Looking at his proposal initially, I scoffed, as an IT person, “cloud computing” is the current “buzzword” in IT.

But keeping an open mind, I began to consider his thoughts carefully, especially in light of some of the comments that were made in reference to his post…..

As Jeff points out, at one time logging was a legal requirement for hams, and many of us have our paper logbooks (ARRL and Radioshack comes to mind) to fall back on. I know I have quite a few paper logbooks.

Then I transitioned them to computer. Oh man, I remember what a pain that was……it tooks me weeks and weeks of data entry to get everything into myelectronic logbook. The good thing is, that it forced me to review my logs and send out some old QSLs that had been forgotten by the wayside.

Unfortunately in one case, 9N1MM, the QSL manager for him had died and his XYL had just destroyed the logs…so it was too late for that QSL…..

but I have faithfully kept up my logs in electronic format, making multiple backups to ensure I never have to go through that horrendous exercise again.

Electonic logs did a lot for me, helped me track awards, helps me send logs to contest sponsers easier and helps me keep stuff for uploading to LOTW easier.

But then Jeff comes up with this radical idea, to put a logbook app into the “cloud” where you can reach it anytime.  Good idea as long as you have internet access.  As Jeff states, think of Gmail, Yahoo, etc and you get the concept of “cloud computing.”

The intriguing part of his concept to me, was his thought, that the ARRL should adopt that as a project.

I have always supported the LOTW, but for differing reasons, the adoption rate of LOTW has been very small as compared to EQSL.cc

The main reasoning for that has been the security required by the ARRL, it is difficult for foriegn hams to get registered. I think this cloud computing concept could potentially hold the key to getting a wider adoption of LOTW.

As Jeff so aptly points out “Their servers could issue a token that matches a certificate when you log in so that your contacts auto magically matches up via their LoTW database. No more uploading a signed file that was generated by another program to get award credit, it would all be seamless to the end user.”

I agree. The technology is present now to make it easier. For instance if you have a wordpress blog, for certain plug ins you have to have a key generated by WP so that you can “turn on” certain features. Why couldn’t ARRL generate the same key for the LOTW and incorporate that into a “cloud logbook.”

Of course there will be some hams, that no matter how easy it is made, just the fact that the ARRL is part of it, will cause them to not use it.

That should not deter devlopment of this.

If the ARRL or some other party were to take this project up, I would like to see it be an open-source project, so APIs and other plugins can be devloped.

Read Ke9V’s post and some of the comments, I would love to hear some of your comments here as well.

What are your thoughts on this?

73, Jack K4SAC

I was contacted by several members of the ZL7T dxpedition about this blog post. My only intent of this blog post was to get discussion going about the use CW skimmer type software at a time when this software was relativly new. The post was NOT a attack on the ZL7T dxpedition who I thought did an admirable job, but only an attempt to get discussion about cw skimmer software. I gathered my information from the ZL7T website here which was apparently not clear enough that their screenshots of the Spectrum Laboratory software were not made from the dxpedition site, but at a pilot station ZL2IFB on the mainland of NZ used the software to monitor the pileups. I offer the ZL7T team my heartfelt apologies and as I promised them in my e-mail responses, I am going to post their comments to me verbatim so that there are no futhur misunderstandings. 73, Jack K4SAC

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

My verbatim reply to them:

 I apologize if my blog post offended you. It certainly was not meant to be “slander” or “insulting”  but just a discussion point on a new type of software and its use during a dxpedition.  

 I was contacted by Mark Sullivan and I approved his comments as I will the other operators from your team even given the rude comments I have received even though the copy on your own web site http://www.zl7t.com/html/off_air.html  reads as if the team was using the Spectrum Laboratory software during the dxpedition.

 You and your team did an excellent job and if I mis-represented your effort, I sincerely apologize and hope that you and your team will accept my heartfelt apologies.

 My only interest was to get conversation going about the new (new at the time) skimmer type software and it’s use during dxpeditions , not in personally attacking you or your team.

