Contest Simulator
The Contest Simulator is an included program that simulates a stream of QSOs sent during a selected Contest-type. Although it opens from within the County-Hunting Mapper, it is essentially independent from it, and can be used for testing other programs that also monitor QSOs in the N1MM XML format. Its purpose is to provide a stream of QSOs to test the County-Hunting Mapper's 'External Logger' mode, which fills in States, Sections, Counties, or Grid Locators in response to received QSOs sent from an external logger via UDP.
The 'Send IP Address' and 'Send Port' are set to the default values used in the N1MM Logger, though you can change them if required, whilst the window is not actively sending.
The 'QSO Interval' control sets the frequency, in seconds, that QSOs are generated by the Contest Simulator.
The 'Bands' control will select the number of bands that are used when the Contest Simulator randomly chooses a band for each QSO. The actual bands it will use are shown to the left. If you wish all of these bands to be received in the 'External Logger' mode of the Main Program, you should go to the 'External Logger' tab, then set the 'Number of Columns' to a matching number, and then set the appropriate band-values in the 'What Does Each Column Represent?' panel.
The 'Contest-Type select' panel lets you choose from three different types of contest to simulate:
1/ A multi-band State QSO party. Choose which State with the control on the right. Random callsigns will be generated, with an appropriate prefix, on one of the bands chosen above. The contest-exchange is identical to that sent by the N1MM Logger during a real contest, apart from the points. To start the simulation, click the 'Start Contest Simulation' button. To view these QSOs in 'External Logger' mode, go to that tab and choose 'Counties', with a matching number of Columns and Band Values, on an appropriate map of either Continent, Selected State, or Joint Region. Click 'Start UDP Mode' and the 'Vector Map' tab will show. Set the map's text and grid lines as required, then click the 'Start' button to see the QSOs being received in real-time, and the County-areas filled accordingly..
2/ A multi-band CW Sweepstakes contest, which sends out QSOs from random Sections, using random callsigns with an appropriate prefix, on one of the bands chosen above. The contest-exchange is identical to that sent by the N1MM Logger during a real Sweepstakes contest, apart from the points. To start the simulation, click the 'Start Contest Simulation' button. To view these QSOs in 'External Logger' mode, go to that tab and choose 'Sections', with a matching number of Columns and Band Values. Only a Continental map of Sections is available. Click 'Start UDP Mode' and the 'Vector Map' tab will show. Set the map's text and grid lines as required, then click the 'Start' button to see the QSOs being received in real-time, and the Section-areas filled accordingly..
3/ A single-band ARRL VHF January Contest, which sends out QSOs using random callsigns from random 4-character Grid Locator squares, chosen from the list of 488 Grid Locator squares that touch land in the continental USA. The contest-exchange is identical to that sent by the N1MM Logger during a real ARRL VHF January contest, apart from the points. To start the simulation, click the 'Start Contest Simulation' button. To view these QSOs in 'External Logger' mode, go to that tab and choose 'Grid Locators', with Number of Columns set to '1', and the Band Value in the 'What Does Each Column Represent?' panel to '6m'. Only a Continental map of States is available. Click 'Start UDP Mode' and the 'Vector Map' tab will show. Set the map's text and grid lines as required. Note that a new 'G' radio-button is available: click it to set the Grid Locator text to either 2 or 4 characters. You can also add State text if you want. Click the 'Start' button to see the QSOs being received in real-time, and the Grid Locator-areas filled accordingly.
If you want to monitor the packet data as it is being received, click 'Tools > UDP Monitor'.