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Re: [WriteLog] Anyone have RTTY problems during Roundup?

To: "'Don Hill AA5AU'" <aa5au@bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: [WriteLog] Anyone have RTTY problems during Roundup?
From: Ed Muns <w0yk@msn.com>
Reply-to: w0yk@msn.com
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 23:40:39 -0400
List-post: <writelog@contesting.com">mailto:writelog@contesting.com>
Don, if the WriteLog network links go down and back up, how would that cause
the interlock problem I had?  It seems to me that if the network were not
working, then there would be no interlock.  In my case, though, it was just
the opposite with the interlock working when I wasn't even transmitting on
the other radio.  And, it often took 2-5 tries before the message would
complete.  But, maybe my logic doesn't apply here and Wayne will have to see
if the network going down and restarting itself could cause this problem.

On the positive side, I never had to re-link any of the computers.  They did
that themselves automatically with the link was temporarily lost.  And the
band summary windows all sync'd up with themselves.  Occasionally, I'd have
to do a "Recalculate Score" on one of them, but it was only off by one QSO.

Ed - P49X (W0YK)


Don, AA5AU, wrote:
> Thanks Ed.  You reminded me that I also had the lockout problem where the
> lockout stopped working on occasion.  I noticed that when
> it happened, the network between the two PCs had stopped working and one
> or the other network status boxes, minimized at the bottom
> of the screen, was blinking.  Tonight, I set up the two logs and networked
> them.  I went to watch some of the football game and when
> I just came back, the box on the laptop was blinking.  When I check the
> network status, it showed that it has initiated a reciprocal
> connection and reconnected itself.  So the network is obviously dropping
> and I never one time had a network problem using version
> 10.
> 
> I did not associate the transmit hanging up with the network or the
> interlock, but it could have been associated.  I am guessing
> that WriteLog is losing the network then it's reconnecting itself.
> Because we are losing the network, the lockout obviously will
> not work.  I did notice that once I maximized the network status box, then
> minimized it, the lockout started working again but that
> may have been because the network had reconnected itself.  But what's
> funny about it, is that when I thought the network was down,
> stations logged on one computer immediately showed up in the log on the
> other computer.  So maybe the WL network wasn't actually
> down?
> 
> I had one report sent to me directly that said the receive stutter problem
> had occurred with someone when they were running MMTTY
> stand-alone.  I will query the MMTTY reflector to see if anyone using
> MMTTY stand-alone during the contest had this problem.  I did
> not experience this one.
> 
> I don't remember when the problems started for me.  I know that early
> Sunday when I was having these problems, I remember changing
> WriteLog from two radios to one radio with only one Rttyrite window and it
> appeared to help, but then I think I had the delayed
> transmit and dropped network a couple times afterward.
> 
> The problems appear to be directly related to version 11, but I used
> version 11.01A in CQWW RTTY making nearly 2400 Qs with
> absolutely no problems whatsoever using basically the same setup.  The
> only difference is that I had 2 radios tied to one computer
> this time along with one radio on the other computer that was networked.

Ed, P49X (W0YK), wrote:
> I ran 11.01F on three networked computers, one radio per computer on two
> of
> the computers.  The third computer did not have a radio this time and was
> the network "server" that the other two PCs linked to in WriteLog.
> Windows
> 7, 32-bit, fully updated.
> 
> All of this was set up on Monday prior to the contest and never re-booted.
> Even WriteLog itself was not exited and re-started after about Wednesday.
> I
> simply opened a different *.wl file from within WriteLog.  I had a SO2V
> configuration on each radio, with the second receiver in the K3 having its
> own Entry window in WriteLog and its own MMTTY Rttyrite window.  The main
> receiver also had a MMTTY Rttyrite window, plus a clone receive-only
> Rttyrite window for the DXP38 decoder.
> 
> WriteLog was setup for Last-One-Wins interlock as I've used for several
> years now in RTTY mode.
> 
> I had the following problems during the contest:
> 
> 1.  Sunday afternoon, about 18 operating hours into the contest and close
> to
> 3000 QSOs, messages on both PCs would randomly stop toward the beginning
> of
> the message.  It was behaving as though the interlock was having an
> effect,
> but of course the other WriteLog PC was not transmitting.  It got worse
> and
> worse until I finally turned off the interlock to see if that would help
> the
> problem.  It did, I never had interrupted messages again.  Prior to this,
> the function has worked perfect on RTTY.  (However, I've never been able
> to
> keep First-One-Wins interlock working on CW, but that's another report
> sometime.)
> 
> 2.  Also, shortly after problem 1, WriteLog froze up on one PC.  I
> couldn't
> get the computer to respond with anything.  The keyboard was locked out.
> Eventually, I pulled the battery and power cord on the laptop and forced a
> shutdown.  It came back up fine with no errors or complaints and I loaded
> WriteLog and operated the rest of the contest.  I can't identify anything
> I
> did or anything that happened to cause this lockup.
> 
> 3.  When WriteLog came back up on the frozen computer, only two of my
> three
> Rttyrite windows came up, and they came up with errors.  It looked like
> the
> parameters got mixed between at least two of the windows:
> 
>       a.  The main receiver MMTTY Rttyrite window came up in its correct
> position, but its MMTTY display did not.  Instead, the MMTTY display for
> the
> sub-receiver MMTTY Rttyrite window came up and indeed it was pointing to
> the
> right channel of the soundcard where the sub-receiver audio is.  I changed
> to the left channel and that worked fine for the rest of the contest.
> 
>       b.  There was no MMTTY Rttyrite window for the sub-receiver.
> 
>       c.  The DXP38 clone Rttyrite window came up with its separate tuning
> window OK, but it was looking at the right channel (sub-receiver) audio
> and
> I couldn't figure out how to move it to the left channel, so I just
> ignored
> it.
> 
> This is probably the worst experience I've had with WriteLog.  That said,
> it
> worked great otherwise.  And, the K3 SO2V integration is simply
> outstanding.
> It works very smoothly with the only limitation being operator skill at
> using it in a high-rate contest environment.  I did not have the message
> delays that started this thread, however I have had them in the past at
> times.  But, it was never bad enough or long enough to look into or
> report.
> 
> Ed - P49X (W0YK)
> 
> 
> Don, AA5AU, wrote:
> > I had an issue this weekend and so did Steve, AI9T.  My issue was an
> > occasional delay from the time I hit a function key to the time
> > the actual message went out.  This only happened maybe 20 times, maybe
> > more or less, I was too busy to keep track.  When I hit a
> > function key, the transmitter would key but the message did not go out
> > until 4-6 seconds later.
> >
> > Steve had this problem as well as a problem with received text not
> > scrolling across the Rttyrite screen appropriately.  He describes
> > it as "stuttering" where the text would not scroll across the Rttyrite
> > screen as it was being received but instead come out in
> > spurts.  To me that sounds like a buffer situation but I'm not familiar
> > enough with how that works.
> >
> > Mike, K4GMH, did not have any issues.  All three of us were set up for
> two
> > radios on one PC.  I had a third radio connected to a
> > laptop on the network but did not experience any problems on that
> > computer.  Steve and I were running 11.01F.  Not sure what Mike
> > was running.
> >
> > Did anyone else have these, or any other kind of problems with WriteLog
> > this weekend?  If so, please let us know only if you did
> > have a problem and if so, what version of WL you were running.  Thanks!
> 
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