----- NAME ----- xlog - GTK+ logging program for Amateur Radio Operators ----- SYNOPSIS ----- xlog [option] ... ----- OPTIONS AND ARGUMENTS ----- -h Show summary of options and exit. -v Output version information and exit. You can either open logs from the command line or, if there are no logs entered, logs as set in the preferences dialog will be opened. ----- DESCRIPTION ----- xlog is a logging program for Amateur Radio Operators. The main window consists of a button bar, QSO frame, and a browseable log. Logs will be saved to a flat text file. You can create, open and close logs as you need them. ----- USAGE ----- QSO's are entered into the QSO frame on the left of the main window. Clicking the Date button will update the date field, the GMT button will update the GMT field. When you add a call to the callsign field, xlog will look up the prefix and will display DXCC information together with calculated distance and beam heading. In a log where a QTH locator is present, xlog will look up distance and azimuth to the locator and display it in a separate frame. After all the fields are entered, click on Add in the button bar, to add the QSO to the log list on the right side of the main window. QSO's can be deleted from the log by selecting a row in the log list and clicking on Delete. Likewise, a log entry can be changed by selecting a row in the log, changing the QSO in the QSO frame, and clicking on Update. Finally, selecting Edit -> Clear All from the menu will Clear all the fields in the QSO frame. ----- KEYS ----- Here is a list of keys that can be used to navigate through xlog: ! Control a: Add a QSO. ! Control d: Delete a selected QSO. ! Control k: Click on all buttons present and fill in all defaults. ! Control n: Create a new log. ! Control o: Open a log. ! Control q: Close a log. ! Control u: Update a selected QSO. ! Control s: Save the log. ! Control t: Show/Hide the toolbar. ! Control w: Open/close the worked before dialog. ! Control x: Exit program. ! Control y: Clear the QSO frame. ! Control f: Find a QSO in the log. ! Tab: Move around the fields in the QSO frame. ! PgUp: Scroll the log up. ! PgDn: Scroll the log down. ! Home: Go to the beginning of the log. ! End: Go to the end of the log. ! Up Arrow: Select previous QSO. ! Down Arrow: Select next QSO. ----- PREFERENCES ----- In order to calculate the correct distance to your location, you have to enter your longitude and latitude in the Info page of the preferences dialog. Here you can also choose whether the distance should be displayed in Kilometers or Nautical Miles. When you intend to make VHF/UHF QSO's and you have a QTH locator field in the log, you should enter your QTH locator in the preferences dialog. The QSOs page allows you to choose an editbox to enter band and mode instead of the default optionmenu. In the Logs page you can decide where to save your logs and which logs to load at startup (in case there are no logs entered at the command line). Of course, you have to restart xlog and be sure to move your logs there. You can use wildcards or a list of logs separated by a comma. Extension .xlog will be automatically added, e.g. when using wildcards, 'p*' will load all logs starting with 'p' and ending with '.xlog'. ----- PRINTING ----- You can either print a range or the whole log and you can choose which columns are in the output. Printing can be done in 2 styles: landscape with 30 QSO's per page and portrait with 50 QSO's per page. The loglines will be evenly distributed across the paper. You need to make sure the log fits the paperwidth by either selecting the correct font or style. The generated postscript file is sent to the default printer, but you can also print to a file. The file generated is log.ps in $HOME/.xlog. For contest logs, you can enable 2 empty columns called 'Multiplier' and 'Points' for calculating your score. If you choose the portrait style it is advisable to disable the 'QSL Out', 'QSL In' and 'Remarks' columns. Otherwise your log will not fit on the paper. ----- QSL LABELS ----- glabels is a gnome application for printing business cards and labels, see http://snaught.com/glabels. It is designed to work with various laser/ink-jet peel-off label and business card sheets that you'll find at most office supply stores. The following works with a glabels version higher than 0.4. You can use the 'Save As' dialog for exporting the log to a type called 'labels'. This will save the date, gmt, callsign, band, mode and rst fields of the log in a TAB separated file. This file can be imported into glabels using the template called qsllabels.glabels in /usr/local/share/xlog. 1 - Start glabels 2 - Open qsllabels.glabels 3 - Select 'Merge properties' from the Tools menu 4 - Point 'location' to the exported labels file 5 - Don't change any of the Custom field keys, just click 'OK' 6 - You are now ready to print You should customize the label sheet by using Edit->Select All from the menu, click on 'New', select the apropriate sheet from the pulldown menu, use Edit->Paste to copy the fields into the new sheet and move them around with your mouse until the fit on the label. Save this file to use as a template