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LCWO Discussion Forum [Atom LCWO Forum Feed]

This is a simple discussion forum for LCWO users. Feel free to use it for any kind of discussion related to this website.

Thread: Changes on LCWO

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AuthorText
Administrator


Posted: 2009-01-19 07:03
Hello LCWO users,

this morning, a lot of updates were uploaded to LCWO.net. In particular:

User groups

It is now possible to create or join user groups, for LCWO users with common interests. This could be groups for LCWO users who speak a particular language; members of a radio club; CW operators who enjoy drinking beer, or whatever you come up with.

User groups can be public (i.e. everyone can join without restrictions) or private (group manager has to approve new members).

Each group has its own forum and an own highscore list. The latter is hopefully encouraging for people who like to learn CW together in a group, but never see themselves anywhere on the main highscore lists :-)

CW settings

A few new CW settings have been added. In particular, the variable group length is now also valid for the code group training, but only attempts with a group length of 5 are considered for the highscores. It's also now allowed to set a fixed length for the groups now.
Furthermore, it's possible to set the CW pitch to "Random", which means that the pitch will change to a random value between 500 and 900Hz after every group sent in the Koch-Trainer and Code groups modes.

Profiles
Each user can upload a little profile image and write a little "About me"-text. The user names e.g. in the "Who is online?" window, the forum, highscore lists etc. are all linked to this profile page.

Screen layout
Some parts have been changed to work better with lower screen resolutions. A very low-fat version for mobile devices is planned.

Word training
Like Callsign-training, but for words of different languages. So far English and German, but additional databases for other languages can be added. This should be very helpful to learn and improve head-copying abilities. Also allows to simplify the character set (i.e. change German umlauts to easier equivalents, ö to oe).

Under the hood...
The CW generator has seen several changes (like the ability to change the tone frequency on the fly, as mentioned above) and it internally also can change the speed on the fly, but this is not used anywhere on the site yet. This and several other options (in particular background noise) will be added in due time.

I think that's about it. Some of the things changed may still be a bit buggy, but that will be sorted out quickly. Looking forward to any comments from you.

Thanks for using LCWO!

Fabian, DJ1YFK
Administrator


Posted: 2009-01-19 09:32
Seems like I have broken the callsign- and word-training; it only starts with certain speeds (like 40wpm) but fails otherwise. I'll fix it tonight when I am back from work.


Posted: 2009-01-19 12:04
I can't seem to get the lessons to open. Everything else seems to be working except opening any of the lessons.

KL2LZ - DAn


Posted: 2009-01-19 12:46
Fabian, If you are making changes it appears that the lessons are functioning now.
Administrator


Posted: 2009-01-19 12:48
Yes, I think I fixed it. Sorry for the inconviniences!

73, Fabian


Posted: 2009-01-20 01:34
I love it, it just keeps getting better. I especially like the shorter training page.

Thanks Fabian,
Bill


Posted: 2009-01-21 10:02
Fabian,

thank you very much for the features, just what I need. I enjoy specially the random frequency, random code length and word training - plus the character simplification.

Some remarks to the new version:

1) My Linux flash player garbles the final "+ (AR)" seemingly because the pause after it is short. The same MP3 file plays ok with trusted players like VLC. That means this is no bug in LCWO but a config problem that I solved by changing the player in the browser. But increasing the final silence slightly after AR would stop this behaviour on other badly behaving PCs.

2) The word training is brilliant as it is for advanced cw users but for learning head copy at least the German words are often long / complex. Personally I train head copy with short and often used words. I use e.g. the DL4FO texts (http://www.qslnet.de/member/dl4fo/) - you may want to have a look at them and consider including them. I find it handy for head copy to learn the sound of often used words by heart (ein, und, ich, ...) and have the impression this helps my brain to concentrate on new / complex words inbetween more successfully.

Additionally/alternatively one could imagine to choose the max. word length for word training.

3) For word training it would be nice to be able to repeat the word by pressing a keyboard button rather then the mouse and not loosing focus on text entry. Using the mouse defocuses the text entry window which means a lot of clicking around.
I am using space bar to repeat the last word in my short selfwritten cw hacks.

Vielen Dank nochmals für lcwo

Gerd.


Posted: 2009-01-21 16:34
Hi. The Words feature is really nice.

Some of the "common" words though seem very obscure. For example, I just got "thornburgh". This seems to be a second name in the USA also there is a "Fort Thornburgh" in the USA.

Would I be right in thinking this is a USA common words list? If so, it could do with being adjusted to be less USA-biased as I don't think I'm likely to hear or send "thornburgh" in a QSO.

Another example: "bancorp". Google says this is a USA bank - definitely not a common word over here.

Thanks and 73 de Graham G3ZOD
Administrator


Posted: 2009-01-21 18:24
df9ts: Yes, the Flash player is one of the major annoyances I have to deal with currently. Version 9 and 10 are pretty different, but I'll change the CW CGI a little so it adds some more space at the end. I recoded much of the CGI lately (so it can do the tone changes etc. on the fly) and I forgot the additional space which was there in the previous version (which is still used for the word- and callsign training..).

g3zod: I am not sure what source was used to compile this list, but I already weeded out a bunch of words. There were for example a lot of acronyms in it, mostly computer related things.

I'll have another look over the lists and remove unsuitable words; they are 10k words for each language, so don't hold your breath :-)

73, Fabian


Posted: 2009-01-22 11:30
Fabian,

I stumbled accross "SMITH" "UN" "ET" in the German word training.

The DL4FO list (7000 most used German words for CW training on his website) look ok.

Alternativelly I could offer to look through your German word list.

Gruß

Gerd.


Posted: 2009-01-22 16:09
Hi Fabian. Thanks for the previous reply.

I'd like to make a request: on the "Words" feature, on the "Attempt finished!" page, you have the options:
    Home
    New attempt
It would help to have a "New attempt (same speed etc.)" that would allow you to repeat the attempt using the same starting speed, language, maximum length etc. that you used last time so that it's not necessary to keep going through the extra page.

On the words list, presumably it's best to have first names in but not second names (e.g. "robertson")? I've started keeping a list of what words I think shouldn't really be there.

I really like the Words feature!

73 de Graham G3ZOD
Administrator


Posted: 2009-01-22 21:29
I had a little closer look over the word databases and removed over 500 'bad' words in each. I left first names and names of places and countries in (except some very exotic ones), but removed lots of abbreviations, names of companies, etc.

If you find any more words that should be removed, just let me know.

If you are interested, here are the current lists:

http://lcwo.net/misc/words-de.txt
http://lcwo.net/misc/words-en.txt

The proposal of adding a button to repeat the attempt with the same settings is good, I'll implement it soon.

73, Fabian


Posted: 2009-01-28 22:46
RE: Layout

My laptop's resolution is 1440 by 900 and I still cannot fit the whole page on the screen.
After I have checked a lesson for errors I still have to scroll down to "continue" the lesson.

It seems that there is plenty of empty space at the side of the lesson results. Can the "continue lesson" link be placed there?

BTW, thanks for creating a very nice tool for learning cw!

73 de Jack AE6GC
Administrator


Posted: 2009-02-09 08:16
justjack: The layout of the lesson results is the next item on my TODO-list. Instead of one long table, it'll be split into several columns, so the whole result should be visible on a single page without scrolling, and the link to continue will be accessible immediately.

By the way, there is now a Changelog in which I document all changes, even very small ones, which can be found at http://lcwo.net/?p=changelog.

73 & gl,
Fabian

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