On 1/22/2022 12:53 PM, N9GG via CQ-Contest wrote:
I welcome your comments and suggestions.
I've been contesting since 1957, mostly CD parties and SS. I was on and
off the air for decades at a time until getting back on for good in
2003. That was at a FD I visited, and they were using WriteLog, so I
bought it and learned it.
Around 2007-8, the organizer of a FD team I was joining announced a few
months before that we would use N1MM, so I installed it and started
using it for a few contests. It wasn't long before I'd decided that I
found it a lot more user-friendly, and by SS-SSB that year, I had made
the switch. I've not looked back.
Comfort with contest logging software is STRONGLY dependent on having
developed "muscle memory" with its operation, and knowledge of its
"gotchas." I use ESM mode exclusively; one thing you have to know is
that if you've sent (or started sending) an exchange once, you've got to
revert to F-keys for His Call and Report.
Another thing that's critical is setting up F-Key files that make sense
for the way you operate. My standard for most contests is that F1 is a
"quickie" CQ, like "SS K9YC", F2 is the exchange, F3 is TU K9YC, F4 is
My Call, F5 is his call, F7 is a 1 x 1 CQ, F8 is 1 x2, F11 is Wipe (to
clear the entry window). The remaining keys are programmed for common
fills. That's for the primary "Running" mode; for S&P, F3 simply logs
the QSO. One thing I like about N1MM Plus is how easy it is to edit
F-Key files and save them with names that N1MM Plus will, by default,
pull them up the next time you start that same contest a year later. And
there's a Tab in the contest setup for choosing from any that you have
generated.
What I DON'T like are N1MM's default F-Key files -- I view them as a
train wreck.
WriteLog and N1MM are both great for exporting adif to my main logging
program, which is DXKeeper. I don't remember WriteLog's Cabrillo
function, but N1MM's is excellent. N1MM's doc (pdf manual) is great; at
the time I was learning WriteLog, the "manual" was a long email from the
developer.
Our team for CQP, 7QP, and FD uses N1MM and I'm the computer setup guy,
but we have at least one great op on every operation who is primarily a
WriteLog user. At the beginning of each operation, I need to remind them
of how N1MM works. It's all "muscle memory" that we take for granted
when running our own logger.
73, Jim K9YC
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|