Info Window

Your Info window will be similar to this one.

The info window can be found in the Entry Window dialog under the menu 'Window | Info'.

General

The following information currently appears in this window:

• Own callsign and Sent Exchange (statusbar)
  • The next QSO number will be shown on the title bar if it is a serial number contest. Example: Exch: 59 002
• Callframe spot (line 1) - Info from spot from bandmap
• CountryInfo (line 2 & 3) -  CallCountry, Zone, Continent, Bearing (short path), Distance (miles & km), Bearing (long path)
  • From the station in the call window, or if nothing is there, the call in the call frame.
  • If there is nothing in either, it shows the last info that was displayed there.
• Sunrise/Sunset(line 4) - Sunrise/sunset times, Local time
  • Local time is not shown for K, VE, UA and VK because of the multiple time zones in these countries.
• Messages (line 5) - Packet spot information, packet talk messages (appear in red)
• WWV Messages (line 6) -  WWV statistics
  
• Rates Section
  • Rates (left)- Rate information /goal information (colors) / band change information
  • The band change information and the band timer are hidden when Single operator or Multi-multi are selected.
  • Real Time graphical rate display
  • Import and setting Goals button
  • Graph (middle) - shows graphical information regarding qso count, hourly rates or moving averages per 30 or 60 minutes.
  • Record level indicator (middle) - for recording QSOs. For this indicator to show 'Record QSOs' under the 'Tools' menu must be on.
  • Info section (right) 
  • Callsign of the operator in lower right corner (bold). Set with Ctrl+O.
  • Band change counter (contest and section dependant)
  • band timer (contest and section dependant)

• Band Chgs - Band change counter (only shown in certain contests and Operator Category dependant )
• 10 min band timer - 10 minute band timer. Counts down after band change.
• The band change timer does not start until the first band change of the contest.
• Mult-Run indicator - Shows MULT or RUN
• Shown only when Multi-User and Operator Category = Multi-One
• Multiplier or Run station can be toggled with key combination Ctrl-Alt-M

• Multi-User Section - Multi user information (more information below)
  • Only shown when Multi-User Mode is selected.

• Messages Section
  • Computer name, IP-address and port info when in multi-user
  • Winkey version info
  • Messages between stations have a big font so that multis would easily see messages to each other.
  • Pass frequencies > 100000 kHz will be shown without decimals.
  • When you are being spotted on a cluster this will be shown in the message area including spotter and comment. Nice to know ;-)
  • More..

Mouse Assignments

• Right-click in most parts of the window - Clicking on an item will select or deselect showing the selected information. Someparts have a menu of it's own.
  • Callframe spot - Show country and spot info from the station on the callsign field frame 
    • NOT the callsign in the entry window but in the callframe above the callsign field!
  • CountryInfo - Show country info from the station in callsign field
  • Sunrise/Sunset - Show Sunrise/sunset times, Local time from the station in the callsign field.
  • Messages - Show packet talk messages
  • WWV Messages - Show the WWV messages
  • Rates Section - Show the rates section
  • Multi-User Section - Show the multi-user section
  • Help - Show the help file for this window
  • Clear Message Window - Clears the message part of the Info window

When Multi-User Mode is selected, clicking on a red or green icon in the Multi-user part of the window will give an extra menu. See the Multi-User information below.

Rate information section

The rate information is shown on the middle part of the info window. Dupe QSOs are included in the count. A zero rate will be shown as a blank.
Shown is the following information.

• Left part
  • Top of rates frame - QSOs per multiplier info ( x mult = y.y Q's)
  • Last 10 Q's - Rate last 10 QSOs (QSOs per hour)
  • Last 100 Q's- Rate last 100 QSOs (QSOs per hour)
  • Since hh:mm - Rate one hour back in GMT (QSOs per hour)
  • Since hh:00 - Rate since the start of the current hour in GMT (QSOs per hour)
  
  
• Middle part
  • Real Time raphical rate display (middle) - see information below.
  • Record level indicator (middle) - for recording QSOs. For this indicator to show 'Record QSOs' under the 'Tools' menu must be on.

• Right part
  • Band Chgs - Number of band changes since beginning of the contest for multi-single operators.
    • Resets to 0 at top of hour and is free.
      
    • Counts band changes for each computer only if in Multi-Two
    • Band changes are not counted if the worked station on the other band is a multiplier
  • xx min band timer - Count down timer from xx minutes to 0 which starts after the first logged qso after a band change. 
    • NB There is one band change counter and it works for the Run station. The multiplier station will have to keep track of changes manually.

Background colors rate information

The background colors change depending on the goal you have set for this contest.

• Red - < 50% of goal
• Yellow - < 51-99% of goal
• Green - 100+% of goal

Buttons

• Import Goals - Use this button to import hourly rates from the current contest to be used as goal. If the contest you want as a goal is not the current contest, open it, then set the goal.
• Goal =  - Manually edit the hourly rate goals to be used in this contest. Hours should be from 0-23. If an hour is missing the next lower hour will be used.

