• SDX now tracks multipliers by band, whether they count separately by mode or once regardless of mode. SD continues to support mixed-mode contests, but tracks multipliers only when they count once per band regardless of mode.

  This has been introduced in preparation for SDW (SD for WRTC) where ITU zones count separately, by band, on both SSB and CW.

Support for RTTY and FM in HF contests:

• Removed from SDX, which now supports CW and SSB only. SD continues to support CW, SSB, FM and RTTY QSOs.

SDC - Commonwealth Contest:

• Fixed display of bearing, distance and country as prefixes are typed. Previous country was not cleared when the prefix changed.

RUSSIA.MLT file:

• $R1AN changed to $CE9, and $UA2F changed to $UA2 to correspond to country prefixes in DXCC.CTY.

Coupe du REF:

• SDU Type 22. QSOs with VE2 now 5 points, not 3.

UBA Contest:

• Type 19 for non-ON entrants. Fixed points for non-EU QSOs, which were randomly appearing as 3 instead of 1.

[ and ] keys:

• Restored as substitutes for Home and End when moving the cursor in any non-empty field. Had been assigned to keyer memory playback due to broken code.

KEYCAPS command:

• Removed.

TenTec Omni VI Plus:

• Control file supplied OMNI6P.SD.

SDCHECK - Summary Sheet:

• In mixed-mode (CW/SSB) contests, analyses QSOs, Points and Mults by band and mode.

CQWW - SD/SDX Type 2:

• Fixed missing country multipliers - broken code in 9.58.

SDCHECK - ADIF option:

• State and Zone logged now included in output records.

SD/SDX Type 10:

• Fixed inconsistency after band edits of area QSOs already logged.

SDU - REF contest for DX entrants:

• Scoring is based on continent. It’s correct only when you add your own country record, from DXCC.CTY, to REFDX.CTY. Use any text editor to do this.

SDIOTA:

• Fixed spurious "invalid" message when entering any island call worked on other band/mode.

• If you entered the state before entering the callsign, multipliers could be missed - fixed.

Keyer Memory Playback:

• Here’s another option - numeric keypad numbers 1-8, with Num Lock Off.

  By using this option, you can have simultaneous access to the normal (non-keyer) features of the function keys F1 - F8 when Caps Lock is Off.

  For French, and some other keyboards, Caps Lock is normally On to access top-row numbers. They can be accessed, with Caps Lock Off if you use SD’s keyboard mapping facility. Create an SD.MAP file, as follows. (See 9.55). You’ll only have to do this once.

  Note: you’ll see the correct characters here only if HISTORY.DOC while using DOS.

       &  1
       ‚  2
       "  3
       ,  4
       (  5
       -  6
       Š  7
       _  8
       €  9
       …  0
  

• A reminder: Alt_F1 to Alt_F8 is another memory playback option with Caps Lock Off.

Help File: SDHELP.TXT:

• Updated. You can edit this yourself. It appears when you enter HELP.

• SD/SDX Type 1. NU (Nunavut) added to SDTYPE1.MLT and State validation routine updated (this is hard-coded to allow many variations of standard State & Province abbreviations).

  If your copy of SD does not accept NU, use Type 4 and select SDTYPE1 as your .MLT file.

Band Control Signals:

• These are available on LPT1 for HF programs.

     Pin    9   8   7   2
  
     160m   0   0   0   1
      80m   0   0   1   0
      40m   0   0   1   1
      20m   0   1   0   1
      15m   0   1   1   1
      10m   1   0   0   1

Local Time - all programs:

• To set the difference, in hours, between your local time and GMT, edit SD_GMTDIFF in SDCONFIG.TXT. This lets you keep your computer clock on local time, but SD will show GMT and the corresponding date, if different.

  For example:
  SD_GMTDIFF=5 : GMT is 5 hours ahead.
  SD_GMTDIFF=-1 : GMT is 1 hour behind.

  The default value is 0.

SDI and SDIOTA - IOTA Contest:

• Now unrestricted for registered users only.

• SD/SDX Type 1, for DX entrants. Multiplier checking broken in V9.52. Fixed.

PTT - all programs:

• When using a parallel port for CW keying (but not a serial port), a PTT signal is available on pin 16.

.LST reference files:

• This feature assumed callsigns were used for lookup. Now any 2 or more characters can be used including, for example, membership numbers.

• SD, and the other programs, were designed around UK/US keyboards. To help users of other keyboards with different layouts, you can create SD.MAP as a character mapping file. If SD.MAP is not present, there will be no character mapping. You can map "standard" characters, including numbers and letters, but not Function or Cursor Control keys.

  Use any text editor to create SD.MAP. Each line will have 2 characters (spaces are optional) and represents a mapping from the first character to the second. This is a "low-level" process, and no assumptions are made about upper or lower case letters. Therefore, you should map both versions of any letter. There is no significance in the sequence of records in the file.

  At a later stage, I’ll probably integrate SD.MAP with SDCONFIG.TXT.

  Sample SD.MAP file - to exchange A and Q, Z and Y.

     q a
     Q A
     a q
     A Q
     z y
     Z Y
     y z
     Y Z

  NOTE: The mapping will not apply to certain fields on the opening screens, before logging. For example .MLT and .CTY file names.

SDV - Variable Points by Band:

• Previously, the two scoring options provided have been 1 point/km and 1 (or more) points per QSO.

  Now you can apply a multiplication factor, by band, to each of these options.

Quick Memory - all programs:

• The delete or backspace keys will delete any highlighted entry.

