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#1zz The Amiga Contest Logging Programs V3.03 Copyright 1992,1993 by Peter Hardie VE5VA General Instructions (25-Mar-93) 1. Introduction These instructions describe the features that apply to all versions of the contest logging programs (currently: CQWW, WPX, CARF, FD, SS, ARLX and QRP). Instructions specific to each contest program haven't been written yet but if you're familiar with the exchange in a contest then you shouldn't have trouble figuring out how to talk to them. You use these programs AT YOUR OWN RISK on an AS-IS basis. I do NOT guarantee that these programs will perform as described, nor as you expect them to, and I accept no liability whatever if these programs lose information, score incorrectly or in any other way fail to perform correctly. You MUST read Chapter 7. If you have used these programs before, then at least read Chapter 6 "KNOWN BUGS and SHORTCOMINGS" to see if any major bugs have been fixed or found. Also look at the file "changes" which documents changes made to the programs as I go along. In order to use the programs you MUST be able to use a text editor to set up some of the files that control the programs and at the moment the programs can only be started from the shell. I hope to add workbench support some time or other. 1.1 For the impatient Those of you who don't read past the introduction of any documentation will find that as long as you use the same directory structure as exists on the disk, then you won't need to do much in the way of setting up the programs other than to put a setenv command in your startup-sequence which describes your local timezone so that the program can compute UTC for proper timestamping of your log entries. You must also do the following: - If you are going to use computer control of your rig you must start up the appropriate driver program before you start up a contest program (currently this is fairly easy because I only support the IC735). - If you use the AREXX functions (PacketCluster) then you must have a copy of rexxhost.library in your LIBS: directory. The library is supplied with this distribution. BUT there is currently NO program to send the packetcluster information to the logger programs. You can write one yourself. I hope to have one ready soon. z - You must set up a default file for each program you wish to run. In addition, you can put some of the common default commands in a global.defaults file in the lists directory. 2. Hardware Requirements. 2.1 Computer The logging programs should run on any Amiga which has at least 512K of memory. A hard drive is preferable for storing the log during the contest as the I/O is faster, but it is not essential. However, when running the program, your log file MUST be on disk. If you tell the computer to store the log in ram, a power failure will lose your entire log. The program has been tested on an A3000 using Kickstart 1.3 and 2.04 and both work. It has also been partially tested on an A1000 with 2Mb using Kickstart 1.3 and it also works (although the AREXX port hasn't been tested there). The memory requirement will be the most critical for those of you with only 512k. When allocating the memory for the log, the programs ask for it all in one big lump. This way you will know before you start a contest whether or not you have enough memory. By default, the programs ask for enough space to handle 2000 QSOs. You can specify a larger or smaller number of QSOs by using the 'n' command in the default file for the specific contest. But you must ensure that whatever number you choose, it will be big enough to handle the whole contest. If you don't make the number big enough then the program will terminate as soon as the limit has been reached. In this case you can increase the QSO size by editing the default file and then starting the contest program again. The programs also allocate smaller chunks of memory for the multiplier lists and to do some types of report. 2.2 Audio output The computer sends an audible beep out of the audio jacks when an error (e.g. a dupe or unrecognized callsign) occurs. The old A1000 monitor has the audio built-in so there's nothing for you to do to use it except turn up the volume. Some of the newer monitors (e.g. 1950) do not have audio output so you must hook up the Amiga's audio output to a suitable amplifier and speaker. When sending a beep to the monitor, the computer also generates a DisplayBeep() function which causes the screen to flash. This is useful if you wear headphones and won't be able to hear the computer. It takes a noticeable amount of time to transmit the three beeps to the audio device when a dupe or error occurs and so you have the option, in the default file, of turning the audio off (if you use headphones you probably won't hear it anyway!). The command "a 0" in the default file will turn the audio off. The hardware described in the remaining sections is all optional. z 2.3 Computer controlled radios The program has been tested with an ICOM IC-735 using a homebrew interface. It also works on a FT-767GX using their FIF-232C interface. I plan to also have the program understand various other ICOM, Yaesu and Kenwood rigs. The diagram for my IC-735 interface, which uses two 2N2222 transistors is included in a separate file (iface.txt). If your rig is not supported yet then send me a detailed spec of the computer commands and the interface required and I'll try to add it to the list. All computer controlled radios use the serial port but some of them need more of the pins wired up than others. The IC-735 requires that the following pins be connected: Pin 2 Tx Pin 3 Rx Pin 7 Gnd My interface also requires +12V to be connected and some of the commercial interfaces may also need it: Pin 23 (A1000 only) +12V Pin 9 (all others) +12V If you make up a homebrew interface you must be VERY careful to identify the +12V pin correctly or you could blow the 8520 chip. You must also take great care when plugging the interface into the serial port's DB-25. The port uses a male plug and if you use a DB-25 female with a metal shell, then the shell