Quick Tour (a must read!)
or
(and no, Tom wasn't drinking when he wrote this, many years ago. It's been updated to the current state of the program, but the jokes are all his)
Ten Easy Steps to Successful Logging
Step 1. Setup
Get your radio, packet and telnet connections set up (Config > Configure Ports, Telnet address, other). You really won't be impressed without the radio connected. The program really shines when you have a spotting connection (packet or Telnet).
Step 2. Adjust Window Positions
Adjust the window positions as desired by opening every window separately from the 'Window' menu.
Step 3. Connect the Sound Card and the CW interface
Connect your sound card to the radio so that you can play wave files or record contacts. Connect your CW interface to the parallel, serial or USB port for CW keying. See the Interfacing section for possibilities.
Step 4. Entering a Call
OK, now we are ready to log. By default, you should be in the DX (General) log - look at the Log Window caption.
So you want to log a qso? Type in the callsign field of the Entry Window part or all of the call of the station you want to log. Let's say you type 'N1M'. Notice that the Check window shows calls with N1 in it, later N1M.... This will happen with any call or partial call that is 2 or more characters long.
Use the mouse and click on N1MM in the Check window. Notice that N1MM will be transferred to the Entry Window callsign field. Hit
Space once. Defaults will be set for fields that can have defaults (in this case the RST fields) and the cursor will be placed in the next field to be filled in — the name field.
Step 5. Using the Space Bar to Tab
Ok, that's cool, lets try it another way. Click on the Wipe button to clear the Entry Window fields. Your cursor will be positioned on the callsign field again. This time Type 'N1MM' and press **SPACE**. Notice that the RST fields are again filled automatically and you are positioned to the next field to be filled in. Enter 'Tom' and press SPACE. In this case, you will not tab to the next field, since space is a legitimate character in a name. This is atypical behavior. Most contest fields do not allow any spaces in them, so the space bar will jump from field to field. You'll like this, dammit! Really, I think you will like it - particularly in contests.
Step 6. Using the Tab Key
So if SPACE tabs, what does Tab do? It tabs as well! But it doesn't tab like space. The Tab character (and Shift+Tab) behave like they do in most programs. They jump from field to field, without trying to be smart. So if you need to change the RST, you'll use the Tab key to get there.
Step 7. Bandmaps, Spots and Other Cool Stuff
Ok now the really cool part. We need to get some spots onto the bandmaps. If you have set up a radio, and you have selected SO2V in the Configurer, you should have two bandmaps, and they should be displaying the frequencies of your A and B VFOs at the top. So how do we get spots on there? We need to connect to packet or Telnet, of course. If you have an Internet connection, try Telnet, if a packet connection, well I guess you'll try packet. To pick, click on the appropriate tab in the Packet/Telnet Window. To connect to packet, just type a command in the one-line text box at the top, like "C K1TTT" and press enter. Just do your usual stuff. Then type sh/dx/100 (we want a lot of spots) if it's a weekend, otherwise just type sh/dx/30 (Why the difference? The logger won't show old spots - the default is 60 minutes).
To use Telnet, you must choose a Telnet server. The easiest way to do this is to select the Telnet tab in the Packet/Telnet Window, then choose one from the drop-down list. Type your call in the input line at the top, or click the button with your call on it. Answer any questions the node asks you, and then, if it's a weekend, type sh/dx/100 (we want a lot of spots), otherwise just type sh/dx/30. (Why the difference? The logger won't show old spots - the default is 60 minutes, .
Step 8. Spots are Fun
Spots should start appearing. Don't be afraid, there is no leopard. (Get it, spots?) Enough dumb jokes. Anyway, that's what people always tell me. So, what can we do with the spots? Lots of stuff. First note that each spot (except US and VE spots and spots from your own country) has its beam heading next to it. (Well it has the beam heading from my house, too bad if it isn't the beam heading from your house. If you really want to fix that, go to the station dialog in Config/Change Your Station Data - you'll need to enter your latitude and longitude. If you don't know your latitude and longitude, tough - this isn't geography class, kid.)
Are we ever going to get to the good stuff? Sigh. OK. You have spots in your bandmaps. Try SINGLE clicking on one. Notice how the radio tunes to the frequency of the spot? Also notice that the call appears in the frame around the callsign textbox in the Entry Window. Now press that magic space bar again. The spot jumps into the call textbox! Let's try this another way. Click on the Wipe button (or press Ctrl+W). Now tune the radio to a frequency within 300 Hz of another spot. Notice that the call again appears in the frame, and again the space bar will enter the call into the call textbox.
