You may have seen my last post, Back to Mac — MacDoppler, and realized that I’m moving my ham shack back to Apple OS with a MacBook Air. All this is in line, first, with my preference for Mac software and, second, with my current focus on satellites and VHF/UHF weak signal work.
Contesting on a Mac
I had originally moved to a Windows computer, in my ham shack only, in order to get into the mainline software around contesting, primarily with RTTY contests. My RTTY contesting seems to have run its course. So I’m heading back to a number of programs that I’d used before. One of those is SkookumLogger.
In previous work on Apple OS, I’d used RUMped and SkookumLogger depending on the contest. Reviewing those options in late 2016 I find that RUMped stopped its development in 2011. Not so with SkookumLogger, which has continued to develop and add more contests.
SkookumLogger – Incredible Support
In my first round with SkookumLogger, some years ago, its author Bill Myers, K1GQ, was extremely helpful in coaching me through set up. I can report that type of support has not changed one iota.
In this round, my chief interest is the VHF/UHF contests. At this point that amounts to putting two radios on the air: the Elecraft K3 for 6 meters and the Icom IC-910H for 2 meters and 70 cm. All well and good for the K3 as Bill has set up SkookumLogger with all the features of both the K3 and P3 in mind.
He’s also added a number of other rigs but not the IC-910H. So, I sent him an email to see if there was any chance of adding it, since there were a number of Icom rigs already on the list. A couple of days later, he provided the beta software for testing to two of us. The first guy found it worked OK but I had some trouble with an RTS/DTR setting. Next day, different software in perfect working order. Simply. Amazing. Support.
Did I mention that SkookumLogger is free? Even more amazing support. Thanks Bill.
MacWinKeyer
The other item needed to use SkookumLogger is the Winkeyer by K1EL. Since K1EL doesn’t provide Mac software support, K1GQ has built it for us. You can find it at MacWinKeyer. It works great and is such a valuable tool for those of us using a Mac for ham radio activities. Thanks again, Bill.
Thanks the report for now. I’m also setting up FLDGI and JT65 along with links to MacLoggerDX. More on those next time.
Good luck and best wishes on your own ham radio adventures.
[…] Skookum Logger worked just fine for this application. While it’s not set up specifically for rover operations, it does allow entering different grids for sending as well as designating stations as rovers. The latter allows you to work them several times without getting a “duplicate” warning. It also has location services, which I need to investigate further. […]