GPS-Enabled Software for Mobile Contesting

You've made a plan and intend to cover a large number of counties but it's going to be a tight schedule requiring a minimum number of missed turns. There are two features that assist in keeping on track -- one is the Multi-Waypoint Tracker and the other is an interface that will allow the driver to see important route information on an Android tablet or smartphone over a wireless connection. Waypoints are typically defined to include points where there is a change in highway. These can be identified using a mapping program like Streets and Trips. During the route planning phase a pushpin is placed at each waypoint with a descriptive label such as LT-US19-SR26E (left turn from US19 to State 26E) and these waypoints can be exported from Streets and Trips and imported into CQ/X. Then the Multi-Waypoint Tracker can be used to provide a display similar to the one on the left below for use by the CQ/X operator. Here the operator has chosen to show the three closest waypoints. The distance to each will be updated on each cycle of the GPS data. As indicated on the display the operator can also elect to show all waypoints that are within a user-specified distance from the current point.

When the CQ/X-Driver interface is enabled similar information along with other information of importance to the driver is presented on the driver's Android smartphone or tablet as shown in the above screen shot. The first section of the driver's display indicates whether the driver is on the planned path, the current ten-minute rate (Q/HR), and the next way point (Left Turn from US19 to State Route 26 East), which, at current speed will be occuring in about 7 minutes and is about 7.2 miles down the planned track. The second section provides similar information for the waypoint after the next waypoint (Stop and Run Gilchrist in about 8 minutes with the planned stopping point about 7.7 miles down the track). The next section provides data on the current county (DIX and the station has already spent a little more than an hour in DIX) and the next county (LEV which is about 6 minutes down the track at current speed ). The final section shows the number of QSOs in the log, the number of mults and the current score. The CQX-Driver interface for Android devices and the CQ/X modifications required to support it require version 1.8.0 patched through 180-06 or later.