Ok, try Wiping again (either way). Now double click on a spot. Notice that again, you jump to the frequency of the spot, but this time the call is entered in the callsign field and the default fields are filled in, and you are ready to copy the next empty field (in this case name).
Wipe just one more time. Let's try jumping around the spots without using the mouse. Your cursor should be in the callsign field. If it isn't put it there. Now press Ctrl+Up arrow or Ctrl+Down arrow. You should jump from spot to spot on the same band. Pick one of the spots where you can hear the station. Use the up and down arrow keys (no Ctrl this time) to tune the station in. Each press of the key will go jump 100 Hz on SSB and 20 Hz on CW (configurable). You're smiling, aren't you? There is a lot more. Go look here for more keyboard tricks: Key Assignments and Key Assignments Short List
Step 9. Actually Logging Contacts
We need to shift attention to actually logging contacts. Enter a call in the call textbox, press Space and then type a name, well any name except 'Arthur' in the name textbox. (I'm sorry, I really cannot be responsible if you type Arthur.) You typed Arthur, and nothing happened, didn't you? Now you're angry. Here's a quarter.... Ok. Back on task. You have enough to log a contact now. Press Enter, and notice that the contact will appear in the Log Window.
Now the fun part. Enter the same callsign again and press Space. Looky, looky! The usual stuff happens, but two more things happen as well. The first contact shows up in the lower part of the Log Window, and the name from the first contact appears in the name field. If you were logging a contest, like ARRL DX, the power would be filled in from the first contact. If the first contact was on the same band as this contact, then the word "DUPE" in BIG RED LETTERS would appear. I was going to put the word "Dope", but then I thought that no one would want to use the program. Really, you should probably work the dope, I mean dupe, since you might not be in his log. It's actually easier to just work him than explain "You're a dupe, dope!"
Ok, press Enter and log the dupe. You don't agree with me about logging dupes? Then RIGHT-click on the Log Window entry for the dupe, and choose delete contact. No, I'm not going to tell you what to do with the dialog box that pops up. I trust you. I feel like we are already friends.
Step 10. The Exciting Finale
Now for the exciting finale, if I called it the boring finale, you wouldn't read it now, would you? It is kind of boring, but I really couldn't trust you to get this far, now could I? This step is about all the wonderful things you can change about this program. If I tried to explain them all, you wouldn't read it, so here is just a little bit.
Look at the View menu in the Entry Window. Here you can look at your current log (or any past log that you open) in a lot of different ways, including a really flexible Statistics function. The Tools menu lets you rescore the contest, download various files from the Internet (like master.dta and .cty files, for example), and a lot of other useful things. The Config menu lets you change all the exciting Configuration options that we all know and love by now.
Step 11. CW and WAV Recordings
"Hey wait," you say, "You said there were 10 easy steps - what's this number 11 business?" There is a very simple answer. I lied. I wanted to write only 10, but I forgot to tell you about the CW and SSB buttons. They are preset at the factory (ok, at my house), to be very useful to only me. Try them anyway. If you have a CW interface, the CW buttons will send pretty damn good CW, even when you are doing other things like moving windows around. You had better appreciate this, because it was very hard to code, and I am very proud of it.
The same buttons are used in SSB to send WAV files. While this seems much harder, it was actually quite easy, but it's ok if you are impressed. I don't care, so long as you are impressed. You don't need to hook up your radio to enjoy this wonderful feature, just hook some speakers to your sound card and listen to my melodious voice call CQ as you click on the CQ button. In a real contest, however, you'll want to hook up the output of the sound card to your microphone input through a Radio Shack audio transformer and resistor setup. The high impedance side (with a 100k series resistor) goes to the microphone input, the low impedance side goes to the sound card speaker out. Of course you'll need to adjust the levels using the software that comes with your operating system or sound card. See the interface section for more info.
This thing will record QSOs as well, but I'll let you find that in the Manual.
I hope you have enjoyed this quick tour as much as I have enjoyed writing it. And for the second time, no, I was not drinking when I wrote this.
Last Modification: 10 April 2010 08:00:36 EDT by n4zr.