Since more people are starting to use the dual CQ and the simulator, I wanted
to add some thoughts on things to consider. Of course it is all personal
preference, so feel free to disregard.
1. In Dual CQ there are a couple of arcane set up items. The first is about
enabling the "red box." In normal operation, this is a good thing as it allows
you to start sending while continuing to type a call. In dual CQ, the focus
does not shift until the red box goes away. This means you need to watch the
screen before typing in a call on the "other" radio. I find it best to disable
this in dual CQ, but it still works otherwise.
2. There is a setup item for aligning the windows on exit. You want this.
Many times you will want to stop dual CQ to focus on one radio, send something
manually, or edit a qso. This makes sure the focus of both windows is the
same. It can be very confusing to exit dual CQ with the focus split and try to
do an alt-k.
3. It is really hard to do dual CQ and automated head phone switching. The
timing is seldom in sync and you really want to hear both frequencies at once.
Headphone switching may work when simultaneous q's on both radios are rare. If
you do have a reasonable amount of overlapped q's, you really need split
headphones to be efficient.
4. The external:clear function is crucial. Entering letters into a window
stops that radio from cq'ing. Deleting them does not necessarily restart the
CQ engine. You either need to complete a qso, or use the external:clear to
restart automated cq'ing. It is real easy to not notice that one radio has
stopped cq'ing. This needs to be mapped to a key that is easy to use.
5. I found that Practicing Dual CQ outside of a contest is very difficult.
The exchanges are not crisp or predictable enough to emulate real contesting so
the timing is never right. The simulator is the best practice tool
6. IMHO - the key skill in dual CQ is copying in one ear. If you are going to
practice something outside of contests, practice copying in one ear. Note that
dual CQ is a simpler case since one radio is cq'ing when you are trying to copy
so, as long as side tone is turned down, the non-listening ear is quiet.
Copying with signals in both ears is much harder.
7. Keep sidetone very low or off so as to make single ear copying easier.
This makes manual sending harder and may be a reason to use alt-k to send.
8. Slow the timed CQ parameter down. If this set too fast, you may not get a
full call typed before the CQ restarts on the other radio. Then, when you send
the exchange, the CQ will get cut off. Elongating the repeat interval cuts
down on aborted cq's. Likewise, if a qso bogs down on one radio. You will
continuously CQ in the face of callers on the other radio. This is impolite
and may send them away if the interval is very short.
9. The simulator is very good but pileup behavior could use some nuance. If
you get the call of a caller wrong, the station will not respond. However,
since you typed some letters, the cq'ing will stop. This creates a deadlock.
A "?" Will get them to send again. Also external:clear will start the cq'ing
and also get them to call again. The latter works real well to keep the
simulator rate up, but it is not a good operating practice
Of course YMMV, but I think Wayne has done a good job on both of these and just
wanted to pass along my comments having used the dual CQ, admittedly under
ideal circumstances.
One other note, dual CQ puts much more emphasis on elimination interstation
interference. Unlike SO2R, you can just stop transmitting on one radio when
you find something to work, with dual CQ to work well, you need to be able to
listen and transmit simultaneously on all the most common band combinations
Have fun
Tom W2SC
Sent from my iPad
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