[MacLoggerContest] MacLoggerDX Contest panel

[Jonathan G0DVJ]

Just a note on philosophy before I comment on David's posting below...

Although I am too serious a contester (or not casual enough!!) for MLDX to be aimed at my main needs or the groups I contest with, I am contributing to this debate because I would like to improve how MLDX supports those casual contesters who might work me!   I want them (to be as slick as possible!   So I would encourage others who still need a dedicated contest logger to also offer ideas how we can improve support for the casual contester in MLDX.  However I do use MLDX as a general logger which aggregates all my contest logs and other Qs from any group/software that I end up operating with.  


On 13 Nov 2009, at 00:58, David Ferrington, M0XDF wrote:


>>    -  order the fields according to sent and received then other received 

> I would like to be able to reverse this order, the programs I've come across expect you to enter values in the order of an exchange if you were running (calling CQ), but I search & pounce a lot and generally want to enter values in a different order.


If you answer me as a S&P station (as opposed to me answering your run) I still want you to give me the info in the 'accepted' order for the contest  - in fact its really frustrating for a big gun to have someone making their own order up as they go.  You may spend time before you call me filling in stuff that you can deduce from listening to me working the run of others, but SHIFT TAB still allows you to navigate the entry fields backwards and continuous TAB would allow you to circularly move from the last to the first field as well.  The order in which you give your callsign and the whole exchange differs between S&P and run modes but the order of the info within the exchange shouldn't.  (The only exception I am aware of is some sprint contests where, because you need to know whose frequency it was, some details are reversed).


> So being able to specify the tab order of the fields would be very useful. however, it might result in people (myself included) getting confused as to where they are in the sequence - the jurys still out on this one - I'm leaning to your 'SPACE' idea.


I didn't imagine a drag and drop to allow individuals to re-order fields was ever on the cards ... hence trying to use the keys we have available to allow improved navigation.


>>    -  Grid only appears on the contest panel if a new checkbox in Contest Prefs is checked.  (This is for VHF & up contesters).


Furthermore if Grid is selected in Prefs, I would like the Contest Helper panel to do two additional things:
	- show the calculated distance (Km for Europe/Miles for NA?) between myGrid and the Grid entered at the time of each QSO
	- show a running status line of the 'ODX' i.e  the furthest Q in this current contest in the form Call, HisGrid, Distance.


>>    -  Return behaves like SPACE unless all fields are non-empty in which case the QSO is logged and Call, Rcvd sn and Rcvd fields are cleared ready for the next QSO.

> 

> 

> If this is a  VHF contest, the RSTR is meaningful (at least in UK), so space should go to that first.


You mean RSTS and RSTR are both more meaningful (rather than being cue words for what follows) in higher band contesting ... yes I agree.
So this is an additional tweak IF grid is selected in the Prefs.


>>    -  Display the Sent sn at least double size (not shown in mockup above)

> 

> I'd like to be able to display the exchange I'm sending in large text, this would require a way to enter that in the prefers pane, but something like

> 

> 	M0XDF

> 	 xxx

> 	IO91PK

> 

> where 'xxx' is the serial number I'm sending. This text could be on the RHS of the 'Contest'  panel.


How many casual contesters are going to forget to give me their report if we do this?  However I don't disagree with having your own exchange as a prompt card type thing displayed somewhere.  Its the number that changes each Q that I was primarily concerned about .. especially if the operator gets distracted ... then a glance is all that's needed to have it leap out at them.


> I'd like to get CC producing REG1TEST for VHF+ contests too, but that's a different thread.


Maybe - I think someone in Region 1 might have to produce a R1T-Converter from ADIF ... I can't see our North American friends being very bothered about a format used for decades in a different IARU region of the world for VHF contests.


>  I do think it might be worth providing some simple stats on QSOs per hour.


It already does this AFAIK .. its a feature in the Contest Helper window which Don added at my suggestion quite a while ago. 


73,
Jonathan G0DVJ 
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