[WT-support] WT Impressions in CQWW CW

[Denis K7GK]

I would like to share my impressions after a first serious effort in a major contest using WT.

As I mentioned before, I used DX Doubler (DXD) for SO2R control and WinKey for CW manipulation. Initially, only the basic SO2R functionality was supported by the DXD-WT combination (* key that switches between the radios), but I was keen on the advanced SO2R functionality, particularly automatic and independent RX and TX switching to each radio and SO2R scenarios. After searching through DXD documentation, I discovered it had two modes of operation - CT/TR/WL mode and NA mode, with the first one enabled by default. There are 3 jumpers that select the mode. From the description, it seemed that using NA mode would solve my problems, so I put all 3 jumpers into their new position as described in the DXD documentation. That resulted in the desired RX switching behavior, but not the TX. After consulting with the DXD schematics I changed the configuration to an un-documented one with the first two jumpers in the NA mode, while the 3rd jumper remained in the CT/TR/WL mode. This resulted in the switching I needed with one minor drawback. In this configuration my paddle was only able to key the main radio, not the secondary radio (if selected by the Caps-Lock). I only thought of this towards the end of the contest, but this can be overcome by manually switching the TX to the second radio when using the paddle for fills.
I also re-mapped some keys to avoid function keys as much as possible and used Caps binds 2nd radio mode. I mapped space to insert and back-slash (\) to plus. Choice of back-slash was due to its closeness to the Enter key and it being a large key. This resulted in the following typical button-press sequence: F1 (CQ) - [enter the call-sign] -  space (exchange) - back-slash (enter QSO, TU and new CQ). I also set the right bracket (]) key to a perform manual short confirmation (TU).

Overall here are the things I liked:
- Advanced SO2R functionality, particularly light pile-up/heavy pile-up scenarios
- Caps-binds-2nd-radio mode for SO2R
- N+1 lookup
- stability (no restarts were needed)

Things I'd like to see improved:
- paddle keying of the secondary radio using DXD in the Caps-binds-2nd-radio mode
- $CAPS message
  this could be used in the end of the exchange on the secondary radio, which would result in the automatic return to the primary radio after the QSO on the secondary radio is complete (equivalent to pressing the Caps-Lock key).
- "switch radios in Caps-binds-2nd-radio" shortcut
  Say I'm running on 20 with the primary radio and S&P-ing on 15 with the secondary radio. Now I want to run on 15 and S&P on 20. Today I need to push several buttons for this and use mouse (to switch the second radio mode). It would be great to have just one button combination to do this.

73, Denis - K7GK

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