could short the +12V to ground. This blows a fuse in the computer and it costs a lot of money to replace it. Therefore, whenever you plug in the serial port interface, TURN THE COMPUTER OFF FIRST! The only way you can safely plug in the interface without blowing the fuse while the computer is switched on is by using an all-plastic DB-25. Yaesu rigs appear to need the same pins connected as the ICOM. Kenwood rigs also require: Pin 4 CTS Pin 5 RTS although I suspect that my version of the program will not suffer if these pins were not connected. Some rigs, notably the Yaesu FT757GX can only receive commands from the computer and cannot transmit responses at all. The logging programs allow for control of the radio from the computer so that provided you use only the program to control the rig, it can log your contacts for you. But it might be safer to get used to doing without. z 2.4 Morse code output WARNING - as of V3.00 the morse code output has been moved from the RS- 232 Pin 20 to joystick Pin 9. All the contest programs have a built-in keyer with ten memories. The keyer speed and the content of the memories can be initially set in a configuration file and also modified on-the-fly from 10 to 50wpm. The morse code is transmitted out of pin 9 of the second joystick port. PTT is output from Pin 5 of the joystick port. You do not have to use the PTT output - you can use your rig's VOX to key your rig if you wish. The cursor UP and DOWN keys can be used to change the keyer's CW speed by plus or minus 2wpm each time the key is hit. 2.5 Morse code input All of the contest programs also provide an electronic morse code keyer. The keyer can emulate an iambic paddle with dot and dash memory and a choice of either Curtis A or B timing. It will also emulate a semi- automatic bug with automatic dots and manual dash, or just a straight key (which is just the key connected to the dash side of the semi- automatic bug). This function is used by connecting your key to the second joystick port. The pin connections are: Pin 8 - Gnd Pin 2 - Dot Input Pin 4 - Dash Input (or straight key) This function was provided more as an academic exercise to show that I could do it, but it can also be useful if you need to send something which is not covered by the content of the ten memories and it is more convenient to have your paddle connected to the computer instead of your keyer. In the future, I may add code to read what you are transmitting with the paddle so that you it will read the callsign and save you having to type that in. z 3. Software When you use the contesting software you will need one or two programs depending upon the hardware configuration. If you are going to use computer control of your radio then you must first run a program (in the drivers directory) that corresponds to your rig. For example, before I use any contest program, I must first: run drivers/ic735 This program handles the interface to the rig. Once this program is running you do not need to kill it after stopping the logging program. You can leave it running in the background so that if you start up the logging program again later, you do not also have to start up the driver. If you do not start up a driver program, the contest program will report that there is no driver and will then use a default frequency and mode which you can set in one of the default files (see below). Also, if there's no driver, you must tell the program when you change frequency or mode on the rig. There is an easy way to do this using the band stacking feature which is explained later. The driver program can be terminated by executing the program called stopdriver in the drivers sub-directory. Once the driver is running, you can start up the appropriate logging program, whether it be WPX, QRP or whatever. All need the name of the logging file to be used. I use, for example, qrp ve5va.qrp If you do a lot of contesting it would probably help if the name of the logging file contained the date and mode: e.g. cqww 1992-cw.cqww Do NOT use a name that starts with the word "log". The programs output a formatted log to file whose name begins with "log" and it is safest not to use this so that the program does not destroy your log file. Some of the functions of the logging programs are common to all and others are specific to the particular program. 3.1 General functions All of the programs can be terminated by typing a Control-D or by clicking the left mouse button while pointing at the top left corner of the window. The window does not have any gadgets on it but you can also make the window go to the back of all the windows in the current screen by clicking the left mouse button while pointing at the top right of the window. You can push the entire current screen to the back of all other screens by typing right-amiga-B. z 3.1.1 Default file All of the logging programs read two default files when they start up. These allow you to set various options. All programs first read the file called "global.defaults" which is in the "lists" directory (see section 4 which describes support files). This file can be used to set options such as your callsign which will be the same for all contests. Each program then reads a defaults file which is specific to that contest program. The name of this second file depends upon the specific program being used and consists of the program name followed by ".defaults" and the file must be in the same directory as the contest program. For example, the WPX program looks for the file "wpx.defaults" and the QRP program looks for "qrp.defaults". This file is used, for example, to initialize the content of one or more of the morse code memories which would change depending upon the contest exchange. If you are not using computer control of your rig you can specify a default frequency and mode that the rig should use. Each sample default file has documentation of the available commands but, briefly, they are: ! Comment - the line is ignored. c call Set your callsign. NOTE that this is normally your standard callsign but if you use a special prefix, or are portable in a different call area or country, then