[MacLoggerContest] MacLoggerDX Contest panel

[Jonathan G0DVJ]

Hi all.

Also an avid contester and I completely AGREE with all of Rich's  
posting and ideas so far.
I look forward to hearing about any other ideas.

73
Jonathan G0DVJ   .... (M4U, M5C, M1CRO, G0VHF, M6T, GB7HQ, 3Z0I/1 in  
contests)
--


On 2 Nov 2009, at 14:46, Rich Seifert wrote:


> At 10:03 AM -0500 11/1/09, Don Agro wrote:

>> We have had a few requests for changes to the Contest Panel and  

>> would like to invite you to share your experiences/frustrations  

>> with the Contest Panel and Contest Helper in actual contests.

>>

>> David Ferrington (M0XDF) has generously volunteered to moderate  

>> this discussion and to pass on the results so that they can be  

>> implemented in the next release of MacLoggerDX V5.

>>

>> David is an avid contester has been a Ham since 2003 and passed his  

>> Advanced in the U.K. in 2006.

>>

>> Any suggestions/complaints regarding the Contest panel of the  

>> Contest Helper are welcome.

>>

>

> I am also an avid contester, and for the most part have sort of  

> "given up" on using MLDX except in the most "casual" of contest  

> operations. That said, I appreciate Don and David re-opening the  

> discussion forum on this topic.

>

> As has been said here before, I don't think anyone is proposing that  

> MLDX be expanded to become a "full featured" contest logger, as that  

> would really be a digression from its core of users (and the core of  

> its technology). The range of contest exchanges, Cabrillo formats,  

> context checking, etc. is simply enormous and constantly changing.

>

> I plan to take some time to *think* about what could reasonably done  

> within the framework of MLDX to improve its "casual" contest  

> capabilities, and will post again when I have organized my thoughts.  

> A few things come immediately to mind, however:

>

> -Force all text to uppercase, both in the callsign entry and  

> TXSTRING fields.

>

> -Do "dupe" checking "on the fly", i.e., don't require hitting TAB or  

> <CR> before giving an indication that a station has been worked  

> before. Yes, this may give some intermediate "false dupes" when, for  

> example, you have already worked KE1B and now are working KE1BYL,  

> but that's OK because the operator knows that he is still entering  

> data.

>

> -In the same vein, give a BIG BOLD indication of a dupe, not just a  

> listing of a call in ordinary text in the Contest Helper table. (By  

> the way, this suggestion and the previous one reflect the way Chen  

> does it in cocoaModem.)

>

> -Make the contest keyer (both CW and voice) run off of the Function  

> Keys or some similar, one-touch operation. Yes, I know that I can  

> define a Function Key to perform any menu operation under OS X, but  

> that would require I change the key definition every time I change  

> the keyer contents (since the "menu item" then changes). Also, using  

> OS X-style function keys today requires an extra <CR> to actually  

> trigger the keyer to send.

>

> I will post again when I have had time to think about this more.  

> Thanks for opening the discussion.

> -- 

>

> --

> Rich Seifert                    Networks and Communications Consulting

> rich at richseifert.com            21885 Bear Creek Way

> (408) 395-5700                  Los Gatos, CA 95033

> (408) 228-0803 FAX

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