[MacLoggerContest] Musings on the Contest Panel

[Don Agro]

Hi David,

On 2010-01-19, at 7:03 PM, David Ferrington, M0XDF wrote:


> I took part in the RSGB AFS SSB contest on Saturday  - the first significant contest I've had a chance to play in since MLDX contest panel was change - that is, use it for real.

> 

> Overall, I found it to be really easy and worked very well.


Fantastic !


> I started a new log for this, that means the dup indicator really is a dup on this contest.

> I set Rcvd & Sent RST to 59 (being an HF SSB contest) and then hid them. I hid everything except the Call and Rcvd & Sent Sn fields. I set sn to increment and stopped lookup, opened the Contest helper and away we went.

> 

> Before doing that, I set the following Keyboard shortcuts via System Prefs:

> 

> cmd and + = Log QSO & Clear Fields - I find the combo of ctrl-cmd-L to be very awkward to use in a contest and for some reason, I couldn't get cmd-return to work and wasn't going to reboot before the contest. Having just upgraded to 10.6, I find this combo works now and much easier than the default.

> As an aside, I'm really surprised that Don choose to use ctrl-cmd-L as the keystrokes to log a QSO since it seams to be such a significant and common function - but I'm sure he has his reasons and it's easy to remao.

> 

> 

> I would have used Function keys, but I couldn't get them to remap - this may be an issue with X Keys and Keyboard Shortcuts not working together - I'll investigate that.

> I set cmd-F to be focus VFO, using ctrl-cmd-F just seemed more complex and I can't see a default setting of cmd-F

> I do this because I use my PowerMate to browse frequency.

> 

> That meant to make a logged QSO I  focused on Call field, entered the call (I search & pounce), tabbed and entered the sent serial no. and pressed cmd-return. Then cmd-F to focus on the VFO and moved up the band.

> 

> 

> What wasn't quite so convenient:

> To move from the VFO focus to the Call field required a placement of the cursor into the call field, since tabbing there was too long. I've just discovered there is a Focus Call menu item, that I had missed, so I'll map that.

> 

> What would make life easier:

> A Log QSO, Clear Fields and Focus VFO Shortcut would be very nice, but that is a bit 'me' focused.


There is also a Focus VFO menu command that can be remapped.


> Ideally, 'Return' would perform a Log QSO and Clear Fields when all the visible fields are non-blank, return not being needed for lookup, because people don't lookup during a contest (well not often and that could be a pref setting), and a second option would be to allow that to focus VFO too - but then that really is very  much a personal thing.

> Don and I have been through that one and I don't think it's going to happen, but hears hoping!


One thing we could look at is making these things scriptable so that you could configure the sequence any way you want and then attach the script to a function key.


> 

> 

> All in All, a good solution to the Contesting side of MLDX and very good now.

> 



73 Don Agro VE3VRW

D o g   P a r k   S o f t w a r e   L t d .

email: dagro at dogparksoftware.com
  www: http://www.dogparksoftware.com
    iChat AV:dogpark at mac.com

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