you should set this to the special callsign used so that the reports have the correct callsign on them. This command MUST be present. n N Set the number of QSOs in the in-memory log to N. The program defaults to 2000. Each QSO is about 80 bytes, so the default requires at least 160Kb of ram for the log. If you aren't going to make anywhere near 2000 QSOs you can cut this down to a more reasonable number (e.g. 1000, 500 or whatever - but make sure you OVERestimate). l N string Set CW memory N to the string. m S Set morse code speed to S wpm. S is an integer between 10 and 50. p N Set the Field Day or QRP ARCI power output multiplier to N. You MUST have this set correctly for these two contests because it directly affects the scoring and the report outputs. P string Set your output power to the string (no more than 5 chars). Not used in scoring the log, it is only printed on QSLs when I get around to writing the QSL label program. s F Set the QRP ARCI power Source multiplier to F. F defaults to 1 but if you use a battery you would use 1.25 t Z Set your local timezone to Z (see next section for format). z f freq Mode Set the default frequency to 'freq' and mode to 'Mode'. The frequency is specified in kilohertz. k N Set keyer type to N. 0=Iambic-B, 1=Iambic-A, 2=Bug h N Set QRP ARCI homebrew bonus points to N. b Backup the log entries to the printer as they are entered. The program always writes each QSO to the disk and this command makes it write it to the printer as well. If you edit the log and make any changes they are written to the printer so that you can keep track of the changes. Serious contesters should use this option as a failsafe. a n Turn the audio on (n=1) or off (n=0). If the audio is off the program responds to dupes faster because it doesn't have to send three beeps to the audio device. q n Set the type of QRP contest. Currently 0 is QRP-ARCI and 1 is MI-QRP. If MI-QRP is chosen then the power multiplier (p command) is forced to one. x N Set the PTT delay to N*10 milliseconds ... i.e. the PTT delay is specified in units of 10 milliseconds. It is strongly recommended that you use the printer backup throughout a contest so that a disk (or program) failure will not lose your entire log. 3.1.2 The date and time All versions of the logging programs keep track of the date and time and store these in each log entry. They also show the current time in the top left of the screen. Just before you start a contest you should first ensure that your clock is set to the correct time (local or UTC) by synchronizing it to one of the time services such as WWV. If your computer time is local time and not UTC, then you must also tell the computer about your local time zone. This can be done in one of two ways. Either you can specify the 't' command in the default file or you can put a setenv command in your s:startup-sequence file which defines the name TZ_CHU as your local time. In either case you specify your local timezone as hours (and optionally minutes) west (positive) or east (negative) of Greenwich. The program also handles daylight savings time conversion and this must be specified in the same 't' command or setenv call if it is applied in your area. Finally, if your timezone uses daylight savings time, then the program also needs to know whether you are in the northern or southern hemisphere and you encode this bit of information by specifying the DST indicator in lower (North) or upper (South) case. The general format of the time is: [-]hh[:mm][D] This means that the time is specified as a number of hours which can be preceded by an optional minus sign (for EAST) and optionally followed by z a number of minutes (e.g. 3:30 for Newfoundland) and all of this can have an optional letter after it to specify that your timezone uses daylight savings time. The dates of the start and end of DST are different in various parts of the world. You indicate which is used in your zone by one of the following letters. If you are in the northern hemisphere then you must specify the letter in lower case, and if you are in the southern hemisphere then you must specify it in upper case. The letters and the dates of the start and end of DST are listed below: d or D: North America. Start first Sunday in April and end last Sunday in October. u or U: U.K. Start last Sunday in March and end last Sunday in October (approximately! - the precise dates are set by act of parliament each year). e or E: Europe. Start last Sunday in March and end last Sunday in September. c or C: China(!). Start 12th April and end 12th September. If you specify upper case for the southern hemisphere then the start and end of DST are reversed. In all cases the start and end occur at 2am. The best thing to do is to add a setenv command in your s:startup-sequence file so that you don't have to put it into each of the default files and risk forgetting one of them. If you use any of my other programs, such as the CBBS packet program or the CHU program, then you won't have to do anything extra with them if you use setenv TZ_CHU in your startup file because they all use the same routine to check for your timezone and adjust to UTC. I use the command: setenv TZ_CHU 6 in my s:startup-sequence file because I am in the Central Standard Time zone (6 hours west of Greenwich) and we do not use daylight savings time (to be pedantically precise, we are actually on permanent Mountain Daylight Savings Time but very few people understand the difference, or care!). In Germany, which is one hour ahead of UTC and uses European daylight savings time you would use: setenv TZ_CHU -1e I am not sure what DST is used in Australia or New Zealand but if, as an example, they use the same DST as the U.K. (except that they start in October and end in March) then an upper case 'U' is specified along with the timezone correction. (The odd name "TZ_CHU" is derived from a program I wrote which reads the time from Canadian radio station CHU and sets the amiga battery clock fairly precisely). z 3.1.3 QSO entry All of the programs enter a QSO on the bottom line of the screen and when it is complete, move it up one line. Above