Entering RSTs and the Hunter's State

Hello! This is my first post in this community forum. Thanks so much for developing this software–it fills a BIG void for portable logging solutions!

I had a chance to test drive this on my iPad Pro yesterday during an “All Time New One” (ATNO) POTA activation and found it to be very nice. I love the streamlined look and feel.

A typical exchange in POTA includes call sign (of course), often real RST reports, and the caller’s State. During my test drive I discovered two things that IMHO could be tweaked for user-friendliness:

  1. The default RST reports of 59 or 599 are helpful, until you need to enter something different than the default. It then requires an extra couple of keystrokes (delete key) to clear the RST field. I would rather enter the call, tab to the next fields (RST), and just type the report. CALL [TAB] 569 [TAB] 559 [RETURN]. Two possible adjustments for this: when tabbing or selecting the field, select the entire contents of the cell so that typing replaces them, or give a “sticky” option (place it next to the field) to retain its contents from QSO to QSO. If the sticky option isn’t selected, clear the field each time.

  2. How do I document the sender’s state? When the software retrieves it automatically, that is helpful, but occasionally the hunter is operating from a location other than the home QTH. For instance, if they’re at another park, traveling, etc. I can’t override that natively within the software. Having a discrete field for the State would be helpful. It could be populated automatically but allow the user to override it.

I have some other suggestions as well and will place those into another thread.

Thanks again,
Kevin KZ3L

For #1, I didn’t realize this wasn’t happening in iOS. I just confirmed that tabbing in the desktop version does select the 59 so you can overwrite it just by typing, or tab on to the next field. I’ve created a ticket re-introduce this back into the mobile builds. Thanks for bringing this up. ‘Tab-ability’ and keeping it all fast and effortless is my #1 priority with this app.

As for 2, I’m trying to start a broader conversation over here and would love your input. I’m hesitant to add more fields, to the template right of the bat, again to keep it fast and minimal, but I’ve hit the same snag you have. I also would really love seeing all of the states in my QSO list down below, and in the future a map of all of the contacts in the log, much like you get from qsomap.org but built right into HAMRS

Thanks for the reply on these issues!

I’ll think a bit about the other thread you mentioned and will offer some thoughts later today or tomorrow.

73,
Kevin KZ3L

Re: #1, in v.0.9.9, touching the RST fields in iOS works correctly now and selects the contents of the cell. I don’t think that behavior had been integrated previously. Tabbing from an external keyboard doesn’t select the contents of the RST cell yet.

If this feature is still pending… please disregard. But if you had believed it to be fixed with the latest release, I just wanted you to be aware of this.

Thanks for everything!

Nope, try as I might, I could not get tabbing to work. Th ebest I could get was it selecting when tapping the input.

In that case, keeping those cells blank from QSO to QSO might be the best option. (Leave that to the user to choose.)

Maybe that “sticky” toggle switch is appropriate here. :slight_smile:

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Glad this topic has been brought up. I almost created a new feature request before I found this, but will just add my text and my vote here:

[iPad Pro 12.9" with Magic Keyboard] [iOS 15.1] [HAMRS 0.11.5]

I’ve done seven activations so far, and have been hunting every day for the past month or so and logging with HAMRS exclusively. Not sure if it’s just me being clumsy, or if an added feature might be helpful. This has to do with entering sent and received RST during a contact. It doesn’t flow for me. I know that some folks just enter 59 (default value) for every contact on voice, but I like to keep track of what I send and what I receive. It would be great to allow the choice of either blank or pre-populated RST fields. My choice would be to leave the fields blank. As it is currently, when I tab to the first RST field, the cursor is at the end of the ‘59’ and I have to backspace to delete and enter the values I want. If I tap the field on-screen with my finger, the ‘59’ is highlighted and I can just start typing. That’s better, but I don’t usually use the touch screen when I’m logging a contact, but use tab instead. Just my two cents, and it may be a way to make log entry more efficient when you are dealing with a pile-up!