[WT-support] "after-contest" impressions from a newcomer

[Dave Sharred]

Hi all, just back from MD4K; car still has gear in it; but I just checked
the email !!

In addition to the comments mentioned; a few more come to mind (may be more
later, when I collect my thoughts more); based on our main event; and  use
for around 500 30m QSO's before and after the contest !

Set-up was multiple PC; hard networked via a hub


- All performed flawlessly; no crashes at all .  I think all of our team
were converted to using Win Test !  So maybe a few more licenses will be
bought!

- We really liked log synchronisation; with some problems we did have, it
was great to reboot a PC, and see all the QSO's restore !

- We never expected the version 3.1;  and downloaded it on Friday; and only
updated the PC's 10 minutes before the contest !!!  We had some problems,
that delayed the start. The IOTA.Dat file and IOTA.DTB files had a different
date on them to those released only on Thursday; I cautiously kept the files
from Thursday. I don't know if this was a good move or not....

- After the reload of the software; we had problems to use the virtual COM
ports for our Micro Ham USBII devices - we could not use CW on COM 5 for
some reason !!   We changes the Router program and config in WinTest to COM
& and all was OK again!   I really don't understand why this should be the
case; I will investigate this some more

- Another problem I noticed. If a PC goes into reduced power mode (left idle
for a while) the COM port settings somehow become corrupted - the CW becomes
"staccato"; very clipped; and actually stopped working eventually. A
complete reboot sorted this.  not sure why this should happen. I know I
could stop this by removing the power save features; but I would not want to
do this just to run a contest/expedition !

- We saw some problems in recording EU008 QSO's - sometimes it was flagged
as needed; but it wasn't !!! We noticed 2 entries in the Worked IOTA table
window for EU008; I think there should be a software check to ensure that an
IOTA ref can only have 1 line entry ??  These QSO's also have a "?" next to
the QSO (possible scored as 3 points, bit 15). Again, I can check when the
car is unpacked !

- We also noticed some spurious Continents being generated in the "worked
IOTA" window - for example; we had "10-m" and "ON".   Clearly, these were
our errors; but maybe WT should pick up anything but known continents as a
busted number ?

- We still were not sure how best to check for needed mults - packet spots
were easy (by Colour); but shift F10 didn't seem to work all the time ?  We
need more documentation / more time to learn I think!

-Incoming serial numbers - for out going ones, there is a space even on CW
between RST and number field.  Incomings have no space. It is easier to read
with a space!

- After the contest; I modified the "="  key function, to specify "up"
after the thank you message (huge pile ups !)  the Gap was too big really
for this; is there a character to make a smaller gap ?  i.e. I wanted to
send "TU GD3NKC UP1"

Overall we are glad to make the switch. It was stable software for us; and
very configurable !  We will be using this for all our contests in future, I
have to check all contest support; since it may net gave perfect scores for
all RSGB contests (ie SSB FD coming up; and 2128MHz test, which has a rule
change also this year !).


 73

Dave