> Hi Larry, > > I did work you of course and most of the big-guns did - but it was > complicated, all the caribeans vere listening better - and also trying > down. If you have not heard the Eu down it might have been some sort of > local noise or I do not know what - but you were well audible - and deaf > or ignorant to EU since the EU was calling you that is for sure ! >
One recurring frustration was to hear the Carribeans east of us working more Europeans (we found this out when the runs died out and we "pounced" for multipliers). They were definitely doing a better job getting to Europe. There were certainly times it was clear they were hearing Europe and we weren't. Maybe it was because they had a clean shot and didn't have to go through North America as we did. Or, maybe it was something else. > I am sure it was not while the bad radio. > Unquestionably not. When I worked the JAs on 40, I worked it totally unequivocally dry. There was no one calling at all at the end of the run. I was doing weak signal work at the end of it and pulling in some pretty faint stuff. Conditions were favorable, too, but there was not even a flicker on the panadapter. Given the specs of this radio, I couldn't have left anything on the table. [snip interesting stuff] > I have not tried to transmitt with the SDR1K yet. > I decided against it for the contest - specially on 40m SSB since it does > not have DUAL-WATCH I use instead of split most of the time. I understand > it is not possible with current Hardware but it would be worth > considering.... How ever the need is only 40+80m SSB - Of course not > speaking of SO2R. > Some limited dual watch may be possible, at least within the passband. This has been discussed. > I have tried N1MM inside one PC but seriously I can not imagine how to run > a contest that way since if N1MM window is active SDR does not react and > vice-versa creating a big "MOUSE BATTLE" or ALT-TAB so I tried to install > N1MM into another computer connected through cross RS232 cable and worked > fine - as the state of today: > computer with SDR is the TRX and for LOGing one needs another one - that > is as I see it no problem. > One thing that I may recommend, in fact, to cover this very problem, is for the SDR to have a mode where it runs in the Windows "tray". If this was workable without too much effort, the existing N1MM function, as seen through the CAT commands, might well be very effective. This will take some contemplation to be sure. If we have to bring the PowerSDR out of the tray too much, it wouldn't be worth it. But, if it mostly sat in the tray while running a MixW2 or an N1MM, it could be very interesting in terms of opening up the operational capabilities without requiring a second computer or some such. > Interesting would be if the two USB GADGETS Griffin+PowerMate would be > living not through the keyboard driver i.e. WINDOWS need to have that > window active but somehow ?!? directly ? Than one can controll SDR through > those gadgets and have LOGGING win active all the time. Is it realistic > ???? > Probably. It's all software, in the end. Running out of the tray may make this a bit easier to do, perhaps. The devices, after all, could still be owned by the PowerSDR software. Larry WO0Z V31LL
