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View Full Version : logbooks -what do you use?


ke0me
12-31-2014, 09:49 PM
I would like some feedback on what you use for logbooks.

I don't contest very often, so I don't need a massive database, but would like the basic contact info, plus a place for addresses, notes, etc.

I assume it would be computer based, but a good analog non-volatile idea (i.e. paper) in a compact form would be interesting also.

I still have the old ARRL logbook, but just a few more bits of info per contact.

eventually I would like to summarize contacts by band, mode, country, etc, so that would have to be a database.

I actually put a bunch of QSO's into a database in DBASEII on a XT in the 80's. That was not much fun. :(

wa8yxm
01-01-2015, 02:24 AM
Right now either paper or HRD-log.. This many change if I decide to switch to FL-Digi for digital modes. Still getting my shack computer set up, the old one died of old age.

Radio
01-01-2015, 12:38 PM
ARRL paper books.

And all that online QSL crap just isn't as fun as going to the mailbox and getting a post card from the other side of the world. Back in the day practically everyone was into QSLing, and had a real qsl card, and it only cost a dime to mail the thing. I even liked getting a card from someplace as mundane as Cornfield County Iowa if the graphics on the card were clever enough.

Tell you the truth, I don't even know how to use LBOTW. :think:

electricflyer
01-01-2015, 04:23 PM
I keep a paper log and a logging program on the computer from http://www.wa0h.com and also use the log book on QRZ. I prefer paper QSL's. I'm not a fan of LOTW. Never has much success with Clublog. Use EQSL from time to time but ARRL doesn't recognize it although CQ does. I don't log any UHV/VHF since I don't have SSB for them. I do chase grids on 6M though.

Not trying to confuse the OP's question, log books and QSLing are two different things.

AND, watch what you say about Iowa, Radio. I was born and raised on a farm in SW Iowa.

W5DOK
01-01-2015, 04:26 PM
I used N3FJP logging software for a while. It worked pretty good. You can probably Google it and get more info.

Radio
01-01-2015, 07:29 PM
AND, watch what you say about Iowa, Radio. I was born and raised on a farm in SW Iowa.

Iowa? Did I say Iowa?

Maybe it was Indiana. Yes, I'm certain I meant Indiana. :beer:

NN5I
01-01-2015, 10:04 PM
Only time I was in Iowa was for a week, as a consultant to state govt in Des Moines. It was very cold indeed. Very cold. Very. First week in February, 1997 or so I think.

A colleague and I walked one block to McDonald's for a quick lunch. On the way back he kept looking behind. On inquiry he said he was checking the path to see whether his ears had actually fallen off.

Several consultants shared a rent car, and on the last Friday, when we would go to the airport to go home (me to Texas, others to New York or California, wherever they lived), we all left our luggage in the car in the parking lot. One of the guys said later that, on his flight home, something awful-smelling started dripping from the overhead bin. It turned out that his after-shave had frozen in his luggage and burst the bottle, then thawed in the overhead bin.

It was cold in Des Moines, chill factor minus 52. But two weeks later I was in Milwaukee and the chill was minus 58. Do you know, I could actually feel the difference!

Those two weeks -- one in Des Moines, one in Milwaukee -- were the coldest I've ever been. How do people live up there?

electricflyer
01-02-2015, 11:28 AM
We are a little off topic here but when I lived on the north side of Dayton, OH we drove back to western Iowa for Christmas. I had an Escort then and there was 4 of us in the car. Going through Iowa with all the humans in the little car all the windows but the windshield were frosted over. I said it must be pretty cold out. We went by a truck stop with a time/temp sign and it said -25 degrees, yet pretty cold, that's without wind chill effect. Had a convention in Des Moines about the 2nd of January and it was about -15 then. A bunch of us wanted to hit a few bars so we gave the hotel limo driver $20 to drive us around in the hotel van and keep it warm. Every place we stopped we would buy him a drink to but not enough to get him tippsy but it sure beat warming up a car all the time. And, a lot cheaper than getting a taxi.

ke0me
01-02-2015, 10:52 PM
guys, very interesting info.

I have lived in Illinois, Indiana and Colorado during the winter, that is why we are in YUMA, AZ in our 5th wheel in January ( also, I'm retired so I can where I want).

Coldest I can recall is when one of our guys had to go to a project in Rice Lake, WI in the winter. The overnight low was -52 degrees, not wind chill, just raw temp. UGH!

And, he dropped his car keys in the snow and took an hour to find them, but that's another story.

Happy New Year.

W7JZE
01-03-2015, 07:24 AM
LOGBOOKS:

Everything I log is, in some manner, 100% on paper. I keep the paper pages in annual 3 ring binders. About the only Qs I do not 100% log are my mobile SSB contacts, although I get many of them.

Then if I get bored enough, I'll add contacts manually into the QRZ logbook after the fact. Then download the QRZ database file and upload it to eQSL.

When I setup and run JT65, the JT65 program "automatically" keeps its own electronic log (and I also make a paper log as the digital software hums along) which I will then upload to QRZ and eQSL.

Side-note: I find it a bit strange when I add a few new manual contacts to either the QRZ logbook, or the eQSL logbook, then download the WHOLE database file from one (either QRZ or eQSL) and upload it to the other. Thousands of records downloaded, uploaded, analyzed, and duplicates carefully disguarded, just to add a half dozen more contacts. Seems like a waste, somehow... but I guess electrons are cheap :D. Still seems wasteful in some manner, if only wasteful of computer cycles .

I started the LOTW signup process a couple of years ago, but something went wrong and I never went back and took the time to troubleshoot what went wrong so no LOTW at this time. Since downloading / uploading seems so easy between QRZ and eQSL, I suspect, but do not know, that when / if I ever readdress LOTW that I'll just download either of them into LOTW and it too will be updated... I guess :confused:?


QSLs:

I REALLY like paper QSL cards. I still get excited when one shows up (even from Iowa :jitter:). I respond 100% to every card received.

I also use the eQSL "eCards". This option comes with your sign-up to the eQSL logbook but you do have to select the option (IIRC) and take the time to design / create an eQSL eCard. I have printed out a few of them. But, I find the process cumbersome and the cards themselves are usually pretty basic. Few, if any, are pretty, my own eCard included (but I did try!).

I'll attach a jpg of my mobile QSL to this post. It is my new favorite card. It was designed by Jim, N2EST. I probably have 8 other designs for my home QTH. Funny ones, holiday ones, simple ones, serious ones, etc. I decide the appropriate one to send at the time of the sending :).

NN5I
01-03-2015, 07:25 AM
... in Rice Lake, WI in the winter. The overnight low was -52 degrees, not wind chill ...

Yeow!