that line is a title which shows the name of each field. The fields whose title is highlighted are the only fields that you need to enter data into. The others will be filled in by the computer. For example, in the WPX contest the title starts with the callsign, rst and QSO number. The callsign and QSO number are highlighted but the rst is not. Thus, you enter a callsign and QSO number, but the computer will fill in the rst for you when you type a carriage return to complete the QSO information. Some of the contest programs require that you type a space or tab between each field (they ALL require a tab or space after the callsign). However, there are some exceptions. The SS program does not require any tabs between the fields of the exchange because it can determine where one ends and another begins so you can type the entire SS exchange in without typing a tab or space. Some of the programs will fill in information for you if they can. For example, CQWW will fill in the CQ zone of the callsign just typed if the country is entirely contained within one CQ zone. For example, entering any G call will cause CQWW to fill in 14 for the CQ zone. I have set up the dxcc.list file so that it also splits some of the Canadian callsigns into their call areas and CQWW will fill in those zones that can be identified from their prefix. The SS program will fill in some dummy information for an exchange if you enter a DX call. The ARLX program will accept just the letter 'K' if a DX stations sends you "KW" as their exchange. The program will change the 'K' to 'KW' for you. As you type in data on the QSO line you can use: - the backspace key to delete the previous character - the delete key to delete the current field. If the cursor is at the beginning of a field, then move to the beginning of the previous field. - the cursor left key moves the cursor one place to the left without deleting the character. Typing the cursor left key with the shift key down makes the cursor move back to a question mark in the callsign field if there is one, or to the first field that is blank. - the cursor right key moves the cursor non-destructively one place to the right. - a space or tab key causes the cursor to move to the next field to the right. If the field just entered was the callsign then the call is duped and the program will flash the screen and cause an audible beep (if audio is on) for a dupe (in which case you can either delete the call and start again, or enter the QSO anyway). If the cursor is at the beginning of a field and nothing has yet been entered then the cursor will remain where it is. But if the cursor z is at the beginning of a field that already contains data then the cursor will skip to the next field without changing the current one. - a carriage return key is only valid at the end of the last field and then the line is entered, but ONLY if there is no question mark in the callsign field. This is the ONLY way to get a QSO entered in the log. - typing the Alt key and carriage return makes the cursor go to the end of the entry line but does not enter it (you must hit CR again for that). - the escape key makes the cursor move to the right until it finds either a field whose first character is blank or the end of the data entry line, and then the cursor stops. This is useful for skipping over previously entered fields, or fields that have been automatically filled in by the computer. The first field on the line is always the callsign of the station being worked. When you hit a space or tab key, the callsign is checked and if it is a dupe under the contest rules, then the screen will flash and the audio output will beep. The program will also display the highlighted string "*DUPE*" above and to the right of the callsign - typing any key makes this disappear. If you have a dupe, you can enter the delete key to remove the callsign or you can continue with the exchange and enter the QSO anyway. Dupes are indicated in the log by putting "?DUPE" in the score field. But, in any case, the QSO will score zero and will not generate any multipliers. If you do not hear a complete call, you can enter a question mark (e.g. NJ7?) and then enter the remainder of the QSO. You can then easily return to the callsign to fill in the missing piece by typing the shift and cursor left keys. Then type escape to get to the end of the field, followed by carriage return to enter the QSO. If you enter an invalid callsign then the display will flash and the message "INVALID CALLSIGN" will appear above the title line. If the call is valid but the program cannot locate the callsign in the country list, or it cannot find a valid prefix in WPX, the program will beep and the multiplier field will have question marks entered into it. If you entered the call incorrectly then edit the call and try again. But if you are sure you have the call entered correctly then you should enter the QSO anyway and proceed with the contest, although this contact won't be scored at this time. The error will be caused by a problem with the dxcc.list. Either during the contest (if you have time) or after it is over, you can examine the callsign and the dxcc.list to see why the program could not recognize the call. Then correct the error, either using the editing function in the logging program to correct the callsign, or with a text editor to correct the dxcc.list and then simply start up the logging program again with the log as input. When the logging program is started, it always re-scores and re-dupes the current log file so that once you have corrected an error the logging program will correct the score and remove the question marks from the multiplier field. You can then proceed to generate the required reports using the %R command. Some numeric fields in the contest will allow you to type in a cut- number instead of a numeral. The RST field and the serial number field z in WPX and other contests allow you to do this. This is useful on CW so that you can type exactly what you hear (if you wish). For example, in WPX you may get a serial number transmitted to you as "aont". If you type this in, the program will correctly translate it into 1090. The serial number field in WPX, the Nr/Power field in QRP-ARCI and some other fields will also be right adjusted after entry. For example, if you receive the serial number "45" in WPX, it will be left adjusted in the serial number field when you type it, but when you enter the QSO by typing carriage return, the field will be right adjusted. 