[MacLoggerContest] Keyers

[Bill Coleman]

On Feb 20, 2005, at 10:57 AM, Jonathan G0DVJ wrote:
> For those of us that do both CW and Phone contests, I postulate that 
> CW keying is a higher priority than a voice recorder/parrot function.

It's hard to imagine contest software that does not support CW keying. 
Although I certainly used various DOS and Windows software for years, 
keying things manually. Many of the older ops I've worked with at a M/M 
tend to grab for the keyer paddles.

Voice keying isn't so common. I've had good success for several years 
now (6-7, can't remember) using a 1 message voice keyer. I program it 
with a CQ message. I can easily do the rest of the exchange with my 
voice and not get fatigued, even after 20 or more hours of contesting.

> The CW keyer for contesting needs to allow a number of key strings to 
> be easily sent and potentially seamlessly concatenated together.

Some of these strings are context-sensitive. I think it is TRlog that 
usually figures out what to send based on what's on the logging line.

In my experience, there's only about a half-dozen messages I use in CW 
keying:

CQ message
My call
Exchange
His call
TU message (TU AA4LR TEST, for example)
QRZ message
Specific repeat mesage (NR? QTH? PWR? -- these depend on the contest 
exchange)

> It should be very easy to adjust the speed of the keyer since 
> different operators respond at different speeds in quick succession 
> and its nice to go respond at a matching rate.

I head one guy last night on 80m answer a 20 wpm CQ with 32 wpm CW. It 
was a struggle for the  operator to answer him and took several 
repeats.

When CQing, I generally don't adjust the CW speed when I'm being called 
unless asked (QRS or PSE QRS). I figure the other operator can copy me, 
or has hung around long enough to get the info. (A trick I used to do 
when I couldn't copy contest-speed CW) Of course, I'm a relative 
slow-poke at 25 wpm.

When answering a CQ, though, I'll often call first at full speed (again 
25 wpm isn't too fast), then slow down if the op appears to be having 
difficulty. Speed changing doesn't happen too frequently -- it should 
be accessible, but doesn't require a special controller.

> Some guys seem to like to send some parts of the exchange (e.g. RST) 
> faster than other parts (e.g. serial) although I have never been a 
> great fan of this personally - but some contest loggers do allow you 
> to specify speed changes in the programmable text exchange.

The idea behind this is to allow common parts of the transmission to be 
sped up to save time. Frankly, I think it is counterproductive. While a 
small shift (2 wpm or so) isn't objectionable, large shifts in CW speed 
tend to throw off my timing. This often causes me to ask for repeats. 
Frankly, I'd rather hear cut numbers than a bunch of speed shifts.

> ESC to cancel in mid keying is a nice feature in case you initiate the 
> keyer in error!

This happens FREQUENTLY!

Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901