Hi Jeff,
Their isn't much in linux logging software that is
worth the effort (maintaining even a casual log is an
effort). I've tried them all. There just are not enough
eyeballs to make a solid effort in Linux logging effort
worth while.
So where am I going with this. Back in the late 80's
and early 90's I wrote the first windoz based logging
software. It was modular in that logging, rig control,
packet were all separate code bases that talked to each
other. It was popular for 5 or 6 years. It took a huge
effort to write and maintain. Y2K came and windoz time
stamping required a major overhaul. I dropped the effort
(to much going on in my life back then). The experience was
great and I have a good feel for what a logging program
should do. I the past couple of years, I settled on dxlab.
It shares much of the strategy I used in the original windoz
logging software I wrote. It is not a panacea.
The good:
It is very modular,
You choose to use pieces or not, the basic logging
program does not care.
It is very well maintained (new releases fixing bugs,
making enhancements come out often
The one line databases for DXCC are updated as soon
as new DXCC data is available
It couples very nicely with LOTW and eQSL
It does extraordinarily well in shack automation (if
that is what you are into)
It is easy to backup the log database and restore
somewhere else
Works fine when not connected to the Internet
The bad:
It runs on windoz
It uses visual basic as its environment which is slow
even on a very fast machine
The logging window can be annoying because of its
slow speed (erasing a call to enter a new call to find
information can take 20 or 30 seconds)
I've often thought of starting an open source
development team that would build a platform independent,
web service based logging program using something like
couchDB. Core services for the shack would still be
required to run on the shack machine. Well defined service
interfaces using web api's would allow for very flexible
development and customization.
Anyway, no time for that now. dxbase fills my basic
requirements (DX and award chasing, logging, qsling, LOTW
eQSL, rig control, rotator control, dxcluster data etc)
Good Luck in your search!
Paula NX1P
I know this comes up from time to time, and I also know the
answers can be defended/argued as strongly as vi v emacs ;-)
but I thought I'd ask you guys what the cool kids are using
for logging these days.
I've played with various logging programs over the years,
none of which I've ever stayed with, mostly for one big
reason... no way to easily store or sync the log data online
somewhere. Which means if I use a program on one laptop,
that means it's yet another piece of data I have to remember
to sync between systems.
So I was hoping to get an idea of what good general purpose
logging programs are popular right now. I don't do a lot of
contesting, so I don't need that kind of horsepower, but
something good for general purpose logging.
Hopefully something that will sync on the fly or on demand
with something online (looking at LOTW, I've never used it
before but maybe that's the solution I'm looking for, even
though their software doesn't appear to be linux friendly).
I do most of my logging still with pen and paper because
I've never found a logging program that wow'ed me enough to
stick with. I even started writing my own at one point that
was going to sync with a SQL database hosted along with one
of my websites, or at the very least sync its data to one of
my websites for backup purposes. But I got lazy and
abandoned that because pen and paper still work well.
It would be nice to have something that could do QSL lookups
on the fly but that's not necessarily required as I may or
may not have internet connectivity when operating (portable,
QRP, etc)
Anyway, it just occurred to me to ask that old familiar
question as I sat here working today with the HF rig on
behind me. I've stopped and made a few contacts today,
including an IOTA and a SOTA station on 20m and realized
that sometimes my logs consist of scraps of paper that were
handy when I needed something to write on :/
Cheers and 73,
Jeff