SDL - UBA Contest for SWLs:

• SDL does not fully support the UBA contest for entrants outside Belgium. However, I’ve updated UBA.MLT so that SDL now logs a province for ON stations heard. (Use Type 10, choose UBA.MLT and UBA.CTY, and variable points by location).

Rig Control - all HF programs:

• I had reduced the response time, in V9.52, for the radio to respond after being polled for frequency and band.

  This time was too short for some radios, so I’ve restored the previous values.

• Page Up and Page Down were reserved for scrolling through the log a page (6 QSOs) at a time. This was a bit of a waste of two very useful keys, as the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys already do the same thing, although slightly slower.

  The ( and ) keys were formerly used to increase and decrease keyer speed. This was against all my principles as they involved multiple keystrokes (Shift 9 and 0 on UK/US keyboards).

  Now Page Up and Page Down adjust speed in 1 wpm increments. These are simpler options as they’re single keystrokes, and in the same position on all keyboards, irrespective of nationality.

Keyer Memories - Variable CW Speed:

• Use the # keyer parameter followed by a single digit 1 to 9 to temporarily increase speed, and #0 to reset speed to normal. Use a minus to indicate speed reductions.

  For example, #6 gives a temporary speed increase of 6 wpm, #8#6 of 14 wpm, and #-4 a reduction of 4 wpm.

  If your normal speed is 32 wpm, then the message

  #8TEST#0 EI5^DI EI5^DI #8#8TEST sends

    "TEST"   at 40 wpm
    " EI5^DI  EI5^DI " at 32 wpm
    "TEST"   at 48 wpm

  There’s no need to reset the speed at the end of a message - it’s done automatically.

  Another example - with normal speed of 25 wpm:

  #C #6#6#T #0#-4#S#E sends

    Callsign (#C) + 1 space at 25 wpm
    5NN (#T) + 1 space at 37 wpm
    #0 resets normal speed
    Serial (#S)   at 21 wpm
    Enter (#E) - automatic move to next field
                 to be logged.

  Note: use ^ to insert a one-fifth space between characters. They can be strung together to give much better readability with some callsigns. Try G3RTE and G3R^^T^^^E to see for yourself.

  If your callsign doesn’t need any "tailoring", you can use the #R parameter in keyer messages.

• Recent copies of the distribution file SDU.ZIP omitted DXCC.CTY - needed for ON entrants. Restored.

RSGB Cumulatives- SD/SDX Type 11:

• When you select 20 points per QSO, UK Novice and Class A/B QSOs score 20 points, others 3 points.

NRAU - Baltic Contest:

• NRAU.MLT added.

North American QSO Parties:

• NAQP.CTY and NAQP.MLT added.

SDCHECK - AFS contest (SD Type 11):

• In the LOG file for RSGB, 3-digit serials were mis-aligned by 1 column. Fixed.

SDV - District Code:

• SDV now insists on getting a 2-character District Code when you start a new contest log. SDCHECK inserts this code when you create a Cover Sheet.

SD/SDX - Area Multipliers:

• Single character area codes: not fixed in V9.52. Fixed now.

• Now supported with SD or SDX. It’s a 160m CW only contest, with 4-character Locator as the exchange. QSOs are scored on the basis of distance - at 1 point per QSO + 1 point per 500 km.

CW Keyer - Keyboard Mode:

• The Ctrl key is now used exclusively to toggle between Logging Mode (the normal mode) and Keyboard Mode where you can use the keyboard to send CW. The function key memories are available in Keyboard Mode but, at present, only with Caps Lock off.

  This feature is independent of keyboard types - it works on them all, whether US, French, Russian etc.

  The keys formerly used to invoke Keyboard Mode no longer work.

SD/SDX Type 5 - CQ 160 Contest:

• If you entered a number instead of a State, the program locked. Fixed.

SD/SDX - Area Multipliers:

• Single character area codes were not accepted, due to broken code. Fixed.

LINK Command:

• With Rig Control enabled, toggles the link On and Off. Broken in V9.41. Fixed.

RATE Command:

• To show or suppress rate meter - reinstated.

.CTY Files:

• Updated coordinates for K, PY, OH, VK, CE, JA, VE, ZL, ZS call areas, and updated IOTA references in SDIOTA.CTY - supplied by Ivan, G4BGW.

• Now shown in the country multiplier/band summary window, for contests with country multipliers. The distance is in kilometres. If you prefer miles, edit SD_DISTUNIT in SDCONFIG.TXT to M (from K).

Memory Keyer:

• In contests with serials, when you need to repeat the exchange for a QSO already logged, the correct callsign and serial are sent - but only if the current callsign (on the loggging line) is blank.

SDCHECK and other post-contest programs:

• Broken in 9.50. Listed coordinates rather than country multiplier prefixes. Fixed.

• This version is numbered out-of-sequence to emphasise that it’s different in using new format .CTY files which are not compatible with previous versions - 9.46 and earlier.

  The .CTY files are derived from, and are very similar to, the CTY.DAT file maintained and distributed by AD1C. Additional data now stored in each record includes latitude, longitude and time difference from UTC.

  You should install the distribution zip files in a new directory or folder - suggest SD950. Then copy your previous SDCONFIG.TXT file to this directory, otherwise you’ll have to redefine all your preferred settings all over again.

Beam headings - all HF programs:

• Beam headings are shown in real-time as you type callsign prefixes. (Not applicable for types 4, 11 and 12 with no country multipliers).

  Your own latitude and longitude is taken from the corresponding country record on whatever .CTY file you use first. It’s converted to a six character locator and stored in the configuration file with the descrition SD_LCTR. You’re free to edit this to your exact locator which, in turn, will increase the accuracy of the beam headings.

  No beam heading is shown for own-country callsigns.