CWX questions

Mark_WS7M

Hi All,

I'm on a missing to get my code speed back.  I used to copy about 35... now I can barely manage 15 sigh... So I'm working lots of CW which I like anyway.

I have a paddle and WinKeyer that I use most of the time.  But I wanted to sit up say in my living room using SmartSDR over my LAN and work some CW so I started to play with the CWX window. 

In general this works pretty well but it did what I think are some strange things:

First I was typing in a rather long message and normally the text goes in black then turns white as it is sent.  Several times while entering a long message where I was pretty sure I was way ahead of the send rate like 5 sentences would suddenly turn white.  In my phones I could hear sidetone but when I looked the radio had stopped transmitting and I heard my QSO partner start sending... What happened?  How do I know all of what I typed in was sent?

Second question is once I start typing stuff into the live window and it has been sent how can I clear that stuff?  I know I can select it and cut it but that is several steps.  It would be nice to have a button that just cleared it or perhaps something on the right click

Now the last thing that would make SmartSDR amazing would be a CW copy window.  Yes I can copy code but sometimes I get a distraction and miss a few things and it would be nice to have an option right in the same program to decode CW.  Any plans for that?   I do know I can use another program with Dax but why not put it as part of the CWX window as an option?

Anyway some hints on using CWX woudl be appreciated!

Thanks - Mark WS7M

Jim Gilliam

There might be a practical limits for the multitasking capabilities of the SDR. It might affect the smoothness of other parts of the program...sorta like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Duane_AC5AA

Escape key will stop sending if you're in the middle of a transmission. And it will not send the remainder of the buffer.

Mark_WS7M

Hi Jim, Duane,

Well I was just testing it again.  I set my speed to 24, set RF output to zero and set the live button on.  I started to type an example qso:

r r fb fred this is something I love to do.  i hpe u are ok with this approach to things.  de ws7m k

I can type about 80 wpm (software nerd guy).  The radio was sending away just fine and it seems like as soon as I put in the de ws7m k everything turned white, the radio continued to send side tone but stopped transmitting.  I did not press the esc key.

I just tried doing this again and it worked ok.  It seems sporadic.  When it happens the side tone is telling me it is sending but in reality it is not.  I was using this in a QSO today and sat there listening to the side tone then suddenly hearing my QSO partner come back in the middle.  I had no idea what as sent or not.

Mark_WS7M

Ok I might have a clue...  I think i figured out what is going on and perhaps this is a bug:

Assume I start typing this:

r r fb fred this is something I love to do.  i hpe u are ok with this approach to things.  de ws7m k

In a fresh new send bubble in CWX I am usually 3-4 words ahead of the send even at 24wpm.  So while it is working on say "this" I'm already typing "i hpe".

What seems to happen is everything goes along normally until I type a mistake and I hit the backspace key.  Again this text has not been sent because I'm quite far a head but 1 or 2 backspaces cause the text to suddenly all turn white and transmission to stop, yet the side tone is still coming sending the rest of the text.

I can repeat this easily and it explains why my QSO partner this am was breaking in.  He probably thought I was an idiot as my sentences often stopped in the middle. 

I would tend to consider this a bug?  Anyone else?  I would think if you are a head of the transmission character you should be able to backspace without causing an abort.

Mark_WS7M

Ok this is repeatable.  I went ahead and filed a support ticket on it.  Thanks for the input guys!

Walt - KZ1F

My advice, if you want to get back up to speed on cw, bag cwx and bag dm-780. They are crutches. If you don't HAVE to concentrate on each letter/word, you won't. Also, what I did was get the Koch Trainer for my iPhone and Android Nexus. It works wonders. CWX is merely typing to cw. It will not facilitate learning anything.

I've also found that programmatic cw to type state of the art is sadly lacking. That is also something bad about dm780, it often misses a letter or whole word and if you are using it as a crutch as soon as it diverges from what you think you just copied then you get into a spin loop of figuring out who's right and miss more letters and words.

Mark_WS7M

Walt completely agree.  I am using DM780 less and less.  For now it is helping to match the words sounds to the words to get back into the swing of things.  I am practicing without it a lot.  Every now and then I turn it on sort of to monitor things.

I do have a paddle and keyer and use that 90% of the time although I need serious practice on it.  But if I'm sitting upstairs logged in remote I really can't bring my paddle and keyer up.  So CWX provides a workable alternative.  Maybe not great but before this I could not do CW from anywhere but in front of the rig.

I will check out the koch app for the phone. Thanks!

M

Walt - KZ1F

I give that app 2 very large thumbs up!! It has a b&w logo two schematic end points with a keyer handle, end on railroad tie, over it.

Mark N1KM

Do you know if there is a way I can subscribe to a support ticket? I've experienced exactly the same behavior, in almost the exact same situation... gotten addicted to sitting upstairs doing CW from the laptop, but I've lost track of how many times I've totally confused the other end when it just stops sending.

Mark_WS7M

Mark, I do not know.  However I promise you I'll ping you when I hear something.  Is your QRZ email ok to use?

Mark N1KM

Thanks Mark, that would be great if you would do so. Yes, my QRZ email is good.

Tim - W4TME

This sounds like a defect.  I have entered it into our bug tracker for further investigation.