ESM is how most people run N1MM, and it was not here at all — not in the code,
not even in the list of what is missing. Config ▸ ESM turns it on and it stays
on between runs.
The decision is a table in N1MM's function-key documentation, and it is written
here as one: the state of the callsign and exchange boxes, whether the station
is running or searching, and whether the call and the exchange have gone out
already, give the function keys Enter sends and whether the contact is logged
after them. Esm.Decide is that table and nothing else, so it is tested against
every row rather than by clicking.
Searching: type a call, Enter sends your call, space moves to the exchange, and
once the exchange is filled in Enter sends yours and logs. Running: Enter calls
CQ, a call in the box makes Enter send his call and the exchange, and the next
Enter ends the contact and logs it. A dupe gets QSO B4 while running and nothing
while searching, unless dupes are worked, which is what N1MM recommends and what
this does out of the box. F1 puts a searching station into run mode.
The entry window highlights the keys Enter would send next, so what is about to
happen is on the screen rather than in the operator's head. `=` sends whatever
Enter last sent. Escape and F12 put ESM back to the start of a contact.
Send Corrected Call is in as well: copy SM3AB, send it, fix it to SM3ABC, and
the message that ends the contact goes out as "SM3ABC TU DL1ABC". That is why
N1MM's documentation says to put ! in F5 rather than {CALL}, so the default F5
message is now ! . F6 is QSO B4, which is the message ESM sends a dupe; it used
to repeat the exchange, which no part of the table asks for.
{EXCHSENT} means something again, now that there is an ESM state for it to set.
Worked end to end against a fake cwdaemon: a search-and-pounce contact logged in
four keystrokes, a run contact in three, both with the right text on the keyer
in the right order, and the corrected call in front of the last message.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A function key message was read as text and nothing else, so a message file
written for N1MM lost half of what it said: {WIPE}, {LOG}, {RUN} and the rest
expanded to nothing and the key only sent characters.
Reading a message now produces a plan rather than a string. MessagePlan.Read
walks the template once and sorts what it finds into three parts: the actions
that run before anything goes out, the text that goes on the air, and the
actions that wait until it has gone. N1MM's {END} decides which side an action
falls on, and text after {END} is dropped, because the message is over by then.
So TU {LOG}{END}{WIPE} logs the contact, sends TU, and clears the boxes when the
key has finished sending.
The actions that are carried out: {WIPE}, {LOG}, {RUN}, {S&P}, {SPACE},
{SPOTME}, {STOPTX}, {FREQUP}, {FREQDN}, {PGUP}, {PGDN}, {JUMPRX}, {JUMPRXTX},
{CTRLF1} to {CTRLF12} for sending on the other radio, {TELNET sh/dx} for a
command to the cluster node, and {OTRSP TX2} for one to the SO2R box. The last
one wanted a way to send a command straight to the box, so So2rBox grew one.
The frequency steps are two settings, with N1MM's own two numbers behind them.
Waiting on the keyer is the part worth reading twice. What follows {END} runs
when the keyer says the message has gone out, which is the only honest moment:
timing it from the length of the text is a guess that goes wrong exactly when
the contest is busy. A keyer that does not report completion is taken at its
word as soon as the text is handed over, and one that goes quiet is given two
minutes before the actions run anyway, because never running them is worse.
Running it against a fake cwdaemon and a fake node showed the message text on
the keyer, the telnet command at the node, RUN lighting up before the message
and the boxes clearing after it. That is also what showed the entry window was
not redrawing between the actions and the message.
What is still read and passed over is written down: the CAT, audio, rotator,
stereo and call-stacking families, the digital TNC macros, and the CW keyer
characters < > ~ ] [ + = , which belong to the keyer rather than to the
expander. {EXCHSENT} waits on ESM, which is next.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
