Logging software ... what to choose?

Foundations of Amateur Radio

Today I'm going to talk about housekeeping, that is, the things you should be doing while you're doing the things you like doing, like making noise on air.

The topic of Logging is one that continues to attract comment, suggestion, frustration and on occasion ridicule.

Let me start with the fact that the very first contact that I made was not logged. I can tell you exactly which day it was, Sunday, April 17. I can tell you where I was, Stirk Park in Kalamunda in Western Australia. I can tell you that the other station was a Japanese station, but that's all I can tell you. I don't know the time, the band, likely 10m or 15m, I couldn't tell you their callsign, even though I'm pretty sure that I wrote it on a random piece of paper at the time. It simply hadn't occurred to me that I should actually log that contact, or that I'd ever think back to that day and wonder whom I spoke with.

So, if you've not yet been on-air, get your logging sorted out now. It doesn't have to be fancy, it can be your diary, a notebook, a binder, or a phone, tablet or computer with appropriate software, just actually start logging. Do it today.

That out of the way, getting the entries stored somewhere, you'll soon notice that there are tools you love and tools you despise and that over time this changes. It also changes for different activities. If you're on the top of a summit or in a national park, you might just want a small notepad to log your contacts, but if you're in the middle of a contest you might just want to not have to worry about logging everything manually, you might just want to punch in the other station's callsign and their exchange.

The point is that for every amateur activity there are different aspects of logging. If you're chasing island activations you'll need a spot for the IOTA number, but if you're actually on the island, others are chasing you, then a good contest log is likely all you'll need.

So, I just said the magic word, good. What is a good log, what does it look like, which software should you look at?

Well, as in everything in life, that depends. You're likely to change logging software across your amateur activities, either because you have come to dislike the one you're using, or because it no longer works on the current version of your computer, or any number of other reasons. When you're picking software, you should as the very first priority discard all logging software that does not allow you to export the log. If you cannot export, you're locked in and your data is very possibly lost at some point in the future, so only use logging software, if you're using software, that does an export.

Now I did mention that you don't need to use software. Paper is perfectly fine, just a little harder to use if you want to check back and see when you worked a station more than once. It's also hard to use, actually, impossible to use, if you want to use Logbook Of The World, eQSL, clublog or any number of online contact verification tools.

If you're looking to log during a contest, figure out if the contest is actually supported by the software, this will help you reduce the number of contacts you make that are invalid. For example, a contest might specify that you can only work a station every two hours. Relying on memory is not a good plan. Using a computer to do that is much more productive and reduces the number of contacts that are going to be tossed out by the contest manager - not to mention that some contests apply penalties if you log an invalid contact.

A log that requires you to type in the frequency once is fine, but not if you need to type it in each time. If you're doing that on your phone, it'll get very tired very quickly.

If your logging software won't work without an Internet connection and you're away from the net while being set-up as a portable station, you'll have all manner of issues, so consider that.

So, what do I use?

For most of my contest activity, at the moment, I use VK Contest Logger. It's somewhat frustrating to use on a small sub-note book, but it's pretty stable, allows multiple computers to talk to each-other and share band information, allows export, is lightweight, regularly maintained and runs on most Windows computers. My actual station log on my Linux Desktop is using CQRLOG which I use to remove duplicates and enter QSL information, export to Logbook Of The World, eQSL and the like. I use a notepad when I'm mobile chasing DX and enter the data in my station log. I've used WINTEST during contests, played with HRD and still have not found one that works well on my phone.

It's a moving feast. I have different operating systems, Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Android, each for different purposes, but I've yet to find a universal one that integrates well across all that.

What ever solution you pick, make sure you log your first contact.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB