I have a colleague who is a disabled operator…He has been contacting activators for approxiamately 7 years…Unfortunately he does not have the internet at his home, however he sometimes has access to it at weekends at his parents house…Bless him, as he has been unaware that these contacts were able to earn him points to gain certification…I believe at the weekend he has eventually registered with Sota, after discussion with myself to talk him through the registration process.
He is extremely excited that he has 11 points…however I have told him that all his points collected in the last 7 years, will somewhere be within the Sota system as all the activators enter logs as well.
He logs all his data on Winlog and unfortunately 3 weeks ago lost all his data for his years operating…so has had to start from scratch again…Now I am no computer expert and I know nothing about Winlog (therefore I am unaware if there is a way he can recover all this data)
I have told him of a way he can look at other operators logs to reclaim his Sota data, however this will be a long winded process.
His name is Steven, his callsign is 2W0JYN.
I am guessing Andy MM0FMF will be the expert in this field.
If so Andy is there any quick way within the Sota software to recover his contacts over the years.
Look forward to a response so I can give Steven some feedback, whether it be good or bad news.
If so Andy is there any quick way within the Sota software to recover his contacts over the years.
Yes, it can be done. No, not easily.
Does he not have his log for the last few years anyway apart from what he lost for this year?
If so, I’m sure Winlog will have some kind of export feature. Export as ADIF from Winlog and use one of the many ADIF>SOTA converters. That will result in a file that can be imported into the database which Steven can do when he next visits his parents and gets net access. Or he can copy the file onto a disk/memory card and get someone else to upload that.
This may be possible Russ, or it may not - Andy will certainly know one way or another. If it is not possible, then I imagine many activators will recognise Steven’s callsign (and his earlier MW3WZZ call, QSOs under which can also be added to the same chaser record*), and some of them may be willing to send through a list of QSOs.
Certainly me and Jimmy will do that if there isn’t a quick way from the inside of the Database that doesn’t cause Andy a load of extra work.
Tom M1EYP
*Note that QSOs made to SOTA activations as either MW3WZZ or 2W0JYN, and all variants like 2E0JYN/M, MW3WZZ/M etc can all be entered into the account Steven has just registered.
Does he not have his log for the last few years anyway apart from what he lost for this year?
Apologies Andy, I dont think I explained that too well…He has lost his complete Winlog entries since he has been using it (approx 4-5 years).
He has started logging again, only 4/5 weeks ago. So he has lost all his contacts as well as his Sota logs.
So unfortunately he has nothing to export and sift.
I will break the news to him that it will be a mammoth task to search for all his data on the Sota database and maybe advise him in the future he needs some form of back up.
Just as an aside, I did my first lesson last night on LCW0…got above 90%…20wpm…not going to the next phase until I get 100%…need to get my brain accustomed to it…I can see in the future I will need a dark room to lie down in.
Cant wait to chase my first CW summit.
Russ
That way lies madness. You don’t need to be perfect; only good enough! Pick a threshold you’re comfortable with, but give yourself a point or three of wiggle-room…
73, Rick M0LEP (who made exactly that mistake, and many others…)
Last nights first lesson was just 2 letters K & M.
Intend to have an hour each night.
Right decision made …stick to 20 wpm …dont want to go backwards…paracetomol is only 16pence a box…might even be extravagent and purchase 2 boxes…
Catch you all on Cw soon…hopefully before xmas.
1hour is 50minutes too long. 10mins a day, 15mins tops.
Set the char speed to 16-20wpm so the chars sound correct.
Set the char gap so the speed is as fast as you can cope but will probably be 5 to 8wpm.
Go from there.
Ha, I thought the snow had stopped, but it’s back on full force again. 18cms fallen in the last 18hours. There is a cost to living 56N and 650ft ASL. Still Barry will be dreaming of only 18cms snow as the snow gates are shut to his QTH.
I agree Victor, I too have had a go, it is by far the easiest way to start learning.
Much like Russ I hit 20wpm with just K & M. I did however find I couldn’t keep up, I would reach a point where I could recognize the character but didn’t have time to hit the right key on the keyboard and then I was lost.
I backed off to 15wpm and managed to increase to 3 different letters but would also ‘hit a brick wall’ with the Keyboard.
I am worried that at 15wpm I’m hearing the 'dits and ‘dahs’ rather than the character (that is my perception anyway), so I will see if I can manage 16 or perhaps 18wpm and try shorter sessions (10mins max).
I think I’m a long way off but looking forward to understanding some of the CW I hear.
73,
Colin
M0XSD.
P.S. Can this ‘New Topic’ be split into another thread?, I have a feeling I’m going to want to keep coming back here for advice.
In reply to M0XSD:
I’m so old I learned handwriting (and yes, with a dip-pen, later was allowed to graduate to a fountain pen which I now much prefer to a ball-point) and never learned, or felt the need to learn, to touch-type.
Hence I didn’t try to learn cw with a keyboard, instead using G4FON, pencil (much quicker than ball-point, I found) and paper, oh, and small letters are quicker to write than caps. From a computer I can manage (after several years of intermittent practice) 20wpm with 90% copy. Off-air is slower.
Herein is the problem, IMHO. Copying all RX to keyboard or paper (so as not to miss anything) isn’t really practical for an activation. I’m trying to get the hang of reading cw (as distinct from writing it) but it really isn’t working. I don’t know where to go from here, but I wonder if you should try to copy between the ears as well as writing/typing from the start. (Cue to experts - Discuss!)
However, I have gleaned a few chaser points at 15wpm with a straight key, and had a couple of S2S cw chases.
I would suggest chasing a QRS activator, perhaps near the end of an activation, for the glow of a successfull first chase.
He has lost his complete Winlog entries since he has been using it
(approx 4-5 years).
If the logging program is WinLog32 it may have automatically backed-up the log data anyway. It depends on how it was set up originally. Try a search of the hard disk (assuming that hard disk failure was not the cause of the original loss, of course).
I can copy well at ~20 wpm with 8 wpm gaps for about a minute, but by two minutes I’m down to about 50% and it gets worse. I call this brain-fade…and it don’t get any better with practice! I may last long enough for the occasional chase, I haven’t tried yet, but activating is out of the question.
by two minutes I’m down to about 50% and it gets worse. I call this
brain-fade…and it don’t get any better with practice! I may last
long enough for the occasional chase, I haven’t tried yet, but
activating is out of the question.
73
Brian G8ADD
That sounds familiar. The occasional chase is my aim.
I have no aspirations to activate with CW, I would much rather talk to people when I’m on a Summit apart from a few APRS messages.
And Dave, thanks for the encouragement, I don’t plan to give up any time soon.
