I've been using writelog now for quite some time, and before that. I used CT
and before that logged and duped several thousand Q's by hand. I'm active
on each of the three contest modes.
I think some people may be getting carried away with several issues and I
thought I'd jump in here and mention a few - at the risk of being flamed.
CTY files are good - but technically illegal as described -- you're supposed
to log the zone the guy gives you - simple. Like everyone else, I use the
cty files and they work for 99.99% of Q's - it never can be fully trusted
for US, Russian, VE2's etc. And of course, if a guy is /MM it won't work
there either. It's even tougher now that a W6 could be in CT etc. but if a
guy tells me he's in zone 3 and my software says he's in 5 -- guess who's
right!!!??!!
We're pretty lucky now to know about nearly every dxpedition and dx station
that'll be on the air in a contest -- imagine there was a time when you'd
have to spend the 30 days after the contest trying to figure out where that
"8U7E in Zone 8" could possibly have been.
Writelog is a CONTEST logger - you'll want to make changes to the various
parameters based on the nature of the contest, the mode, how seriously
you're taking the contest etc. Same way you'd switch filters or antennas --
those windows and parameters should be treated the same way.
I tend to be involved in pretty major efforts, with very high rates, and
have never, even in multi-op setups had any form of delay in the saving. I'm
using a number of 500 to 1000 MHz pentium III's.
In contests like the WAE contest, you'll want to a) set autosave for fairly
frequent saves - and use a MANUAL SAVE as often as possible, since the QTC
info, to the best of my knowledge isn't saved during the autosave or b) if
you have two computers networked and one either has a UPS or is a lap-top
with working battery, then there's a backup on the other computer anyway, so
even if after 47 hrs, and your log wasn't saved, recovery can be pretty
painless -- IF at least one computer is operational. The WAE is a relatively
slow rate contest anyway, so even if the autosaving was noticeable, it
certainly wouldn't affect your rate.
I have an autosave for typical SSB contests set to either 75 or 100 - reason
being the rates in the Caribbean will allow me to work that many in 20 to 30
mins. Again, recovery is painless and there is a backup file which can
usually be instantly retrieved.
On the other hand in RTTY contests, where my rates are more in the order of
60 per hour, I'll set it to autosave every 10 to 20 QSOs -- again my basic
logic is what's the risk and in the worse case scenario, how long would it
take me to re-work that number of QSO's if I lost all after the last save -
in either case, I could spend a productive 10 to 15 minutes on a good band,
and I'd be back in the game.
The bottom line is there is no "magic number" for practically any of the
parameters, in the same way that there's no magic antenna, or magic
feedline, magic computer or magic rig in a contest.
The logging software is just like any other piece of station equipment you
do have to use it as often as you can outside of the contests and collect as
much information as possible all the time, in order to get the very best out
of it.
Typically, before each of the major contests, I do a complete setup often
from scratch -- a few weeks before the contest, then get comfortable with
it -- I may choose a single computer and a single rig, or two networked
computers and a single computer, or sometimes (most times) - I'll have a
second computer for redundancy and maybe to keep a "contest central" with
all the bandmaps, scores and rates. I may change some aspects of that
software setup towards the end of the contest when time is more critical.
As someone who used CT almost from the beginning, I can say without fear of
contradiction that writelog is more robust, fault tolerant, quick, accurate
etc. when configured correctly. CT had many cryptic commands, which also
allowed tremendous flexibility after many years of trial and error. I never
felt comfortable with CT's networking capabilities -- Writelog got it
"write" in that department
I rambled a little -- maybe a lot, but I hope I've helped some of those new
to writelog to understand the software's relatively tough learning curve --
if you want to use it at its optimum as the premier software tool for winnng
contests!!!!
As you get it out of the box, it'll work, but you need to tweak depending on
band, mode, contest type, its importance to you, etc.
73's, Dean - 8P6SH -- 8P2K in the contests
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Turner" <wrt@dslextreme.com>
To: <baldwin78@sbcglobal.net>
Cc: <writelog@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 9:11 PM
Subject: Re: [WriteLog] ka9f
On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 14:42:56 -0800 (PST), John/KA9F
<baldwin78@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>Where in the ini files do you find autosave?
>I've notice also after about 50 qsos in cw I get 1 erratic reaction then
fine fer a while? John Ka9f
_________________________________________________________
It goes under the [Configuration] heading, although you may have to
create the entry yourself. It should look like this:
AutoSaveCount=n
Where n is a number indicating how often the save takes place. If
n=1, WriteLog will save after every contact. If n=2 it will save
after every second contact and so on.
There are a couple of considerations in choosing the number. When
your contact count gets up in the hundreds or thousands, the save
takes a significant amount of time, so you probably don't want to set
it to 1. I have mine set to a relatively large number and *try* to
remember to do a manual save when things get slow. The risk here is
that a power failure might cause you to lose your unsaved data. You
have to balance the risks.
--
Bill, W6WRT
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