Creating an Open Notebook

From Contesting

Jump to: navigation, search

Thank you for your interest in creating an Open Notebook. This page provides a step-by-step guide to the creation process. You can't break anything, so feel free to experiment!

Contents

Guidelines

The editors ask that each Open Notebook follow these guidelines:

  • Always use the light-cyan background color. This color alerts readers that this is work in progress, and distinguishes an individual's Open Notebook pages from other pages in the Contesting Compendium.
  • Create a root (home) page named "yourcall notebook". This holds an tree-structured index to your work.
  • Create separate pages for each project or topic. Editors can help you get started, or you can examine one of the existing Open Notebooks to see how this is done.
  • Identify and time-stamp each addition you make to your Open Notebook as you work on your project. If you incorporate material from earlier work, please indicate when the work was originally done. Example: 
Originally done on 1997 July 14.  Entered into the Contesting Compendium by ~~~~.

(The four ~s will insert your identity and time stamp.)

  • Please do not delete material from your Open Notebook. False starts, dead ends, and techniques that did not work are often as valuable to others as information about successful results. Your projects might be similar to others already in the Contesting Compendium. That's also OK: your work can confirm someone else's results as viable, show an alternate method, or highlight something as hard to repeat.
  • Write as much detail as you wish. Storage is cheap! Your Open Notebook is not just an aide memoire for your own future reference, but also a method to allow other contesters to avoid the poor solutions and enjoy the benefits of good results. You need not write a detailed tutorial, but do include sufficient information that someone familiar with the state of the art can follow your work.
  • To help introduce yourself to new readers, we encourage you to describe your background and your station on your notebook's root (home) page.
  • The Contesting Compendium will notify you by email when others add to the discussion of your notebook pages. If commenters seem confused about something, probably some future readers will share that confusion. Consider adding any clarifying material (or links to relevant stuff) on your project pages; do not hide that material in the discussion page.
  • Lastly, please read and comment on other Open Notebooks of interest to you. Feedback of all kinds ("good idea", "I tried that once and it didn't work well for me", "Have you considered trying...", etc) helps everyone work more effectively.

Creating your root page

  1. In the search box on the left side menu, enter "yourcall notebook".
  2. The wiki will respond with a page stating "There is no page titled "yourcall notebook". You can create this page." Click on the red text.
  3. The wiki creates a blank page with the title "yourcall notebook" and places you in the editor. Enter these lines: 
<div style="background-color:#E0FFFF"> 
Any text you wish to appear on your Open Notebook's home page; e.g., describe your background and station.
~~~~
{{#categorytree:{{PAGENAME}}}}
</div>
[[Category:Open Notebooks]]
  1. Click on the "Save page" button at the bottom of the editor.

Linking your root page to the list of Open Notebooks

A special category page is used to add your Open Notebook root page into the index of Open Notebooks. Readers do not normally see this page.

  1. In the search box on the left side menu, enter "Category:yourcall notebook".
  2. The wiki will respond with a page stating "There is no page titled "Category:yourcall notebook". You can create this page." Click on the red text.
  3. The wiki creates a special "category page" with the title "Category:yourcall notebook" and places you in the editor. Enter these lines: 
#REDIRECT [[yourcall notebook]]
[[Category:Open Notebooks]]
  1. Click on the "Save page" button at the bottom of the editor.

Creating a project

We recommend that each project have its own root page that describes the purpose of the project. You can create that page as follows:

  1. In the search box on the left side menu, enter "yourcall:project name"; e.g., "WA1XYZ:40m dipole".
  2. The wiki will respond with a page stating "There is no page titled "yourcall:project name". You can create this page." Click on the red text.
  3. The wiki creates a blank page with the title "yourcall:project name" and places you in the editor. Enter these lines: 
<div style="background-color:#E0FFFF"> 
Text introducing the purpose of your project to a reader.
~~~~
{{#categorytree:{{PAGENAME}}|mode=pages}}
</div>
[[Category:yourcall notebook]]

The last line ties this project description to your Open Notebook root page. A complex project may have many sub-projects; in this case you may wish to tie a sub-project to its parent project. Here's an example for the sub-project "WA1XYZ:40m dipole:harmonic filter" 

<div style="background-color:#E0FFFF"> 
The purpose of this project is reduce my transmitter's harmonics when using my 40m dipole.
My initial approach is to build a stub filter.
~~~~
{{#categorytree:{{PAGENAME}}|mode=pages}}
</div>
[[Category:yourcall:40m dipole]]
  • You may add more [[Category:page-name]] lines if your project is related to other projects in your Open Notebook, or to projects in someone else's Open Notebook, or to a topic elsewhere in the Contesting Compendium. These links help people find related pages in the wiki.
  • Click on the "Save page" button at the bottom of the editor.

Categorizing (indexing) a project

A special category page is used to add your project root page into the index of your Open Notebooks. Readers do not normally see this page.

  1. In the search box on the left side menu, enter "Category:yourcall:project-name".
  2. The wiki will respond with a page stating "There is no page titled "Category:yourcall:project-name". You can create this page." Click on the red text.
  3. The wiki creates a special category page with the title "Category:yourcall:project-name" and places you in the editor. Enter these lines: 
#REDIRECT [[yourcall:project-name]]
[[Category:yourcall notebook]]
Add any other category links that you used on the project root page.
  • Click on the "Save page" button at the bottom of the editor.

Finished projects

Eventually all projects come to an end. If you developed a useful new solution or technique, or documented a problem with an existing approach, please consider adding a summary of your results to the "white" pages (non-notebook pages) of the contesting wiki. Include a link to your project root page: 

[[yourcall:project-name]]

This allows interested readers to review the more detailed material found in your Open Notebook.

Contributed by Eric K3NA 03:47, 25 May 2009 (UTC).

Retrieved from "http://wiki.contesting.com/index.php/Creating_an_Open_Notebook"
Personal tools