Computers in contesting
There have been significant advances in ham radio in recent years and many of them are related directly or indirectly to the advent of the microprocessor. My Elecraft K2 radio has about a half dozen processors in it, for example. Antenna analysis software allows designers to simulate and study new antenna designs, the effects of ground, far field patterns, and performance without bending a single wire.
Computer logging provides operators with a fast, reliable, and easy way to capture information about each QSO. Many radios are equipped with serial ports or even USB ports which provides computer control of VFOs, mode, band, and even filter selection. Ops need only enter the callsign and exchanged information to complete a log entry as time, date, frequency, and mode are obtained directly from the radio.
Contest sponsors prefer that entrants provide their contest logs formatted as Cabrillo files. Hams using Macintosh computers and MacLoggerDX can produce a Cabrillo file from their log with Cab-converter, a software offering I created specially for Macintosh-using contesters. The program is available free of charge from the groups.yahoo.com/group/cab-converter Yahoo! group! Many of the most popular contests are already supported. If you have a favorite contest drop me a message and I'll see what I can do to add it.