Hi Billy,
I think you have made some good suggestions for improvements in the past.
This time I need to disagree with you. Writelog isn't broken. It works just
fine recording and playing back function key messages in SSB. I operate from
a M/M station for most major SSB contests, and in others from home. Writelog
is the program of choice. When you take the time to set up the live mic, and
the recording and playback levels, (which are NOT Writelog issues),
recording a new message is as simple as hitting a shift/fn key, saying the
message, and terminating it with the ESC key. We do this literally dozens of
times during contests when say announcing a new listen frequency when
operating split on 40 or 75. If I'm not happy with the sound or tempo of a
particular message, I do another one on the fly, recording directly from the
"on the air" transmission. Works great, every time. At the M/M station I
operate from, recording contest messages before the contest takes only 2 or
3 minutes... not hours.
There may be some particular sound cards that may cause some trouble. I
personally haven't run into any. I have a PCI based soundcard in my main
shack computer, and use either of two PCMIA sound cards with my laptop setup
for portable operation.
If you want to have Writelog spell out calls in SSB, you WILL need to record
and name each letter file. This is not a Writelog issue either. You will
need a sound editor to do this. You may wish to record a number of letters
in a single recording session and use the sound editor to split them apart.
Regardless of how you do this, you will need to use a sound editor in order
to trim off beginning and ending deadspace, otherwise there will be too much
time between characters and it will sound odd. I personally don't bother
with this. The payback isn't there for the time spent. In a major SSB
contest it's just as easy to say the other station's call then either give
the canned report or say it. The extra feedback often allows me to catch
data entry spelling errors.
73 & CU in the pileups
Bruce W1CSM
----- Original Message -----
From: "Billy Cox" <aa4nu@ix.netcom.com>
To: "Writelog@Contesting. Com" <writelog@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 2:56 PM
Subject: Re: [WriteLog] Sound with sound card
> >There have been a few complaints about the sound when using
> >your sound card for contest exchanges. I find that it works quite well.
>
> Sometimes ... the common word that many use is "sometimes"
>
> Sorry ... I don't want a "sometimes it records, sometimes it sounds
> great, sometimes it needs more editing, and sometimes ..."
>
> WL takes a hit here, the *.doc is poor. There's no indication of
> IF you are recording, and then this dance of the various parameters,
> all to use a sound card ... defeat the purpose of using the software in
> the first place. Again I'll offer a solution, just as the W5XD keyer
> addresses the keying problem on CW, move up to some form of
> a ???? VOICE keyer to address these issues on SSB. Or add the
> support for the devices that solve this problem just as the W5XD
> keyer does as to solving the WL CW keying issue in Windows.
>
> Writelog is GREAT on RTTY and CW, but SSB ... sadly this is the
> software's Achilles' heel.
>
> >After the recording is doe to get the best result you should really edit
> >the sound files. You will have clicks and pops and dead spots if you do
> >not. This is especially true if you are using the ability to synthesize
> >calls by recording all the letters.
>
> I agree ... that's exactly what I noticed also .. but it's unacceptable
> to have to now go to ANOTHER software package to "fix this"
> or to have to spend TIME editing and re-editing voice messages
> when this is not required with other contest software or hardware!
>
> Sorry, I am a contestor ... NO OTHER software requires me to
> invest the time to go back and "edit the sound files". The W9XT
> or K1EA boards do not require this ... If I have a guest op here,
> he should not have to come over the weekend before "to record
> his messages, and edit them". I wasted roughly 8 hours this last
> weekend trying to work past these issues ... and ended up closing
> down WL and going back to TR and my K1EA unit. No pops, no
> crackles, and I KNEW when I was recording and playing the DVK.
>
> >It is going to take a good bit of time to get that right.
>
> Yes, it sure will ... IF the sound card is the ONLY option ... All of this
> is because we are trying to use a device in a near real-time mode, it
> flunks the KISS test badly. Software should SAVE time ... and allow
> TRUE "on the fly" recording. Not have to record and edit in order to use
> the desired data as a voice message memory in a contest.
>
> This is an area where WL can really make some improvements.
>
> 73 Billy AA4NU
>
>
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