Re: [Tlf-devel] fun with tlf!

[W.R. Juergens (DL2WRJ)]

Hello Rein,

Rein Couperus wrote:
> Congrats Wolf, we had a hard time on 80 meters, the static was
> ENORMOUS and the sigs very difficult to copy. If we lost the contest
> it is on 80 and 160... Maybe there was something wrong with the
> antennas/cables for run2. Before the contest I was testing run1,
> which had a fairly deaf vertical for 80 and an ACOM 2000A. Not really
> qrp :)

Thats what I have thougth, there must be some static or total different 
condx. I tried saturday over the whole day on 15m to catch CT9L, but I 
was totally ignored. So I was really glad to get the 80m points. 80m 
was shining here on early sunday morning, I could work some Ws on 80m 
too. I've missing the big Guns, KC1XX, K1TTT and so on, they were 
totally quiet here. North Africa was very loud in Europe and not easy, 
but to work, even with QRP power and a simple antenna like mine.

> We made 11.000 + qso's and 24.2 Million points raw. 10, 15, 20 and
> especially 40 were fantastic (2 ele home brew beam)!

Thats really nice, I hope you won in your category. 

> Notable: We were using N1MM on 4 laptops. On a 500 MHz Compaq M700 it
> crashed regularly and had severe "sticky keys" problems; always when
> it was doing a database search or -even worse- an edit of the
> previous qso in the data base. This became worse as the log was
> growing.  Sometimes the keyboard  was blocked for 4-5 seconds!
> Imagine this while running at a 300/hr rate :) On a 2.5 GHz Dell
> there was no cw output on the lpt so we had to make a serial
> interface; and a nice blue screen when yo quit the program :) Next
> year I will refuse to use anything but tlf...

Tlf worked flawless here, but sometimes I wish there is at least an 
indicator that the cursor, not the visible, the logical, shows at which 
"position" the exchange sequence actually is. I have had a few times 
the problem that I send the TU message instead of my call :-). I know 
there are F-Keys, but they are to far from my fingers, so using only 
the Space/Tab-key and the Enter-key during the exchange is much 
helpful. 
Later I learned that pressing a few times  the ESC key, the sequence was 
at the beginning. Clearing the input fields with the BackSpace did not 
set the "logical" cursor back, hihi.
Because of having often to repeat my call a few times, I wish the 
"logical cursor" was following the "visual cursor". I know for a 
running station it is easier to work this way, but for a S&P mode 
especially with a  thin qrp  signal it is helpful doing it the "visual" 
way. I think in N1MM you can switch off the so called "Enter Send 
Message Mode". If its possible maybe you can implement this feature 
also in tlf? 
Also the Page-Up and Page-Down key should *always* work as speed keys. 
Sometimes I had to reduce/increase the speed during an exchange and 
this was not possible, it worked only if the call field was empty.

I've used in the past the N1MM program only in my S&P setup and have 
never observed such problems. Sorry to hear, but thats mainly a windows 
problem I think. If the "ground" is not ok, no house will be stable 
over a longer time. 

> Just got home 1/2 hour ago. Still fairly tired hi... we had a 3 hours
> operating / 3 hours sleep schedule so I will probably sleep the next
> 3 days :) (or do some tlf debugging).

So, to much written from my side.
I think its better you sleep 3 days ;-) Debugging is much easier if you 
are not tired...
Thanks again for the nice tlf contest program.

73 Wolf, DL2WRJ
-- 
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