is supposed to be pretty 'non-mouse-oriented' which is generally a good thing... after a casual passing shot at phone SS with n1mm, i often found myself QSY'ed to 1 or 65 mhz, losing the contact...my crude 'solution' was to disable every key in the keyboard menu... these flex rigs have tremendous potential for contesting... 73 Dr Edwards to Drs. White and Fite.. semi-retired h.f. dx contester, with relapse treatments at W5WMU, W5XZ, dan ( hey, work us in IARU !! ), my small 3 acre ant farm long gone... --- On Mon, 6/28/10, William H. Fite <[email protected]> wrote: From: William H. Fite <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [FlexEdge] Field Day, Focus and Contest Skins? To: "Dr. Howard S. White" <[email protected]> Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Date: Monday, June 28, 2010, 8:16 PM As a research methodologist--Dr. Fite to Dr. White--I have to note a flaw in the conditions of your "experiment." The operators were, as you noted, newbies lacking experience with the Flex. Simply changing from one conventional transceiver to another or from one logging program to another is enough to throw off the conditioned responses and the muscle memory of an experienced contester. Why would we be surprised to find that knob-twisters, having their first experiences with no-knob radios, would find them unsatisfying? I think that there *may* be some issues that *might *make the Flex more challenging to use in contest situations, that I will give you. But your experiences as recounted here scarcely justify the dismissive conclusion that, "the Flex was not ready for 'Prime Time' Contesting." It is likely that not many years will pass before SDR contest operators find that knobbed radios are hindrances to their own performance. Long range bet? As to running the Flex and the logger simultaneously and ameliorating focus issues, two words: Dual monitors. Oh, and mouse fluency, of course. A final thought: Why are two computers an "ugly solution?" Since the SDR can sit under the desk or across the room, what is the significant difference between two computers sitting side by side versus one computer and a Yaesu 9000 sitting side by side? My experience with obsessed and driven contesters is that no price is too great to pay, no burden too great to bear. For the cost of an antenna farm one can buy a whole bunch of laptops... On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 3:18 PM, Dr. Howard S. White <[email protected]</mc/[email protected]>>wrote: > Ran the Flex 5000 for Field Day with 2 Flex Newbie's who were Very > Experienced Contest Operators who regularly win major contests. > > The issue quickly became the fact that it was difficult to use the Flex in > a contest environment because the operators had difficulty with the focus of > the keyboard in search and pounce mode. This was not an issue when we held > a frequency as we did not have to touch the radio. > > On several occasions, they would be typing into N1MM, then changing > frequencies, forgetting to move the focus back to N1MM so PowerSDR abruptly > changed the radio frequencies or bands because they typed on the wrong > screen...and of course lost the contact.... It became highly frustrating > in the heat of battle.. > > I had the mouse set so that by hovering over a program it would shift focus > but that was not really good enough in the heat of the contest where the > mouse needs to be hovering over PowerSDR but typing needs to be into the > Contest logger. > > Bottom Line: They concluded that the Flex was not ready for "Prime > Time" Contesting. > > > I seem to recall some discussions on program focus on this reflector but it > is impossible to search this reflector's archives.. > > > A Few of Recommendations: > > > 1. There really needs to be a Contest Skin which removes about 90% of > the controls that you never use in the contest...they could be "set it and > forget it" in the main form and hidden during contests..... You really only > use frequency via mouse wheel, band, filters. > > 2. The Contest Skin needs to integrate a contest logging program such > as N1MM or Writelog into the Skin so that you never have to switch > programs...ideally the logger should show inside the skin. > > 3. In the alternative, remove the ability of the keyboard to interact > with PowerSDR during contests and fix its focus onto the Contest Logger > while fixing the focus of the mouse wheel on frequency changing. > > 4. Or in the alternative, use a second computer for the contest > logger... really ugly solution... > > 5. There needs to be a detailed Knowledge Base Article on Focus for > contesting. > > One other suggestion... move this reflector to a reflector such as Yahoo > Groups which has a searchable archive...so you won't continually have people > asking the same questions all the time. > __________________________________________________________ > Howard S. White Ph.D. P. Eng., VE3GFW/K6 ex-AE6SM KY6LA > Website: www.ky6la.com<http://www.ky6la.com/> > "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" > "Ham Antennas Save Lives - Katrina, 2003 & 2007 San Diego Fires, 911" > > _______________________________________________ > Flexedge mailing list > [email protected]</mc/[email protected]> > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz > This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used > for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist > who are using alpha and beta versions of the software. > -- The proportions and relations of things are just as much facts as the things themselves. _______________________________________________ Flexedge mailing list [email protected]</mc/[email protected]> http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist who are using alpha and beta versions of the software. _______________________________________________ Flexedge mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist who are using alpha and beta versions of the software.
