[MacLoggerContest] MacLoggerDX Contest panel

[David Ferrington, M0XDF]

my comments on Jonathan's comments :-)
--  
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it  
takes in.  -- Leonardo da Vinci

On 13 Nov 2009, at 09:56, Jonathan G0DVJ wrote:

>> 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).

>


Oops, think you misunderstood me. I always give a standard exchange as  
you would expect, yes it annoys me when people don't, but that's  
casual contesting for you. Yes I was thinking of the order in which  
you fill fields and yes I agree that the tab/space/return method  
provides for that.


> 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.


Yes agreed and simple for Don to implement with no possibility of  
people getting confused in future.



>>>   -  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.


Yes, that should be quite possible (is the same regardless of contest  
id) and easy to support.


> 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.


Yes I did mean that


> 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.


Agreed, the number we need to send in the most important


>> 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 believe NA use REG1TEST for their contest too, but may be mistaken.
I will undertake to produce a REG1TEST format as part of Cab-Converter  
sometime, assume Scott agrees with that and if fits into our CC work.  
UK Contest committee will take Cabrillo for VHF contest now anyway,  
although they prefer REG1TEST.



>> 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.

Ah, I may have missed that.

73 de M0XDF