[Ham-Mac] Mac Contester

[James R. Duffey]

I have Jim's contest software. It is very good in concept. Unfortunately, I
cannot use it with my PK-232 as the 232 has old firmware. (I got it for
free, I guess I know why, and I am not sure it is worth the $50 for new
ROMs). Jim's software does not send CW or RTTY any other way, so it is of
limited usefulness to me in contesting. I have not tried the SSB software,
but I intend to. I don't operate much phone. This is the sort of simple
contest software that is useful though, and those who want to build
MacContest software should look at it. Jim has takena big step in getting
the Mac into contesting that is for sure, and he is to be congratulated for
it. 

I have used cocoaModem by Kok Chen, W7AY for PSK31 and RTTY. It has a
contest mode which is very useful, but it is pretty basic, and has no CW
capabilty. I know that Chen's main interest is in the demodulating of
digital singals, so he might be willing to let someone use the contest
portion of his source code as a starting point for  a contest software. I
have borrowed a PC laptop to run contests with the N3 software and althoguh
that is pretty basic, I think that is what the platform needs. I had trouble
getting it to run on SoftWindows though.

Contest logging software in Unix or Java  may eventually be the answer to
Mac contesters. I don't think the Mac market will support a commercial
effort in contest software. - Duffey

--
James R. Duffey KK6MC/5
Cedar Crest NM 87008 DM65