[WT-support] KEYING DELAY

[Bob Wilson, N6TV]

Thanks for the screen grabs.  I think having both a WinKey PTT lead of 30
ms and a PA PTT lead of 30 ms is too much.  Most modern amplifiers require
no more than 10-12 ms PTT lead time.  However, it sounds like the delay was
on the order of 1000 ms so this is probably not the cause.

Was the PTT closure itself delayed, or the CW after the PTT was closed?

*Did you disable "Incoming spot logging" in the Alt-A window and "Stream
logging" in the Alt-O window as recommended for RBN connections?  *Right
click and uncheck those if selected.  Please re-run your SH/DX test.  Do
things improve?

>From Release.txt:

- DX Spots window (Alt-A) : New option to enable/disable logging of
  the incoming spots in the .dxc file. It is enabled by default. Under
  some circumstances (slow antivirus inspection, slow HDD, etc.),
  saving every spot (especially when using the RBN) was making Win-Test
  less responsive. The op-entered spots are always saved to allow their
  restoration on log startup. Tnx HA1AG @ ED9M.

- Packet window (Alt-O) : New option to enable/disable logging of
  the packet stream in the .pkt file. It is enabled by default. Under
  some circumstances (slow antivirus inspection, slow HDD, etc.),
  saving the packet data stream (especially when using the RBN) was
  making Win-Test less responsive. Tnx HA1AG @ ED9M.



Excessive disk I/O may cause interrupt overloads, even on a fast computer,
and that may slow down serial communications with the WinKey.  It's only a
guess.

Also, we you using a WiFi LAN, or all hard-wired, or a combination?   A
100% hard-wired LAN will be much more reliable and require less overhead.

Which RBN server and port were you connecting to?

wtDxTelnet only needs to run on a single computer.  You should only have
one copy of wtDxTelnet running on the entire LAN (or two if you want to
connect one to a local skimmer and a second to a remote DX Cluster node),
though it's hard to understand why heavy wtDxTelnet activity would slow
down WinKey serial port I/O.

Win-Test communication with the WinKey maxes out at 1200 baud.  I guess
it's possible that such communication is delayed when there is heavy LAN
traffic, though I can't understand why a leading dot would get truncated
unless PTT lead delay was 0 ms.

73,
Bob, N6TV

On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 9:43 AM, Don Beattie <g3ozf at btinternet.com> wrote:

> Hi Bob,
>
>
>
> Here’s my answers, Bob:
>
>
>
> The delay was random – sometimes it was zero but (when it mattered !) it
> would be up to about a second.  PTT lead set to 30ms. It was an embedded
> WinKey in both the Microham and the EZMaster.
>
>
>
> However, I do think I am beginning to get a sniff of the solution. The
> machines were each running cluster links via WTDX Telnet. The load of spots
> was considerable at the weekend, and so I tried today to simulate that with
> an extensive “SH/DX” commend. Up till I sent that command,  the keying had
> been perfect. When the spots arrived the delay was there for a while. I am
> beginning to think this is the Telnet app + the processing of the spots in
> WT which together loads things so that the CW gets a back seat. Might that
> be possible? The fact that I get the same effect on EZMaster and Microham
> suggests it is not the basic installation of the
> hardware/firmware/interface, but a processing issue.
>
>
>
> I’ll send you the relevant screen grabs directly (I’ll just to the
> Microham) as I don’t think the reflector handles attachments.  If you have
> any ideas, they would be very appreciated.
>
>
>
> 73
>
>
>
> Don, G3BJ / G5W
>
>
>
> *From:* support-bounces at f5mzn.org [mailto:support-bounces at f5mzn.org] *On
> Behalf Of *Bob Wilson, N6TV
> *Sent:* 02 December 2014 17:02
> *To:* Win-Test Reflector
> *Subject:* Re: [WT-support] KEYING DELAY
>
>
>
> Was it a consistent delay, or variable?  How long was the delay?  What was
> the PTT Lead time set to in the WinKey (WKSETUP) dialog?  Were you using
> WinKey PTT or any other type of PTT port?  Was the "PA PTT" box checked and
> was "PA PTT lead" set to some value other than 0 in the PTT tab?  You
> really need to send me a screen shot of every Win-Test dialog and every
> Router tab on the problem computer before I can do much more.
>
>
>
> There at at least 3 different places where PTT lead time can be set in
> Win-Test and the Router.
>
>
>
> If it works for a while, then the delay shows up, sometimes I've had to
> type SETUP [Enter] [Enter] in Win-Test to reopen all COM ports, including
> the WinKey.  Did you try that?
>
>
>
> Any leading blanks in CW messages programmed by mistake?
>
>
> 73,
>
> Bob, N6TV
>
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 7:24 AM, Pablo - EA4TX <ea4tx at ea4tx.com> wrote:
>
> In ED1R we also noticed the same problem but only in one of our computers.
> Our entry was M/2 and we used 5 computers (2 x RUN + 2 x INBAND + MULTI).
> All the computers are similar (same Dell desktop computer) and we used
> microHAM microKeyer II. The problem was detected ONLY in the "MULTI"
> Station, the rest of computers (4) worked without delay in the CW starting.
>
> We checked all possible options (MicroHam Router and WT) but it didn't help
> to fix it. We also entered the same setup of another computer (without
> delay) into this Multi station and it didn't work.
>
> After a lot of time spent in this issue, we couldn't solve. After a lot of
> years running WT and microham, I think I do not consider myself a newbie is
> these settings.
>
> We thought that the problem was due to this computer (some strange case),
> but now after reading your email, you describe the same problem we found in
> this station.
>
> Regards, Pablo EA4TX (ED1R Team)
>
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