In mid-March I announced that David Ferrington would be assisting with the
further development of Cab-converter. While we may have been quiet on this list,
there has actually been a great deal going on behind the scenes. In addition to
the many, many mail messages David and I have exchanged, and the four hour
marathon audio chat we had one Saturday, I was able to visit David and his
lovely wife Leslie in their home in England this week!

I was in Reading, UK, for a standards committee meeting Tuesday through Friday
(after having 3 wonderful days in London playing tourist). Bracknell, David's
home town, is only a few train stops away so I hopped on the rail Wednesday
evening for the trip down. After a quick tour of his shack (and his very spiffy
K3), meeting his very fluffy and attention craving cat, we ventured into his
back garden. There, in the humble surroundings and old brick was a 130 foot tall
redwood (!) tree! We talked a great deal about what might be done with that!

The evening went quickly but we were able to talk a bit about the future of
Cab-converter. The thing I'd like to relay to everyone on the list is that David
and I have a strong commitment to the project and hope to expand the number of
contests supported--and make it possible for greater user participation in its
development. While MacLoggerDX and Cab-converter will never be the first choice
for top-level contesters (there is specialized software supporting those
players), we believe that there will always be entry-level and casual contesters
who will wish to use their primary logging program, solid and familiar, to log
the contest QSOs, and they will need Cab-converter to process the submissions.

We don't have any details to announce today (David and I are making plans, but
it is too early to make them public). With the end of the 2008-2009 contesting
season upon us and Dayton ahead, it seemed like a good time to take stock and
pass along our general plans for Cab-converter and lightweight contesting on the
Macintosh. Look for more details from David and I later this summer. I believe
you'll be pleased.

-- Scott (NE1RD, part of the Cab-converter development team)