Bill,

System that runs WSJT-X is an I-7 HP Laptop. May replace it with an I-9 soon since that is needed for performance with some Adobe and A/V software I use I-9 is on desktop and could maybe be used with WSJT-X also.

I know a lot of people with older systems (mostly Celerons) and low power systems (mostly Raspberry Pi) trying to do things. For doing it on the cheap support for these is important for a while at least. While that can be fun, like QRP with 1W or less, it is too frustrating for me to use a slow CPU. (I mostly run 100W or less and a lot of QRP but can add an amp when needed. I have never needed an amp with FT-8/4).

I have done programming before where I had different chips and OS to contend with - 8/16/32 bit and 32/64 bit and so many versions of Visual C++ it was hard to keep them straight. and that was just with Windows. Adding Linux and Mac OS really complicates it and hats off to your team for dealing with that. I know you want to make it as clean and fast as you can, and adding decision trees in for various hardware issues complicates the code base and has to slow things down some. I used to do things where we measured performance with a stop watch! Now it is expected that you touch a ley (or the screen) and get an immediate response. 

I think that there are enough Celeron class users to justify both a slow program path and a more modern one. Or have different installs for old/slow systems and more modern robust ones. I don't know how many will respond to this thread, but do not think it will be representative of the user base. People on here are more likely to be those technically more active. 

The other issue is to not break what works like links with JT-AlertX, DXMaps, PSK Reporter, Time Clocks, and logging programs. I run these at the same time as WSJT-X and also link logging programs vis internal network. (Everything gets logged in at least 3 places). 

Thanks for the great work you all do.
73, Tom AJ4XM

simply follow these directions and use Time.is:

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/synchronize-clock-windows-10-with-internet-atomic-time/

WG9O

On Wed, Jun 9, 2021 at 1:26 AM Mike Koralewski K8VA <k8va@...> wrote:

M
Hmmmm.... Has anyone ever told you that  "Time. Is" , is just that.. A time checker.? 
It Does NOT sync time.... And cannot sync  time... You wil need a real time sync program. 
Windows 10 has one built in..  you need to enable it... But it's well, you know Microsoft.... 
Mienberg is good, but it is a resource hog. It constantly plunks your computer to check and sync. 
Dimension 4 is good, but you need to manually request a sync, once in a while. 
Take your pick... There are others... 
--
73 Mike 73

On Jun 9, 2021, at 10:28 AM, William Smith via groups.io <w_smith@...> wrote:

Sounds like fun, Python code to parse wsjtx.log is trivial, and there's https://pypi.org/project/maidenhead/ to convert to lat/lon, and then https://pypi.org/project/geopy/ to get distance, or https://github.com/dh1tw/pyhamtools (looks like the code is there but the documentation is [ahem] incomplete) where it looks like:

from pyhamtools.locator import calculate_distance
calculate_distance("JN48QM", "QF67bf")

16466.413

should work.

Count me in!

73, Willie N1JBJ

On Jun 9, 2021, at 9:24 AM, Kermit Lehman via groups.io <ktfrog007@...> wrote:

Hello,


Here's an update to an email I sent out incorrectly (wrong address?) yesterday. Since then I got some help from Bruce Horn, WA7BMN, so this is a new and much improved version. Ignore anything I sent earlier.


Many have remarked that FT activity is like an ongoing 24/7 contest. That's true, except there's no real contest. This email is a suggestion for one that some organization might want to establish.


Since grid locs are a normal part of the FT exchange (most of the time), HF as well as VHF/UHF grid chasing has become an interest in the FT community. Grids could also be used for another interesting activity: distance scoring. Right now grid locs are used for distance scoring in the Makrothen RTTY, WW-Digi and the Stew Perry contests and perhaps others that I don't know about.


It might be fun to hold year-long events, competitions, if you like, that are based on the total distances worked by participating stations, summing up all their QSOs during the year. Score listings could be based on something fun like astronomical distances (How many trips to the moon and back? Can anyone make it to the Sun?).


This would run the whole calendar year and operation would be exactly the same as normal, everyday operation. Grids need to be exchanged or looked up in those cases where it is skipped for speed or special calls. It spirit it is similar to the CQ DX Marathon, the UBA Prefix Hunt, N3FJP's WASC, the TBDXC Ultra-Marathon and others. Results would be made available after the end of the year.


Last night I calculated the distance in my 2021 AB1J and W1W logs (combined into one wsjtx-log.adi). I loaded it into ADIFMaster, extracted the grid loc column and fed it to the ARRL distance calculator
at https://contest-clubs.arrl.org/griddistancecalc.php


After running the program, I took the results, loaded it into an Excel file and summed the distances. The result was 6,786,493 km from 1930 good QSOs with grid locs.


Does this idea have any resonance? Even if not, it might be fun at the end of the year for interested people to calculate a yearly distance total. I could send out a similar email at year's end to collect scores to post if anyone is interested.


73,

Ken, AB1J