Here are some notes on ham radio logging and rig control software. These are not real reviews, in that I didn’t look at all the features for most programs. If I found a fatal flaw which would prevent me from using a program at this point in my ham-life, I looked no further.

I have to have:

  • IOTA (directly, or via custom fields).
  • SOTA (directly, or via custom fields). Must distinguish between summit I activated and summit I chased. Must accurately record S2S activation+chase.
  • Accepts as little as a call-sign and a date+time (i.e. does not demand other fields in order to create a record)
  • Captures operating location (could be combined with SOTA/IOTA)
  • Upload to LoTW.
  • Upload to SOTA.
  • CSV import/export

Ham Radio Deluxe v5

  • Windows program.
  • This has lots of pieces, but right now I’m looking only at the logbook.
  • Does not support SOTA.
  • Does support custom fields. You can customize the captions for the custom fields.
  • I like the automatic lookup of related info that it does.
  • Data store is a Microsoft Access database. Can be tweaked to use any ODBC database.
    • See http://wiki.ham-radio-deluxe.com/index.php?title=Setting_up_Logbook_Databases
  • Supports eQSL and LOTW
  • This one is interesting.

dxLab

  • PC program
  • 4.8 rating on eHam.net
  • 8 user-defined items with captions. Config for these is split across multiple screens, but I was able to configure them as desired.
  • It uses a funky downloader/installer/wrapper. I have concerns about not being able to store the setup program locally, in case they disappear. Manual download/install instructions, which address this issue, are at http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxkeeper/download.htm .
  • Data store is a Microsoft Access database.
  • Supports eQSL and LOTW
  • This one is interesting.

AMATEUR CONTACT LOGGER by N3FJP

  • See http://www.n3fjp.com/ACLog.htm
  • $25
  • PC program
  • 4.8 rating on eHam.net
  • It does have 4 “Other” fields, which could handle SOTA. You can customize the captions for the custom fields.
  • Captures Band and Frequency. If you enter Frequency, it does NOT calculate Band.
  • Fields have little editing. e.g. If you enter “5” or “5W” in Power, it records those characters.
  • No SOTA support.
  • No control over exported fields. It exports the entire records, with no column titles. Upload to SOTA would be labor intensive.
    • Maybe I could export the whole DB, import/attach it in Access, and write Access code/tables to manage SOTA export.
    • Maybe write Perl/Python/Ruby script to convert exported records to LOTW format.
    • A free program called ASC2ADIF is reported to do this: http://kh2d.net/software/
    • Excel/ADIF converter - http://www.mydarc.de/DL1HW/
    • See also http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Software/Log_Converters/
    • How would a non-SOTA-aware program handle tracking of whether a record was SOTA-uploaded? I think I’d have to do that (perhaps just mentally).
  • Looks like a proprietary data store. (Maybe fixed length records with fixed length fields.)
  • This one is interesting.

Logger 32

  • PC program
  • 7 User-defined fields, and you can set the caption for each one – in some screens but not others. Not all 7 can be displayed in the ‘grid’ view.
  • I dislike it.

Win-EQF

  • PC program
  • $60
  • 4.8 on eham.net
  • Looks like a MS-DOS program
  • Has 2 fields whose captions can be customized.
  • I dislike it.

Unusable items are below this line.

CommCat

  • Windows program.
  • This has an iPad/iPhone remote control app which is really cool.
  • The log book does not support SOTA and it does not support custom fields. I could live without explicit SOTA support, but I’m going to capture summit IDs for export+upload to SOTA.
    • This is a deal-killer for me.

RumLog

  • Popular Mac program.
  • It requires entry of sent and received RST signal reports. I don’t always record these accurately. I’d be willing to enter a bogus report like 00, but it insists on a valid signal report. I don’t want to make one up.
    • This is a deal-killer for me.

MacLoggerDX

  • Mac program.
  • This has lots of pieces, but right now I’m looking only at the logbook.
  • $95 seems a little pricey for something I could do with an Excel spreadsheet.
  • It really wants me to enter time including seconds. Since I enter many QSOs after the fact, this is a bother.
  • I’d like to see a date+time picker, rather than manual entry of the digits.
  • The log book does not support SOTA and it does not support custom fields. I could live without explicit SOTA support, but I’m going to capture summit IDs for export+upload to SOTA.
    • This is a deal-killer for me.

Aether

  • Mac program.
  • Straightforward.
  • The log book does not support SOTA and it does not support custom fields. I could live without explicit SOTA support, but I’m going to capture summit IDs for export+upload to SOTA.
    • This is a deal-killer for me.

Log4OM

  • PC program.
  • The log book does not support SOTA and it does not support custom fields. I could live without explicit SOTA support, but I’m going to capture summit IDs for export+upload to SOTA.
    • This is a deal-killer for me.

XMLog

  • PC Program
  • The log book does not support SOTA and it does not support custom fields. I could live without explicit SOTA support, but I’m going to capture summit IDs for export+upload to SOTA.
    • This is a deal-killer for me.