[DogParkList] Re: MacLoggerDX Contest Log Fields
Jonathan G0DVJ
g0dvj@amsat.org
Sun, 1 Jun 2003 11:17:26 +0100
Hi Don (LTNS!) & others on the list, (sorry this is long!)
As a very keen contester as well as Mac advocate/evangelist, I am very
interested in this recent thread from this side of the "Pond"! I am
sure that if MacLogger or other derivative could support contesting it
would attract alot of users and fill a gap in the market that has until
now been a pain for Mac users. I am very willing to be involved in
helping to improve contesting features.
Scott's suggestions so far have been really spot on - and Don's
responsiveness as amazing as ever ! However I really shouldn't be
surprised given my experiences of Don's enhancing of MacDoppler in the
past at the request of this "nutty user" of Sartek antenna controllers
etc. Thanks Don!
I have had to use PC based contest loggers for sometime now - one of
the few things I still have to use a PC for in radio. Some of these I
have managed to run in Virtual PC on the Mac but an elegant OSX native
solution would be far far better. For major contesters, there are
actually 2 phases of computer support - one is the realtime logging and
related capabilities during the contest - the other is support for the
preparing and sending the entry and reliable archiving/QSL support
after the contest. For the latter part of the second phase, I and many
others have used any "logbook" type program. However the support for
QSL etc has been piecemeal. The 2 phases I describe have very
different dynamics. I have wondered for a long time about being able
to use MacLogger for the second phase - and considered asking Don about
possible enhancements for this support but have never got round to it
until now. I always dreamed that the first phase would be supported
but considered this so far from the original scope of MacLogger that I
never got around to suggesting that either! Anyway spurred on by the
recent thread I now offer some ideas/comments below for what they are
worth.
Contesters can be categorised into 3 main types ...
1 - people who work a few QSOs in a contest and effectively give points
away to the serious entrants but who probably don't bother to send in
an entry themselves.
2 - people who make a serious or semi-serious attempt to improve their
scores over last time and send in an individual entry to some degree of
competitiveness
3 - people who are parts of teams that are really very serious about it
- who push back the boundaries of records of points scored and win
worldwide or within continent categories - often using multiple
stations operating on multiple bands at the same time.
Supporting contest logging for each of the above categories is
different. I would put myself in the the second category with
occasional forays into the third! I can see how MacLogger could
support category 1 users almost immediately given the new recent beta
facilities proposed by Scott and implemented by Don. That is really
great. I wonder if performance issues and extra facilities would be
relevant/required to support the category 2 contesters (maybe I can
help with this subsequently). The third category require very
specialist support including networking between realtime scoring &
serial number generation etc between users (in the way the the PC CT
software does) and I wonder if this is really out of scope for
MacLogger for now at least. Hence I now concentrate the rest of this
on ideas and ideals for category two contesters (which is the most
serious gap in the market and probably a sizeable market at that
compared with the other two!)
Clear easy to use interface:
Much of the MacLogger interface needed for general logging etc. is
superfluous for the contest logger in realtime who really needs fast
easy visability of minimal key information. I wonder therefore if
either a derivative such as MacLoggerContest is a better idea which
would interface seamlessly with the existing software to provide the
phase 2 capabilities I outlined earlier above. If not, then certainly
I think a contest operation Tab is essential to abstract away the
information that is not needed for contesting and customise the input
screen and fields required for contest operation.
Contest information entry:
This has to be as slick as possible given that a good contester will
want to accurately complete maybe 5 or 6 QSOs in a minute!! There are
2 approaches traditionally... 1) you tab (key) or something between the
required fields for the information required entering each as you go.
2) you have a single entry field and the software works out from what
is entered which information is being entered and then puts it in the
correct log fields. This is the best since often stations you work who
are inexperienced at contests will give the information in a different
order from the "usual" and hence a lot of tabbing around is required in
approach 1. I can provide some ideas about how to work out what
field's info is being entered from a free format field for approach 2
later if it helps.
Configurability against rules:
This is where the current crop of contest logging programs vary
considerably - how to set up before the contest how the software will
help the operator work within the rules/objectives of the contest but
in a very easy way. If you are supporting both HF contests and also
VHF & above contests this is a bigger challenge because the sorts of
fields required and the dynamics and capabilities needed are even more
variable. Again I can offer some more detailed suggestions on this
later if required. The key configurability required is:
- what information is exchanged in a particular contest
- how are points scored (on the basis of this exchange perhaps) in a
particular contest
General requirements for contest software:
- Fast simple logging and editing
- Display of correct score in realtime after each QSO or edit within a
particular contest
- Instant duplicate QSO checking and flagging within a particular
contest (not based on just callsign but also band/mode worked too)
- Ability to combine realtime logging in a contest (where
time/freq/mode etc is entered automatically) and post-contest entry
(where time is entered manually) for when you have to retrospectively
score a log or add QSOs logged temporarily on paper because of problems
etc.
- Feedback of info to operator:
- current score overall
- current multipliers/bonuses etc. customised per contest from the
rules as configured above.
- simple statistics for the contest including QSO rates & best DX or
scoring QSO at any given time.
- Keying (CW) and Voice keying (audio) are really ideal too in modern
contesting (more detail separately again if needed).
Of course many things I could have listed above are already in
MacLogger or being proposed such as:
- ADIF/Cabrillo support
- Links to transceivers so that band and mode info is automatically
synchronised in log (other features related to this also desirable)
- TNC support for cluster info display (but filtered to warn when a
multiplier for the contest is spotted & on main logging screen)
- DXCC info instantly displayed from up to date DXCC master list
(often used in scoring).
- Worldwide locator support (VHF and above contests) and km
calculation between you and station worked as well as beam heading info
displayed.
Above I have concentrated on realtime facilities for support of what I
called phase 1. I could also make some suggestions to simply support
phase 2 better as well if that would be helpful at a later date.
OK thats enough from me for now - probably caused enough trouble LOL!
Hope you don't mind my input. Like I said I am happy to get involved
(maybe off list) to help in more detail with this. I still wonder if
for the true rather than casual contester, the required software is
actually a different animal to MacLogger (rather targeted at a
different original purpose) but so related to it! What a joy it would
be to have a suite of quality OSX native Mac software that can support
this.
Thanks for all you can do Don. I look forward to following the thread
further and/or separate discussions.
73
Jonathan G0DVJ
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