3.1.4 Frequency and mode If you are using computer controlled frequency and mode then you can change the rig's frequency and mode by using the mouse. Pointing the mouse at the mode display and clicking the left button causes the computer to change the rig's mode to the next in its list which is in the order LSB, USB, AM, CW, RTTY (if the rig has it) and FM. Pointing at any digit of the frequency display and holding down the left mouse button will cause that digit to be incremented at a rate of 7 times per second until you let go of the button. If you hold down the right mouse button then the digit will be decremented 7 times per second. In either case the rig's frequency will be updated as this occurs. The Yaesu protocol is rather slow and so this function is not too impressive on the FT767, but on an ICOM IC-735 it works much better. If you are not using computer control of a rig (i.e. there's no background driver) then the program initially displays the frequency and mode that are set in the default file and these can also be modified by using the mouse buttons. 3.1.5 Morse code display If the rig is in CW mode, the morse code speed is displayed below the list of the memory contents and you can change the speed of the keyer by pointing the mouse at either of the digits and clicking either the left or right mouse buttons. Each click of the left mouse button adds one to the digit and each click of the right mouse button subtracts one. The keying speed is limited to between 10 and 50 WPM. Beside the CW speed is the name of the type of keyer which will be one of Iambic A, Iambic B or Bug. Clicking the left mouse button on this field will cause the program to change to the next type in the sequence. The keyer type can be set in the default file. The line underneath the CW speed shows the value set for PTT delay. This number is in units of 10 ms. Setting it to zero turns PTT off. Each of the 10 CW memories is associated with one of the corresponding Function keys - thus, memory 1 is associated with F1. Typing just the function key causes that memory to be transmitted in morse code out of Pin 20 (DTR) on the RS-232 plug. The content of a memory can be changed by holding down the shift key and then typing the corresponding function z key. The cursor will move to the selected memory and you can then type in what you want. Type a carriage return to finish typing the string. The display only shows the first 15 or so characters of each memory string, but each memory string can be up to 80 characters long. There are some abbreviations which you can use when entering data into a memory. %c is replaced by the callsign that is currently stored on the bottom line of the display even if it is incomplete (e.g. NJ7?) %C is replaced by your callsign which is specified in the default file. %N is replaced by the current QSO number. A limited form of cut number is employed. Leading zeroes are sent as the letter 'T'. Embedded or trailing zeroes are sent as the letter 'O' and the number 9 is always sent as 'N'. %n is the same as %N except that leading zeroes are sent as the letter 'T' but no other cut-numbers are used. %R is replaced by the transmitted RST field. At the moment none of the memories has a specific meaning to the program. However, I intend to make memory 10 a "CQ" memory such that if you type the control key and F10 then the content of the memory will be transmitted followed by a delay of about 5 seconds and if you do not type any key or touch the CW paddle, then the memory will be transmitted again to a maximum of 20 times. At a future date I also hope to change the program so that you can specify a separate speed for each memory and also a way to chain the memories together. 3.1.6 Band stacking Holding down the shift key while pressing one of the up, down, left or right arrows on the NUMERIC PAD (not the cursor control keys) causes one of the band stacking functions. Shift-8 causes the current frequency, mode and content of the callsign field to be stored in an internal stack. Pressing shift-4 or shift-6 causes the program to move through the stack returning the content of the stack to the operational fields. If a computer controlled rig is used its current frequency and mode will be set to the current stacked value. The stack will hold up to 50 entries. This feature is useful when you hear a station that is very busy and you decide not to wait to bust the pileup. Type in the callsign of the station and then hit shift-8 to remember the station's callsign, frequency and mode. Once a stack entry has been recalled, it can be deleted from the stack by typing shift-2. This feature works even if a computer controlled rig is not present and allows you to store common frequency/mode pairs (the callsign can be blank) in the stack. Switching to another frequency or mode is easy using this feature. The program stores the current content of the stack in the file "stack.dat" and if this file is present when the program is started, it is used to initialize the content of the stack. If you do not have a computer controlled rig you can initialize the stack to contain a z frequency/mode pair for each band and then use the left and right arrows on the numeric pad to select the appropriate freq/mode. 3.1.7 Special Functions If the callsign field on the bottom line of the screen begins with the '%' symbol, then the remainder of the line is interpreted as a command to the logging program. These commands perform such functions as generating reports and editing the log. Each function can be called in one of two ways. Either you can type a command of the form: %C <arg> where C is a single character and <arg> is an optional argument. This command is typed in place of a callsign. Alternatively, the commands can be called with a control key combination consisting of the control key and the command letter. In this case you cannot specify an argument. As an example, to do an all-band report you can either type the command: %R in place of a callsign, or you can just type the key combination control R (i.e. type the "r" key while holding down the control key). 