 As I told Mark, I am editing the blog post to include all of your comments in the interest of fairness as I wasn’t attacking your or your team at all. I thought you guys did a remarkable job.

 Again my sincere and heartfelt apologies to the whole ZL7T team.

 73, Jack K4SAC

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

“I have just come across your blog entry.  As a member of the ZL7T dxpedition I would like to point out that we did not use any Skimmer type or any other software to aid in managing pileups.  It was all done by the computer between the ops ears. Those images were generated by our webmaster Gary Zl2IFB from his QTH in New Zealand.”

Regards

Mark Sullivan ZL3AB

 ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

As one of the organisers of the ZL7T dxpedition I can assure k4sac and everyone else that the comments regarding skimmer or other software type pileup operating aids used on this dxpedition  are just like a full toilet ZL2AAA

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

ZL7T did not use any such “skimmer software”… But as the Pilot station for ZL7T and I was able to filter messages to the team on the Islands, pass the important on to the team. I also fielded dozens of requests about not being in the log etc. Propagation reports, cluster spots…all done with computers via the internet. QSOs were loaded up to the ARRL Log of the World..so this is not “Dxpedition Computer enhancement”? The fact that most of the call signs logged gained the “spot” from their computer… Is there not a computer in every modern “ham shack”? Do you really want to go back down memory lane, and have only paper logs only for DXpedtions? Get real and grow up I say-Duncan McMahon

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Hi guys n galls. I was also a member of the ZL7T DXpedition and can confirm as Mark says, we did not use any electronic skimmer. The CW ops (Both named John) had an inbuilt skimmer between the ears far superior to any electronic item. The frames shown are from our ZL7T web site and were generated in New Zealand and put on the site just for interest.

 However, I would see no problem with using an electronic skimmer to speed up the qso rate.

 Pse go to our web site and read up on the freindly DXpedition that suceeded in getting many non DXers on the air as well as satifying the serious DXers.

 Mike ZL2CC

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Hi Jack,

 Your uplifting comments about the ZL7T operation have been bought to my attention.  They are totally unfounded and untrue, as one of the CW operators of the DXpedition I find your blog insulting and totally lacking any ham spirit.

 73 John ZL1BYZ.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jack… You are incorrect. CW Skimmer was never used at ZL7T. Our Pilot Gary, ZL2IFB on the mainland of NZ used it to monitor some of our pileups and he was 550 miles away and not on Chatham. The graphics were reproduced for our website and writeup after we returned. It would be nice if you corrected your error in your blog.

73, Lee Jennings ZL2AL

ZL7T DXpedition leader

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

MY ORIGINAL BLOG POST :

As you look at the title of this post, you are probably thinking well most dxpeditions are in fact computer aided. Logging is certainly mostly done with computers, propagation analysis is usually done with computers, and cw is sometimes sent via computer. So computer aided dxpeditions are nothing new right?????

How about pileup management techniques via computer?

The current Chatam Island dxpedition is using a CW skimmer type software package called Spectrum Labatory to help manage their cw pileups.

(picture from http://www.zl7t.com)

This begs the question…should dxpeditions start using CW skimmer type software to manage their pileups?

You can see from the screenshot below they identified PSØFon the pileup edge.

So if the Deserving know that a dxpedition is using a skimmer-type software to manage cw pileups, could this lead operators to spread out hoping to be on the edges where the skimmer will pick up their call? This could potentially lead to wasted spectrum…..but maybe faster pileups……

What do you think????I want to hear your thoughts….

73,

Jack K4SAC

Today I am going to go a little deeper and explain some of the features. I am going to break this review into bite sized pieces so that you dont get bored reading a bunch of stuff at one sitting.

Last entry, I talked about a bandmap feature, N1MM has a bandmap feature that if you are connected to a dx cluster, you can actually see the stations that are spotted along a bandmap of your VFO.