for your QSL labels. ----- LOG-EDITOR ----- The log-editor, when selected from the tools menu, can be used to display or hide a number of columns in the log. 2 columns allow free entry, they can be given any name. Changes to the log columns will be committed once you save the log. Please note that it maybe desirable to select a common name for a free column when using ADIF export as described in the ADIF specifications at http://www.hosenose.com/adif/adif.html, section 3: Field Definitions. The log-editor can also be used to set the columnwidth of the log. You should enter a number higher than 20. Changes to the column width will apply to all the logs that are currently open. ----- DUPE CHECKING ----- A log can be checked for dupes from the tools menu. There are some restrictions on the frequency field when used in dupe checking. It should either contain a 'dot' after the MHz number or contain 3, 6 or 9 numbers after the Mhz number. When using hamlib, the total amount of numbers in the frequency field can be selected in the hamlib page of the preferences dialog. ----- LOG SORTING ----- If you select "Tools->Sort Log by Date", your log will be sorted by date and time. Log sorting assumes that the whole log is created with the same locale. Also, the log date should have the format "dd mmm yyyy" in your locale, e.g. "01 May 2004" in English, "01 mai 2004" in French, etc. You can check the correct month name for your language settings by using the command: "date --date='01 May'". The time should be formatted as "HHMM", e.g. "1423". The sorted log will be marked as changed. It is recommended to save the log under some other name, so the original log will be safe. You should check this log for correct dates and times before overwriting the original log. If the log is not correctly sorted, start xlog from a terminal to see if sorting produces any errors. ----- DEFAULTS ----- Settings->Defaults will show a dialog where you can fill in default values for logging. These values will be used when selecting 'Click All' from the menu. ----- WORKED BEFORE ----- When you select Worked Before from the tools menu, a dialog will be displayed which shows a sorted list of contacts while you are typing in the callsign entry. This is especially useful in contests. The number of columns shown in this dialog can be adjusted from the settings->dialogs menu. ----- TYPE AND SEARCH ----- When typing a callsign, the log is searched for a match. When a match is found, your name, QTH, Locator and Remarks entries will be automatically filled in. You can switch this behaviour off in the preferences dialog. ----- HAMLIB ----- When xlog is compiled with hamlib support you can read your rig's frequency over the serial port. You must select the model of your rig an the port used from the list available in the hamlib page of the preferences dialog. If you want to use RPC rig, you should select localhost as a port. The same page allows you to display a dockable frequencymeter and s-meter on the statusbar. When hamlib is enabled, 3 clickable buttons are added to the QSO frame, so you can easily fill in frequency, mode and signal strength in the appropriate fields. If your log records power (required in some countries), there is also a clickable power button in the QSO frame. You can either chose to poll your rig continuously with a certain time interval or just retrieve rig data when using 'Click All'. Your hamlib port can be configured in the hamlib page of the the preferences dialog. You can enter things like: rts_state=ON,timeout=600,serial_speed=19200 here. ----- DATA EXCHANGE ----- xlog can exchange data with twpsk (version 2.0 and higher) by WA0EIR. When a callsign is entered, it will show up in twpsk's send widget (where you type your text) when hitting Shift+Alt+h. Shift+Alt+o will show 'hiscall de mycall'. gmfsk by OH2BNS (starting at version 0.4) can send logging data to xlog, when clicking on the 'Log entry' button. ktrack by LX2GT (starting at version 0.2.1) can exchange satellite information with xlog. In order to do so, you need to enable the 2 free fields with the log-editor. ----- IMPORTING and EXPORTING files ----- xlog supports twlog, editest, ADIF, Trlog (tlf), EDI (VHF and higher contest format recommanded by IARU region 1) and Cabrillo import. Logs can be exported to EDI, ADIF and Cabrillo. The apropriate option menu should be selected for the file type when importing or exporting (using Save As) a log. When using EDI export, you should have enabled the locator field in the log. Xlog will automatically calculate the distance and add it to the log. ----- FILES ----- /usr/local/share/xlog/dxcc/cty.dat contains the DXCC entries read by xlog. This file can be completed by adding entries to /usr/local/share/xlog/dxcc/xlog.dat. ----- SEE ALSO ----- The provided README for more information in setting up hamlib and the FAQ for a list of frequently asked questions. ----- BUGS ----- Currently, xlog does not recognise the different call districts of Canada and the U.S. when calculation heading and distance. This is planned for a future version. ----- AUTHORS ----- xlog was written by Joop Stakenborg aka and Stephane Fillod .