3.1.7.1 %R Generating Reports The command: %R produces an all-band summary report, logs for each band and dupe sheets for each band. Some contests, such as Sweepstakes, do not require separate band reports, in which case the program simply produces one log and dupe file. If you want to create a single band entry then specify the band with the %R command: %R 15 Will produce single band entry reports for the 15 meter band. The file name of the summary report (which should always be printed) has the form report_MM.PGM where MM is the mode ('cw','sb' or if all-mode then 'all') and PGM is the name of the logging program ('qrp', 'wpx' etc). The log file names are of the form MM_BB.PGM where MM is the mode (cw or sb) and BB is the band (either the numeric band for a single band entry or 'all' for an all-band entry). Similarly, the dupe file names have the form dupe_MMBB.PGM. All the files are produced in the current directory and are spaced ready for printing (you can use the print command in the df0:c directory). z The QRP contest also allows hi-band and lo-band entries and reports for these entries can be generated with "%R H" or "%R L". At the moment the contest reports are generated in a form suitable for printing. I hope to add the ability to output reports in a format such that, if you have CROSSDOS(tm) or the public domain program MSH, the logging programs will generate the reports ready for copying to an MS- DOS formatted disk. 3.1.7.2 %E Edit the Log The command: %E causes the program to enter screen editing mode. It shows QSOs in blocks of 16 at a time on the screen and you can edit the QSOs and move forward or backwards through the log. When the program first enters edit mode it always shows the last block of QSOs and the cursor will be pointing at the callsign of the last QSO in the log. This enables you to rapidly edit the last QSO, if necessary. The four cursor keys in combination with the shift, control and alt keys can be used to perform the following functions: - Cursor up Moves the cursor up to the previous QSO, maintaining its current X coordinate on the screen. If the cursor is on the top QSO on the screen then the previous block of 16 QSOs will be displayed unless the program is displaying the first 16 QSOs in the log, in which case nothing will happen. - Alt Cursor up Moves cursor back to a previous QSO which contains '?' (indicating a questionable callsign or a DUPE). - Shift cursor up Move back one QSO block if there is one. - Control cursor up Displays the first block and moves the cursor to the first QSO. - Cursor down Similar to cursor up functions. Moves cursor down one line on the screen if not at the last QSO in the log. If at the last line on the screen then show the next block if there is one. - Alt cursor down Move cursor down to next QSO containing '?' if there is one. - Shift cursor down Move forward one QSO block if there is one. z - Control cursor down Displays the last block and moves the cursor to the last QSO. - Cursor left Move cursor one place left. If at the beginning of the line, do nothing. - Shift cursor left Move cursor to beginning of current line. - Cursor right Move cursor one place right. If at the end of line, do nothing. - Shift cursor right Move cursor to end of current line. The backspace key deletes the character to its left (i.e. changes it to a space). Typing alphanumeric characters or the characters '/' or '.' or a space types those characters over the top of what was there - i.e. it replaces them in the log. When you edit a log entry it can change the score. You can change as many QSOs in the log as you wish but when you terminate the editing session the program rescores the whole log. Typing Control-D terminates the editing function and returns you to logging mode (after rescoring the log if any changes have been made). If you edit any QSO, then when you terminate the program, it will also do a backup function (see next section). 3.1.7.3 %B Backup the memory log If no filename follows the %B command then the current disk log is copied to the file: /backup/backup.PPP where PPP is the abbreviation for the contest program you are using such as wpx or wrp. Then it writes the in-memory log into the original disk log. Note that this requires that the directory called "backup" is present as it is provided on the distribution disk. If you cannot put the backup directory on the same disk as the contest programs then an environment variable LOGBACKUP must be defined before the program is started. It is best to put a setenv command in your s:startup-sequence file so that it is defined every time you reboot your system. It can be defined to be in ram: (not very wise though!), or a directory on a hard or floppy disk (much wiser). z If you specify a filename e.g. "%B work:log.backup" then the disk log is copied to that file before the memory log is copied to the current disk log. The program does an automatic backup when you terminate the program if you have edited any QSOs at all. 3.1.7.4 %F Changing the Frequency and mode When the computer is not being used with a computer controlled radio the displayed frequency and mode can be changed using the mouse or the stack as previously described. You can also use a command of the form: %F FREQ MODE This command changes the displayed frequency to FREQ which must be specified in kilohertz and must not contain commas. The MODE must be present and is one of: cw lsb usb am fm rtty 3.1.7.5 %S Score the log The command %S causes the program to rescore the log and display any changes that result. You should normally not need to do this since a new QSO is scored upon entry and if you edit the log it is also rescored if necessary when the edit function is terminated. 