I spent a few days researching PSK macros for Field Day and the main theme that surfaced again and again was that macros should be brief, efficient, and include some redundancy. I managed to narrow our process down to basically five buttons, assuming we would call CQ more often than pouncing. Here’s what I used in Ham Radio Deluxe’s Digital Master 780 program:

CTRL-1 | CQ Field Day

cq fd cq fd W4CAE W4CAE W4CAE cq fd k
<erase><stop>

CTRL-2 | Answer (For search and pounce contacts)

<his:callsign> de W4CAE W4CAE k
<erase><stop>

CTRL-3 | Send report

<his:callsign> <his:sent_rpt> 11A SC 11A SC 11A SC <his:callsign> k
<erase> <stop>

CTL-4 | 73 and write to log

<his:callsign> QSL 73 sk<add-log>
<erase><stop>

CTRL-5 | Again? Again?

AGN? AGN?
<erase><stop>

So basically I’d call CQ. If a station responded I’d click their callsign to get it in the log and hit CTRL-3 to issue the signal report. Once I get their report I click and select their sent exchange, which places it into the log, then finish with the “73” macro, which saves the log entry and starts a new one.

If I pounced on a CQ, I’d simply run the “answer” macro, and follow through to 73. The “again” macro was useful if we had a garbled response and needed information resent.

These may not be pretty, but they don’t need to be. We kept it simple and had no problems. Our QSOs were conducted very quickly and we didn’t keep anyone waiting.

(Notes: W4CAE is our club call, 11A SC was our exchange. Yep, we had 11 stations! The <his:sent_rpt> tag produces a 599 signal report, which is the default behavior in DM780. I don’t think an RST is even required with the Field Day exchange.)