As you can see the dx cluster has populated the bandmap with the calls that have been posted to the cluster. Calls in red are new multipliers. You can hold your mouse over one of the spots and you can see more information.

You can zoom in and out on the bandmap using the [+] and [-] keys. If you click on a callsign, if you have your radio interfaced, your radio will automatically go to that frequency and populate the entry window with the call of that station.

When you complete a QSO and tune off the frequency – the spot’s color code turns to grey, so that you know at a glance that you have worked the station already, and won’t waste time when you come back to that frequency again.

You may say, I don’t use packet or dx clusters….well the bandmap is STILL useful. As you S&P your way up and down the band, each station you’ve worked will be marked with a grey self-spot, so you can skip by them the next time even if you have no packet spots.

Right clicking on the band map gives you other options as well

To read more about N1MM’s software, please check out http://www.n1mm.com

Credit: N1MM Quick Start Guide

This is the program I use here at K4SAC for contest logging.

I wanted to do a review on this program, but it is so full featured and robust, you just cant do it in one review. So I am going to break this review up into several chunks.

N1MM logger is one of a few contest logging programs that embrace SO2R/SO2V operation.

The N1MM Logger is a freeware program designed to do contest logging and some general logging. It is not a general logging program with award tracking etc. but is mainly a contest logging program to use with a lot of different supported contests.

There are many features found on the N1MM logger.
1) Digital Voice Keying
2) Automatic CW generation
3) RTTY support (uses the MMTTY engine)
4) PSK31 and PSK 63 support
5) bandmaps
6)packet window
7)beam heading and sunrise/sunset
8)Check partial
9)Multiplier window
10)telnet support
11)winkey support
12)SO2R/SO2V support
13)statisical reports
14)greyline program
and many other features….

The meat and potatoes of this program is the log entry window.

Below is a screenshot of the log entry window

As you can see the entry wndow is jampacked with information
As you type in the call of the station you are working, you see the bearing, the milage, and the long path at the bottom of the entry window

The color of the station callsign tells you what kind of multiplier it is.
If the callsign is RED, it is a Single Multiplier Example: CQWW – qso is either zone or country multiplier (one multipliers)

If the callsign is Green, it is a Double or better Multiplier Example: CQWW – qso is a zone and a country multiplier (two multipliers)

If the callsign is Blue it is a new contact.

If the callsign is GREY, it is a Dupe contact or an unworkable station in a non-workable country. This means that you don’t need this station because he is a dupe or you are not even ‘allowed’ to work him in this contest according the contest rules.

You may notice the 2 colored dots right below the Callsign box. Those are to tell you which had RX(recieve) and TX(transmit) focus. Green dot/LED – This VFO/Radio has receive (RX) and keyboard focus. RX and keyboard focus are always together. Red dot/LED – This VFO/Radio has transmit (TX) focus

(Run/S&P) designators are shown. Ru means the station is in running mode, and SP means the station is in S&P mode

At the very bottom you will see the status bar. This information on the left is country, zone, and continent. The middle is QSO’s/Multipliers/Zones and the right is the Current score.

Now you may be reading all this and think it is confusing. Once you actually install it and start playing with it, you will find that this program is fairly intuitive and easy to lean. Yes there are a ton of features that take time to learn, but for a small pistol contestor you can get by without 99% of the stuff and just use the program in its basic form.

Bug fixes come fairly fast as there is a Yahoo group that the developers monitor and respond rather quickly.

Stay tuned for part two of this review……

You can find out more by visiting http://www.n1mm.com/

I was disturbed to learn that Firefox makes unrequested connections….I thought those of you that read this blog may want to know….Click on my title to go to the original article. 73, Jack K4SAC

Firefox makes unrequested connections

Some people are particularly concerned about the connections Firefox makes to the internet, especially when such connections are made with no apparent cause. This article will explain the various reasons why Firefox may legitimately make a connection to the internet, and how you can stop it from doing so if you so desire.