3.1.7.6 %X Screen dump The command %X creates a file of the form screen.PPP where PPP is the name of the program (e.g. wpx) and the file will contain an ASCII representation of what is on the screen at the time the %S command is given. This is more a debugging command than a feature. 3.2 AREXX Support (PacketCluster) I have added an AREXX port to the contest programs and included on the distribution disk the public domain AREXX library called rexxhost.library. All contest programs start up the AREXX port named VE5VA_LOGGER so that they will be able to send and receive AREXX commands. In order to use the AREXX functions you must have a copy of rexxhost.library in your LIBS: directory. If you do not have AREXX running, or do not have a copy of rexxhost.library, it doesn't matter because the programs will ignore it if it isn't there. At the moment the AREXX port is used to do a simple demonstration of PacketCluster support which will be expanded in the future to give full support from a separate program (like the computer interface drivers). The trivial AREXX program test.lgx shows how to send DX messages to the contest program. z When a DX spot arrives, the program first dupes it. If it is a dupe then the DX spot message is ignored. If it is not a dupe then the program displays the new DX info in the bottom right of the screen at the top of a list of DX spots. As new ones are added the old ones are pushed down so that the one displayed at the top of the list is the most recent one. The program displays the most recent five DX spots it has received but internally it actually stores up to 50. You do not have to respond immediately to an incoming DX spot. If you are busy the spot can be left on the DX queue as long as you don't let the queue get too big. However, there are three control characters you can type which affect the DX spots. Typing ^K deletes the DX spot at the top of the list. Typing ^P pushes the top DX spot onto the stack and then deletes it from the list. Typing ^G means "Go there right now" and the program will change to the frequency of the DX spot and will also copy the callsign into the data entry area at the bottom of the screen. You can type ^K or ^P while you are entering a callsign or other QSO data. Although not useful yet, the programs can also send AREXX messages. The @ command typed in the callsign field specifies an AREXX port address (similar to the AREXX ADDRESS command) and then a string following the & command is sent to that port. For example: @FANCYDEMO &HELLO THERE - THIS IS A TEST will send the string "HELLO THERE - THIS IS A TEST" to the AREXX port whose name is "FANCYDEMO". At the moment the program only uses upper case and therefore it can't be used to send to ports whose AREXX address contains lowercase or which expects lowercase commands. This ability to send to an AREXX port will be used to allow the operator to send DX spots to a PacketCluster. The addition of the AREXX port will allow other programmers to write separate programs which can interface to the logger programs. The only thing we would need to cooperate on is the structure and content of the AREXX commands and all details of the internal workings of the programs will be irrelevant. z 4. Support Files All of the contest programs use some auxiliary files. For contests in which a DXCC country is a multiplier, the file dxcc.list is used. The CQWW program uses both the dxcc.list and the file called wae.list which contains a list of countries that are in the WAE list but not in the DXCC list (e.g. Sicily). The FD and SS programs use files to describe the ARRL sections. All of these files must reside in the same directory and on the distribution disk they are in the directory called "lists". If you keep this structure then you do not need to do anything to tell logger where to find this directory. If, for some reason, you must move the lists directory somewhere else then you can tell logger where it is by defining an environment variable called LOGLISTS. For example you could use: setenv LOGLIST work:logger/lists in your startup sequence. 4.1 The DXCC files The dxcc.list and wae.list files have the same format and their structure is described in the comments at the beginning of the files. The CQWW program reads both the dxcc and wae files. Several of the other programs, such as ARLX, use the dxcc file. It is very difficult for me to keep these files up to date. It is therefore essential that you ensure that these files are correct when using a DX contesting program. Wildcards are allowed to specify a range of matching callsigns and currently the wildcards are: # matches a string of numeric digits. $ matches a single numeric digit @ matches a string of alphabetic characters $ matches a single alphabetic character * matches an alphanumeric string only Country prefixes can also be specified as a range when this is appropriate. For example, Canada is allocated the entire block of callsigns from VAA through to VGZ. This can be entered in the dxcc.list file as VA-VG (but NOT VAA-VGZ). Wildcards are more efficient if they can be used because they cause only one prefix entry in the internal country list. Thus, 4U#UN will cause only one entry in the table but will match a wide range of 4U calls. Whereas VA-VG will generate seven entries, one for each of VA, VB, ...., VG. The DXCC files contain entries for CQ and ITU zones. These MUST be entered correctly and if the country being entered covers two or more of these zones then ALL the zones must be entered. This is because if only z one zone is entered, then the CQWW contest, for example, will assume that the country is entirely within one zone and will automatically fill the zone information into the QSO line during the contest. So, if the country (e.g. the U.S., Canada) covers more than one zone, these zones must be entered so that CQWW will not fill in a zone at all. It is possible to split up a country into callsign areas if this also splits them into individual CQ and/or ITU zones. For example, although Canada is spread across several ITU and CQ zones, the province of Saskatchewan (VE5) is entirely contained within CQ zone 4 and ITU zone 3. An entry can be made in the dxcc.list file which informs the program of this so that the CQWW program can fill in the zone. See the dxcc.list file for an example of how this is done. It is more difficult to do the same thing for U.S. calls because their callsign areas do not necessarily reflect actual geographic location. Thus a W6 need not be in California. It is best to leave the U.S. entries as they are. Currently the latitude and longitude are read in by the program but are not used in any way. I plan to add a beam heading calculation to the programs at some point so you should ensure that the latitude and longitude entries are correct. 