Real Time graphical rate display

• As such, the intention is to visualize small changes in ==relative== Q rates over short periods. There is no scale information on the graph for getting a sense of raw numbers (assumption being that the numeric rates on the Info window are better at providing exact numbers). For current data, the graph does show the current hour's goal as a black line, again to provide an at-a-glance sense of how things are progressing.
• Some values are selectable (via right-click) for graphing. 
  • The period shown can be either 30 or 60 minutes. 
    • The graph can have 6, 10, 15, or 20 bars. 
    • Each bar can represent the raw Q count for that timeslice, the hourly rate, or a moving average over the last 10, 20, or 30 minutes.
• The bars show rates for just this station. In the case of a single SO2R station, the bars show radios 1 and 2 in different colors, stacked, to show each radio's overall contribution. For multi operations, the rates of other stations are not displayed, nor are the contributions of other operators at this station displayed differently.
• Since the graph is intended to be updated in (almost) real-time, the feature set is intentionally minimal. The code draws the graphs one line at a time - this yields very dull graphics, but does not require any additional DLL files or controls, and runs well for me on an older, slower PC.
• The real-time graphical rate display has options accessible by right-clicking on the graph area. This display will not show anything until you start making QSOs in your current log.
• The horizontal line is the goal value marking line.

Setting a goal for the contest

Most people want to make each year more QSOs than the year before. So for most of us that is our goal!

It's always nice to know what number of QSOs you had last year so you can see where your weak spots are. If this information is not available or you think these numbers are wrong (to low?) set your own! You can set the number of QSOs you want to make on an hourly basis and the program will show them on the 'Goal = ' button.

If you have the contest from last year available you can import the number of QSOs and adjust afterwards if necessary.

The only difference importing QSOs from a previous contest is what database you have loaded in N1MM logger during setup of the goal numbers. If you have the previous contest (from last year) loaded the program will calculate the QSOs per hour and display them. These numbers can be updated to set a new (higher) goal.

Setting the QSO numbers

You can set the number of QSOs per hour.

• Select button 'Import Goals' on the Info window. Selects the bands to import using a previous contest log or a text file.

• Import Bands
• Select bands to import for the selcted contest
• Choices are: All, 160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m
• Log - Import from a previous contest Log
• Load or have loaded the previous contest (mostly from last year) in the program.
• Use 'Choose a File' and select in the database the contest you want.
• Select a contest in the selected database using 'Select Contest'.
• Another type of contest is allowed to get some figures and hours imported.
• Have an empty contest loaded or make a new contest with 'File, Open Log in Database'.
• Text File - import goal from a text file
• Text file can be either a whitespace delimited file (.txt) or a comma separated file (.csv). 
• User selects which file type in the Choose a File dialog box. 
• Contents of the text file are: 1st field/column is the day/hour as dhh, 2nd field/column is the all band houtly rate. 
• For importing goals by band, 1st field/column is the day/hour as dhh and the subsequent fields/columns are the hourly rate on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 & 10. 
• Select button 'Goal = ' on the Info window
  A screen will appear where you can enter the QSOs to make per hour.
  If you have not imported a contest the dialog will be empty otherwise it will be prefilled.
  
  • Goals need to be in the form of dhh, where d is 1, 2 or 3, and hh is from 0-23. 
  • The hh is the Z time for the first, second or third *calendar* day of the contest. d is the calendar day number starting with 1. ARRL Sweepstakes starts on Saturday at 2100z, so the first hour goal would be for 121. The last shour starts at 0200z on Monday, so the goal would be set for 302. With the other change made, these rates can be extracted from other contests in other databases, avoiding the necessity of first loading the contest, extracting the goals and then reloading the current contest. Now you can just choose the database and contest to use for your goals.
  • The goals can also be set manually, using the scheme above. Note that goals hold for the hour they are set, and each subsequent hour until a new goal is set.
  • Example below:  112 menas day 1 and 12 UTC. The last line is day 2 and 09 UTC.

  

Note: The goal is set per database and not per contest in the database. So it is not possible to set different goals for more contests in one database. Again a reason to use for each (major) contest it's own database.

Multi-User information

General

In the bottom part of the Info window all information needed during contesting is displayed. See the picture below.

• Green or Red station icon
  • Green means connected
  • Red means not connected
  • Light Red means that the program has not been able to contact the other machine for a while.
    • The program will try to solve this problem, if it returns to green, then everything is ok.
    • At startup it is not an issue. If during a contest, with lots of RF, this might mean you have RF in your network cables.
  • Right clicking on these icons brings up a menu
• Station
  • Name from the station as entered under 'Config / Edit Station Computer names'
• Pass frequency
  • Frequency where the station likes to receive it's passed stations.
  • Pass frequencies > 100000 kHz will be shown without decimals.
    
• Run
  • Selected means running
  • Not selected means he is Searching & Pouncing
• Operator
  • Who is operating the station
  • This call will change to red while transmitting
• Last 10
  • Rate information from the station over last 10 QSOs
• Last 100
  • Rate information from the station over last 100 QSOs
• Current Freq
  • Operating frequency 
  • Mode indication like CW, SB, FM (only when in Mixed mode)

Mouse Assignments

• Right-click on the red or green station icon - opens a menu window.

• Call for Help - On the selected station the following message will be shown: "Station x needs assistance". This way an operator can call for assistance without leaving the chair by sending a message to another (operating) position. The file "Assist.wav" from the program directory will be played on the target station.
• Help - Show the help file for this window.
• Send Message - Send a message to this station. The message will be shown in the Info window from the selected station and appears in red.
• Target for Call stacking - The stacked callsign will be put on the 'stack' for this station. See the Entry Window for more information about call stacking.
• Pass current/last QSO - Pass the current qso in the Entry window or the last qso when the Entry window is empty to this station.
• Show Status - Show status of all connections. See image below (no connection set up here).

  

• Close Connection - Close the network connection from this station.
• Open Connection - Open the network connection from this station (only selectable when dot is red).
• Prevent Automatic Reconnect Attempts - Prevent automatic reconnect attempts every 30 seconds by the program.