[WT-support] Win-test3 and RTTY contesting

[pat_f6irf]

As promised, this is my small contribution.
Once again, I did not browse the archives to see which points may have 
already been
mentionned/addressed...
I focused on basic single radio operation... will try SO2R later...
Of course not all of the points mentionned below have the same priority 
level...

1) I guess it is already on the "to do list" but many (all?) RTTY 
contest modules are
missing.
I.E Taking the 4 next TTY contests in the calendar:
Aug 19 24h SARTG >>> no module
Aug 26 24h SCC >>> no module  
Sep 02 24h RUSSIAN >>> no module
Sep 23 48h CQ/RJ WW >>> CQWW module not suitable (US/VE stations send 
zone + state)

2) Often needed to restart wintest, as it sends garbage to MMTTY when 
pressing F-key or
Alt-K. Can't find what make it happens exactly, but it happens quite 
often, at least when
configuring the screen...

3) $CR should send a carriage return to MMTTY (ie needed at start of 
msg, or in middle of
long lines)

4) 599 should be sent as 599 not as 5NN !

5) very important: a way to shift figures to letters (and the opposite) 
should be provided
(in MMTTY "stand alone" it is done by right clicking on a character 
string in the decoder
window, think this is a good way to do it...)

6)RTTY window cannot be resized (ie to MMTTY width) or you miss the end 
of lines (an auto
CR is needed when text reaches the window right border), and the last 
buttons (+ , alt-K).
Quite a problem to fit everything on the screen without resizing this 
window... (even
using 1280x1024)

7) a small window with 10 last decoded calls (the highlighted ones) is 
more than useful for pile-up
handling, so you don't have to go back in the window to see which 
stations are waiting for
a report...  Off course calls should be clickable (many RTTY contest ops 
don't use kB for more
than one keypress once in a while).

8) Spots - I assume mode filtering is done on frequency basis:
- it should be possible to exclude PSK spots from bandmap/ announcement 
window  at least
wherever possible - I mean where subbands do not overlap (20,15,10)
- extension of RTTY bands beyond the theoretical limits is also needed 
(ie during CQWW you
can find TTY stations fm 7030 to 7080). So somewhere the spot filtering 
has to be
"adaptive" not just based on offical bandplans...

9) several specific macros will be needed for ex. $UTC (ie BARTG 
contest). Note:  should
exchange be repeated in the following minute, UTC should remain "as 
initialy sent", so it
is not just the live PC-time... I see also macros like $NAME to be sent 
in conjonction
with the "so called" friend.ini (very popular tradition in TTY!). 
Probably several others
are to be added to the list...(ie $PREVIOUSCALL useful to chain 2 QSO's 
- ie you just
logged F1AAA and you know that F2BBB  is waiting for you. You can send:
F1AAA QSL TU ($CR )
NOW F2BBB 599 125 125 F2BBB BK  

10) more than in any other mode, additional messages buttons are needed 
- Many TTY
contests use multiple exchanges and you may want repetition of only one 
part. For example
in CQWW you should be able to ask repeat for ZONE?, or for STATE? - The 
same apply the other
way around, in BARTG if someone ask you: UTC AGN? you don't want to send 
the full exchange
but just several times the UTC...  
Please note that at the moment Alt-C does not work in TTY (the window 
open but not mesage
is transmitted when pressing a button or a F-Key)

11) One way to keep the PTT "engaged" should be provided - for example 
if you action alt-K
during the transmission of a F-key message,  because you want to add 
something fm
keyboard... the PTT should not be dropped at the end of the F-key 
transmission, or at the
end of the buffered characters, but only when escape is pressed.

12) AFSK - Audio-frequency offset should be supported , to allow AFSK
users to use the spots (ie if you use USB and 1750hz mark audio 
frequency all spots will be offset by
1750Hz). The best way is to take into account transceiver mode (U/L), 
and MMTTY audio-mark frequency
to deduct the "real mark RF freq" to be displayed in bandmap.
Obviously When clicking on a spot transceiver should be set to spot freq 
corrected by the sideband used (+/-)
and the audio mark freq.
Freq window on top of bandmap should display "mark RF freq" not 
supressed carrier freq. This freq shoudl be
used for sending spots out.

13) A major problem in TTY is the fact that power goes full as soon as 
PTT is engaged, so
the sequencing facilty provided for CW (i.e the PTT is engaged 100ms 
before 1st character
is sent) is useless, and you need an external "hardware" sequencer, if 
you want your PA relays to
survive a CQWW-TTY.
One elegant way to do it, would be for example to use the LPT or a COM 
port  to provide a
seperated pre-delayed PTT for the PA, different fm the transceiver PTT 
(the TRX PTT is
driven by MMTTY together with FSK keying)...

That's all for now...

Patrick
http://f6irf.blogspot.com