[WT-support] WT in November Sweepstakes CW

[John Bayne]

This was my first use of WT in the ARRL Sweepstakes.  I had a LOT of fun with the program.  It was stable, dependable, and the DX Cluster interface and radio control were second to none.  I use a special keyboard that is made for on-line gamers, and it has several sets of macros.  I used these buttons for a multitude of various shortcuts on WT such as CW speed control, extra memory keyer buttons, shortcuts for spotting, etc.

If any of the fine authors are interested in suggestions for better Sweepstakes implementation, here are my thoughts:

1.  There doesn't seem to be any field validations, and I ran into several situations that slowed me down because I forgot to enter a field, I put the info in the wrong field, or I mistyped information.  The Sections field should only accept the proper section code, and the precidence field should only accept A, B, M, U, Q or S.
You should not be able to log the QSO without all fields being populated.

2.  An "Auto Advanceor Auto Tab" feature would be FANTASTIC in this program.  Every other SS program that I have used has this feature, and it reduces thousands of keystrokes throughout the contest.  For example, If I am in the serial number field and have just entered a number, pressing A B M U Q or S should take me out of the field and log the letter in the next field without me having to press the spacebar.  Also, when in the check (year licensed) field, any letter pressed should take me out of that field and into the section field.  Also, the check field really should be abbreviated in the header as CK.

3.  The "check log for errors" feature doesn't seem to work with this contest, at least not the way I expected. The program said it found no errors.  When the contest robot received my log, it pointed out a handfull of QSO's that were missing pieces of the exchange, such as the PRECIDENCE.

4.  If I copy the number and suffix of a callsign and then tab back through to make an addition of the prefix, is there an "insert" key function that will allow me to add the prefix without having to backspace?  I may be doing something wrong here.

With the additions of the "auto tab" features and proper field validations, this would be the finest Sweepstakes program on the planet.  I also used it for CQWW and was very impressed.  I tell all my friends!

Win-Test is the BEST.

Take care and 73

John N4EEB