Field Day Contest Log 4.3 Now Available & Field Day 2014 Report!

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Hi All,

Field Day Contest Log 4.3 is Now Available!

Enhancements for this upgrade include:

- Ability to purge D contacts if you are a D station.

- Ability to list recent QSOs filtered by the same band and mode.

- Additional error checking to let you know if you have the clients set to TCP but forgot to also set the server to TCP.

- Ability to see the QSO rate time statistics of this specific PC (from the settings menu).

- Clients networking in TCP can now make local backups.

- Backups for both File Share and TCP are now in ADIF.

- Web status uploader. Details follow:

Have you ever had to leave your Field Day site and wonder how your group was doing while you were away? Maybe you'd like to listen along from home, but you can't find the frequency they are running? Perhaps you are headed up to the site and are wondering if there is anything they need that you could bring along? This feature is designed to answer those questions!

The concept is simple. Every three minutes (or whatever interval you set), Field Day Contest Log 4.3 will FTP upload your current score statistics, a brief message and your most recent contacts (including frequency if known) to your web hosting site. Simply give the URL to your group members so that they can check via the Internet. This is an excellent way for club members to keep tabs on how it's going and any needs that may develop at your Field Day site while they are away. You can see an example by navigating your browser to:

http://www.n3fjp.com/fd/fdstatus.html

This isn't designed so much for public consumption, but rather a quick status update on the Internet for club members to be able to follow along from home. The HTML coding is minimal, with an emphasis on keeping the ASCII file upload to be as small as possible. The web page may be accessible on the Internet to anyone, but it is likely that only folks you provide the URL to will be able to find your data, so view this primarily as an internal communications tool for your group.

During the brainstorming process for this feature, some groups who don't have Internet at their Field Day site requested I also code a text file that could be transmitted by packet, so I have created that as well. Of course, you will have to configure your packet software to attach the file to a message and send it automatically every few minutes. You'll find this new feature in the Settings menu.

When users heard that I was working on this feature for Field Day, I started getting requests to add it to all the programs, including AC Log! Using this status upload feature, clubs can see what their club station running AC Log is doing from home, club members can track their club's progress of all supported contests, DXPeditions can post where they are operating, recent contacts, etc., and individuals can upload their activity as well! I will let you know as soon as this feature becomes available in AC Log and the rest of the software!

As always, upgrades are free to registered users. Of course, this includes our N3FJP Software Package users!

You can download Field Day Contest Log 4.3 here:

http://www.n3fjp.com/fieldday.html


Field Day 2014 Report!

This was the second year of use of my new C#.NET rewrite of my Field Day software and first year that the new TCP networking option was used. You may recall that most everyone reported great results last year, but there were a few that struggled with intermittent network connectivity in 2013, so I added the TCP network option, that should work better with less robust networks. You'll find last year's summary here: http://www.n3fjp.com/news/news2013-07-19.html.

Following Field Day 2014, I've received lots of great reports on both File Share and TCP! I did not receive a single report of consistent problems from anyone entering data using File Share, so it appears everyone did a great job setting up fast, reliable networks in 2014!

Lots of folks tried TCP this year with great results as well! With properly configured TCP setups there were only two problem reports. One group networked 10 PCs via TCP and found their server would occasionally lock up. They switched to a faster PC for the server and everything worked fine. Another group networked at least 16 PCs. They also found the server to lock, so they switched to File Share. TCP requires more of the server than File Share, so while using the fastest PC for the server is important with either networking option, it is especially so for TCP. Make sure you select your fastest PC, with plenty of processing power and RAM to perform that function.


And in response to the questions we always receive when we neglect to include the following in our e-mail announcements...


Package Upgrade Information...

If you have registered one or more individual programs and would like to upgrade to N3FJP's Software Package or N3FJP's Software Package and CD for full use of all our Amateur Radio software, we would be glad to apply the amount that you have registered so far as a credit towards that purchase. Please send us an e-mail directly and we'll let you know your balance.

N3FJP's Software Package includes approximately 50 programs for contesting, net management, general logging and other Amateur Radio related applications. In addition to full use of all these programs, registered package customers are also entitled to receive free passwords for any new software that is added to the package and free upgrades to existing programs. You'll find all the details on the Register Now page at www.n3fjp.com.


Donations are Gratefully Accepted!

And in response to the often asked question for which Kimberly and I are very grateful...

"I know your upgrades are free, but I also realize how much time and effort coding these enhancements and new programs take and that your pricing policy doesn't fully reflect that. Can I send you something to show my appreciation for your continued efforts?"

Yes, thanks so much, your continued support in any amount is very welcome and deeply appreciated! You can use this page:

http://www.n3fjp.com/donations.html

or send your contribution by mail, payable to Affirmatech Inc., to:

G. Scott Davis
118 Glenwood Road
Bel Air, MD 21014-5533

Thank you so much for your continued support!


Thanks!

As always, thanks for your kind words, support, linking to our web site and spreading the word about our software. Kimberly and I really appreciate it!

73, Scott
N3FJP
http://www.n3fjp.com

Serving the Amateur Radio community with contesting and general logging software since 1997.

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