4.2 ARRL sections (FD and SS) The ARRL sections are kept in the file ss.list. The format is somewhat different than the country lists since zones and lat/long are omitted. The first column specifies the correct abbreviation for the ARRL section and the second column specifies the full name of the section. The last column specifies any of the variations that you might receive in an actual contest. You can type in what you hear and the program will replace it with the correct abbreviation when you enter the QSO. For example, if someone sends you the section "MISS", you can type this in and the program will change it to "MS" when you enter the QSO. On SSB, whenever you hear the words "North", "East", "South" or "West", enter them as a single letter with a space after them. So if you hear "EAST BAY" enter it as "E BAY". It would help if you look through the ss.list file before a contest to familiarize yourself with what it considers to be acceptable abbreviations. You can, of course, add more abbreviations if you wish. One word of caution. The ARRL abbreviation for the Los Angeles section is "LAX", whereas "LA" is the state of Louisiana. If you type "LA" for the Los Angeles section, the program has no way to know that it is incorrect and will score it as a QSO with Louisiana. On SSB, it is best to just enter "LOS" for a Los Angeles QSO because the ss.list will take care of it and change it to LAX. 4.3 QRP contest The QRP ARCI contest uses states/provinces/countries as multipliers, but the only file it uses at the moment is the dxcc.list. This means that you MUST enter the correct state abbreviation. I will eventually add another file to this program so that it will do for states/provinces what the ss.list file does for ARRL sections. 4.4 CARF contest z This contest uses two files. The first, ve.list, contains only the dxcc entry for Canada. The other, carf.list, contains a file formatted like ss.list which allows mapping of strings into the correct province abbreviation. For example, "QUEBEC" or "QUE" will be mapped to the correct "PQ". 4.5 SS contest The sweepstakes contest program uses the ss.list as described above in Section 4.2, but it also uses a file called "w-ve.list". This file is formatted like the dxcc.list file (in fact it is taken from it) and contains only the dxcc entries for Canada, the U.S.A. and its possessions. This allows the SS program to detect when a DX callsign has been entered. It will log, but not score, a DX contact. z 5. LOG FILE STRUCTURE No matter which contest program you use, the log file always consists of lines of 80 characters each, the 80th character being the linefeed and the 79th character indicates which contest program produced the log. This allows you to edit the log file with an editing program instead of using the editing function in the contest programs. BUT be warned that if you modify a line, it MUST still be exactly 80 characters long when you are done. The codes used at the end of the line are: F Field day (FD) X CQ WPX (WPX) Q QRP ARCI (QRP) A ARRL DX (ARLX) C CQWW DX (CQWW) E DARC WAE (WAE) S Sweepstakes (SS) T CARF contest (CARF) The WAE contest hasn't been written yet. If you look at the log file you will notice that all the fields up to and including the callsign are always the same size and in the same columns. What follows after the callsign depends upon the contest exchange but the received exchange follows the callsign. After that are columns which, depending upon the contest, show the contest exchange, new multipliers and, finally, the score for that QSO. If the QSO is a dupe, or the program could not recognize the callsign, then the score field contains "?DUPE" or "?ERROR". The SS program also uses ?DX if the QSO was a DX contact. 6. KNOWN BUGS and SHORTCOMINGS - There is currently no way to change the transmitted QSO serial number. It is directly tied to the number of QSOs in the log. z 7. The AUTHOR I have had chronic fatigue syndrome since September of 1984 and have been on long term disability ever since. These programs are the result of very slowly working on them a bit at a time, when I am able, over the course of over two years (plus some prodding from Cyril VE5CB). There is no timetable associated with the enhancements mentioned in the above documentation. If I feel well enough to tackle something I will do it. If I don't, then it doesn't get done. I have made these programs available for anonymous FTP on the site ftp.usask.ca in the directory pub/amiga/hamradio. If you want to be notified of a new release then send your Internet address to me: hardie@herald.usask.ca The programs may be freely distributed - with the accent on FREELY. NO CHARGE MAY BE MADE FOR DISTRIBUTING THESE PROGRAMS (other than the cost of the disk and a reasonable charge for postage) AND NO COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION, INCLUDING THAT BY COMPANIES WHO SELL COLLECTIONS OF PROGRAMS, IS PERMITTED. THE SOURCE CODE WILL NOT BE MADE AVAILABLE. I RESERVE TO MYSELF THE RIGHT TO SEND THESE PROGRAMS TO FRED FISH FOR DISTRIBUTION. DO NOT SEND THEM TO HIM. IF I FIND THAT THE ABOVE CONDITIONS ARE NOT ADHERED TO THEN I WILL EITHER STOP DEVELOPMENT AND/OR DISTRIBUTION ENTIRELY, OR I WILL MODIFY THE PROGRAMS SO THAT VARIOUS PARTS OF THE PROGRAM ARE ENCODED AND YOU WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO GET THE UPDATES FROM ME. Thanks to Olaf Bartel for his completely public domain rexxhost.library. The complete package is on Fred Fish disk #682 c