I've now had a chance to drive 6.28 through a real contest.
The "snap back" to current band seems to be working pretty well,
though I still logged several (at least 2 dozen) NONSSB QSO's.
Note that the "NONSSB" event also messes up the report (logs 59
not 599...) as well as the band and mode.
There is basically one major problem that remains to be ironed
out with respect to the Icom interface.
The problem is that one cannot start or stop a CW message from
the keyboard when the "NONSSB" event occurs. You can NOT cut
off a message that is playing, or initiate a new message from the
keyboard. You have to WAIT for the program, sometimes up to 5
seconds (!) for the "NONSSB" event to clear, before you can start
or stop a message from the keyboard. This is a major problem,
because the "NONSSB" event usually occurs SEVERAL HUNDRED TIMES
during a typical contest. This can really mess with one's rhythm!
It was tolerable for IARU, where I used my paddles 90% of the time
to compensate for the problem. I do like using the program to send
CW with though, and this delay greatly impedes that ability. I sure
hope we can find a solution by the Sprint...
Note that this "NONSSB" event seems to occur at random, and I can
find no action which seems to trigger or prevent it.
Some questions and thoughts...
Should the TRANSCEIVE switch be ON or OFF on both radios?
What baud rate is best for an 765/761 pair? Note: the 761 seems
to behave better than the 765, where the NONSSB occurs regularly.
Both are currently at 1200 baud.
Can the NONSSB thing be "cleared" from a keystroke (ESC?) I THINK
it MIGHT be cleared from the paddles, but is definately not from
a keystroke at 6.28. This is the Fix I am requesting here, to not
have to wait for the program while it's trying to talk to the radio.
Thanks for keeping TR-Log tweaked, and we'll see everyone in the NAQP
and Sprint contests.
-Kirk K4RO
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