Greg, and others: As a DXLabs user myself you might be interested in how I ran the contest.
I started with empty WSJT logs. I keep all of my day to day FT8 logs in DXKeeper, fed by JTAlertX. For everyday use, the WSJT logs are only useful to resolve errors. In fact, I empty them from time to time as part of general computer maintenance. For the contest, I started with completely empty WSJT logs. No ADIF, No All.txt, etc. I set the highlight colors to show “not worked by band” and “not worked”, “Dxcc” and maybe some others. I turned CQ Green off. Against an empty log, this was a fair approximation of multiplier and dupe notification. I figured that any time a station popped up that I had not worked on any band, it stood a fairly good chance of being in a state I hadn’t worked. Better than a poke in the eye. Stations I worked in another band came in second. Stations that I had worked were not highlighted, so they were my dupes. In S&P mode, I ran with “CQ Only” set, then worked the darkest colors with the best signal strength. When lucky, I was getting about 1 QSO a minute. It took a while to find a rhythm that worked well. In Run mode, I don’t care about dupes and I can’t do anything about multipliers, so I rely, as always, on the others to call me, or not, as appropriate. My experience was that there were enough stations calling CQ to keep me busy. I “Ran” for relatively short periods. When the contest was finished, I exported the Cabrillo file and submitted it, then I took the ADIF file and imported it into DXKeeper. No sweat. I used DXKeeper’s DB tools to make changes like setting Comment fields, etc. I put my contest logs in my main log, but big gun contesters probably don’t. Bottom line – WSJT-X has most of the tools needed for light-duty contesting. It’s quite useable at that level. If/when it is integrated with N1MM so we can see multipliers, dupes, etc., in real time, then we’ll be cooking. I hope someone (Bill perhaps?) will say a few words about were they hope to go with N1MM integration. 73 Dave / NX6D ________________________________ From: Greg Beam <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, December 2, 2018 8:53:01 PM To: 'WSJT software development' Cc: [email protected] Subject: [wsjt-devel] Feedback: Contest Log and Colors Hello All, First, well done to Joe and all the WSJT-X developers!! I’ve not made any QSO’s for several months (summer 2018) and was able to get up and running in no time (v2 RC5 Win32) by reading the docs. Made some rookie mistakes with QSO’s, but, was able to make a few Q’s to test things out. Overall, I had very little trouble getting things working properly once I made a couple Q’s. Couple Suggestions / Comments: These may be covered elsewhere, but, I’ve not had a chance to review the archive. As for my setup, I was only using WSJT-X an JT-Alerts. I’ve no Idea if / how N1MM ties into things, if at all. -Contest Log Order: Currently, the log is sorted by first in and the user must use the scroll bar to get to the bottom of the log to see (last-in). I was wondering if we could get a sorting option that would allow First-In / Last-In for the log. It’s not critical, but for me, I prefer to see the last Q logged at the top. -Use Contest Log for WSJT-X/JT-Alerts: I noticed, during the contest, both WSJT-X and JT-Alerts were using their normal log objects. In the case of JT-Alerts it was my DXLab DB, and WSJT-X was using its local default log. In contest mode, I’m not really concerned about contacts I’ve made, or not, in my main logging application(s), rather, only what multipliers that I need for the given contest. It seems to me that all the alerts, colors, and highlighting should be the result of what is in the Contest Log, not my normal logging applications. In JT Alerts I had/saw manty B4 calls appearing even though I had not worked them in the contest. I updated to the latest JT-Alerts today before running a few Q’s; there may be options I’m not up to speed on at this point. -Colors During Contests: I’m sure colors has been beaten seven ways to Sunday, however, during a contest I am only concerned with Q’s during the contest; is the station(s) a new band / multi or not? A CQ-ing station in Green is a distraction if I’ve already worked them for a given band/mode combination. It would be helpful, at least for me, if we could have the color scheme’s (in the Band Activity / Rx Frequency Windows) match that of contest loggers (N1MM, WriteLog, etc). Maybe this is already possible, and I am behind the 8-ball here, but, it’s certainly helpful in the wee-hours of the morning when the ops are not always in top-mental condition. -Contest/Non-Contest QSO’s: I had a few callers using the standard FT8 exchange(s). I need to read the Docs a bit more, but, is there a way to quickly switch the from contest: <call> <call> R 599 MT to normal <call> <call> RST just for that one exchange? Anyway, it was good fun for the time I was able to put in. I look forward to seeing how things progress with the contest modes. 73’s Greg, KI7MT
_______________________________________________ wsjt-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wsjt-devel
