2016-03-30
Phone contesting with Linux
The reddit /r/amateurradio post [Question] Contest Logging in Linux made me look at yfktest again. Yfktest is a curses-based contest logging program in perl, written for Linux. The difference between a normal logging program and a contest logging program is that a contest logging program is just interested in what is needed to complete a contest contact, usually a callsign, default signal reports and a serial number or area number (depends on the contest). A contest program is optimized to get this information logged as fast as possible with the minimal number of keystrokes. First thing to get right after getting the source from the subversion repository was to get the rig control settings right. I had a bit of trouble doing this right the first time, but I found out it is easy to set it right since yfktest uses hamlib to control the radio and it starts rigctld with a file rigctld.sh which now contains:koos@kernighan:~/src/trunk$ cat rigctld.sh rigctld -m 122 -r /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 38400 &The program contains definitions for a number of contests. Having defined the contest before starting the log run means the program knows what to ask and how to calculate the scores during the contest. I will have to do a dry-run before I dive into a real contest, and then try it in an upcoming contest to see how it works for me. In digimode contests (where signals are exchanged by the computer) I use the contest options offered by fldigi which works fine for me.