[WT-support] WPX CW 2008 reflections

[Tõnno Vähk]

YES!!! I had to read your message two times to believe how good news it was!:))

$NEXTSERIAL and $PREVSERIAL if FANTASTIC!!

AUTOSEND disabling is FANTASTIC!

*

Now abt the AUTOFILLING of the Callsign window. Bob writes: "Sounds like a good idea, but what if you type something then move the knob a bit, you might lose what you typed.  I guess it would only auto-enter callsigns when the callsign field is blank?  This feature would also have to be coordinated with the Bandmap Search and Pounce Option which does the opposite; it automatically adds calls that you enter into the band map, after you turn the tuning knob.  But maybe that would be an easy way to correct busted packet spots:  overtype the call and turn the knob -- band map updated with correct call. :-)"

I don't understand. Whe you are in S&P mode with automatic wiping enabled YOU LOSE WHAT YOU TYPED ANYWAY if you move VFO a bit. The feature of autofilling the callsign field when tuning on the call in the bandmap has nothing to do with it. It is just an automatic CTRL-SPACE function. And you would use it always together with automatic wiping and bandmap filling so those two (or three) features work perfectly together. That is the idea of it that you can enter callsing yourself into callsign window and it gets entered into bandmap or if you tune on the callsign in bandmap it gets automatically placed on your callsign field and you can press F11 and replace it if you find somebody else there. I think Bob is not fully aware of the callsign field wiping concept judging by his comment.

So by all means - that automatic filling could be an additional radio button under BANDMAP Properties window next to adding calls automatically in BANDMAP and WIPING the CALLSING FIELD. It would really make the S&P process with WT perfect, please see if it is possible to implement! There is no conflict with any other feature as I see it! Right now you already get the callsign field filled automatically when moving with CTRL-arrow so that is what we need when tuning also.

*

About AUTOSEND and AUTOCQ shorcuts. I know about CWAUTO, NOCWAUTO, RPT, NORPT. True, they are usually better than menu but if you want to do that during pileup it is not so easy to type so much, you might have not enough time when your callsign field is empty. NOCWAUTO is 7 (!) key strokes. While you could do with 1 only when shortcut is used. There are keys assigned for many things never used at all and I see many free shortcuts from all the ALT, CTRL, F keys, why not even ALTGR combinations. Why not use some of them for something so useful? And you can use AUTOSEND shortcut as replacement for CWAUTO3. It is OK to go to menu to change it from 3 to 4 if really necessary. Also, as interim solution, could you make some text commands shorter - like CWA and NCWA for example?

I answer some other items Bob asked about in reply to his mail.

Thanks!
73
tonno

-----Original Message-----
From: support-bounces at win-test.com [mailto:support-bounces at win-test.com] On Behalf Of Laurent HAAS - F6FVY
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 4:24 PM
To: support at win-test.com
Subject: Re: [WT-support] WPX CW 2008 reflections

Hi Tõnno et al.

Tõnno Vähk a écrit :

> -The crash at opening problem seems to be fixed in 3.20!!! Thanks guys. Whatever you did, it must have worked. I did not have any more any crashes at opening log file in Baltic contest or WPX at any computer! It is definitely gone!

Glad to hear that. It looks it was related to the map window thread 
initialization.

> - Sometimes still network drops out (Packet Stream Error or Network disabled messages, etc..) and reload is needed for specific computer to get it back on line. But this might be a user specific issue, maybe RF issue or sth... Funny thing is that in some occasions WT selects the Disable log syncronisation option itself and you keep wondering why the Qs are not coming in...

Still puzzled with that, as we didn't change anything related to the 
network since many releases. Still waiting more information...

> 1. $N+1 variable would be SO SO appreciated to be able to send the one after next number in WPX multi OP. It causes so many problems now to send manually and ops mess up it often.

Just added a $NEXTSERIAL (and a $PREVSERIAL for the same price...) 
variables in the current nightly build.

> 2. I see in your nightly build that changing to S&P mode disables REPEAT mode. Good. But WHAT ABOUT AUTO SENDING?? This is the first thing that should be disabled! It is really troublesome now.

Also added in the dvpt version, but still requires some testing. You may 
try it if you want.

> 3. In S&P mode Autofilling the Callsign window when tuning on spot. That would be so good to have! When the callsign goes yellow on Bandmap, why can't you have an option to AUTOFILL the callsign window? So much extra work is done by ops now to do it themselves.

As Bob pointed out, not really easy to manage with (several) other 
options. For now, I rather recommend to use the Ctrl-Space shortcut to 
"grab" the callsign pointed by the VFO cursor.

> 4. Shortcuts for AUTOCQ and AUTOSEND ON/OFF. Especially AUTOSEND is so hard to get into in the menu. I recommend CTRL+C and CTRL+V again! And AUTOCQ for other messages then F1 would be very useful also!

1/ The autosend feature must be re-written to allow a change without 
using the menu item, because of the different options (3 chars or 4 chars).

2/ If we decide to attribute keyboard shortcuts, there are chances we 
will not use Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V which are associated with the Copy/Paste 
mechanism in users minds.

In brief, we'll think abt it, but it is not feasible in a blink of an eye.

> 2. And again of course: I hope I will live to see the day when I can have my personal default CW messages and do not need to change all the messages painfully manually in every single computer before every single contest. The hope dies last!!

This feature is still in our minds, but before going into new (pretty) 
complicated features, we first want to sanitize and properly refactor 
the current source code. It is useless to implement "roaming" profiles 
or such things, if you can't even send proper CW with a WinKey or crash 
Win-Test on opening. I understand it may frustrate some of you, but I'm 
afraid you will hv to wait a bit more.

Thanks for the report.

73

Larry - F6FVY
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