Console contest logger built for speed, driven from the keyboard

• Version recorded: 1.4.1
• Categories: contest, cw
• Upstream: https://tlf.github.io/

A curses contest log covering the major CW, SSB and digital contests, with per-contest scoring rules, duplicate checking, multiplier tracking, a band map fed from a DX cluster, and CW sent through cwdaemon or the rig's own keyer. It talks to hamlib for frequency and mode and to fldigi for digital modes.

Contesting is a typing job under time pressure, and every mouse movement is a lost second. Everything here is on the keyboard, the screen fits in a terminal, and it runs over SSH to a remote station without a graphics stack. It is also the logger most likely to already know the scoring rules of the contest you are entering.

A configuration file with your callsign: Hammunition writes ~/tlf/logcfg.dat with it and your grid square from station config (hammunition station set --callsign <yours> --grid-square <yours>); with either unset the package installs and the file is reported as not written. A contest adds a rules file -- tlf ships them, and the commented default configuration shows every other setting. CW keying needs cwdaemon or a rig that can key itself. Cluster spots need a network connection and a cluster to connect to.

• apt: tlf

• ~/tlf/logcfg.dat (written, mode 0644, existing file backed up); filled from the station values callsign, grid_square, and not written while one is unset (D-035)

The learning curve is the real cost: the key bindings are not discoverable and the first contest with it will go badly if it is also the first hour with it. Set it up and run a practice session beforehand. Scoring rules for a contest that changed its own rules this year may be a release behind, so check the multiplier logic against the current rules rather than trusting the total. What the configuration block does: writes ~/tlf/logcfg.dat in your home (yours, mode 0644; under sudo written as root and handed to you, never through a symlink) with CALL= your callsign and MYQRA= your grid square, which tlf also uses for your position (beam headings, distances). It replaces tlf's own default only when tlf is started in ~/tlf or given -f; started anywhere else, tlf reads that directory's logcfg.dat or its default. A file that was there before is kept as ~/tlf/logcfg.dat.hammunition-backup, once. Every hammunition install that includes tlf rewrites this file from station config, so keep contest settings in the copy in each contest's directory, not here. Inspect with cat ~/tlf/logcfg.dat. hammunition uninstall tlf does not remove it (config files are not reversed, and the plan says so); to undo, rm ~/tlf/logcfg.dat.

• probe: apt policy
• strategy: apt_upgrade

GitHub issues at https://github.com/Tlf/tlf and a mailing list linked from the project page.

Source: catalog/packages/tlf.yaml