Logging and confirming contacts: LoTW, eQSL and paper cards

A log is not a legal requirement for an amateur station in the United States, which surprises people. You keep one anyway, for three reasons: it is the only way to claim any award, it is the record you reach for when somebody asks whether you worked a station, and it turns out to be the most interesting document in the shack after a few years.

The mechanics are simple and the conventions are worth learning correctly the first time, because a log with local times and inconsistent band notation is a log you cannot use later.

This page covers the fields, the time convention, the file format everything speaks, and the three confirmation systems.

What to record

UTC, and why local time ruins a log

Every amateur log runs on Coordinated Universal Time. It removes time zones, it removes daylight saving, and it means two operators on opposite sides of the world write the same timestamp for the same contact. That last point is the entire reason: confirmation systems match logs against each other, and they cannot do that if one side logged local time.

• UTC does not observe daylight saving. Your offset from it changes twice a year even though UTC does not.
• Evening contacts in the Americas fall on the next UTC date. A contact at 8pm Mountain time in summer is 0200 UTC the following day, and logging it under yesterday is the single most common logging error.
• Set your logging software clock source to UTC and never convert by hand.
• Write the date in year, month, day order in your own notes. It sorts correctly and it removes the ambiguity between day-first and month-first conventions when you work stations abroad.

ADIF, the format everything speaks

ADIF is a plain text interchange format that every logging program, every confirmation service and every contest robot reads and writes. It looks unpleasant and it never matters, because you never edit it by hand. What matters is that your log can export it, because that is how a log moves between programs and how it reaches an award system.

The practical rule: whatever you use, export an ADIF file periodically and keep it somewhere that is backed up. Logging software comes and goes. ADIF has outlived several generations of it.

The three confirmation systems

Logbook of The World

The system nearly every serious award uses. You verify your identity once, receive a digital certificate, and then upload signed logs. When another station uploads a matching entry, the contact is confirmed automatically. Free to use, with a fee only when you actually apply for an award. This is the one to set up first.

eQSL

A separate electronic system that produces a visual card and supports its own award program. Easier to join because there is no identity verification, which is exactly why the major award programs do not accept it. Worth having as a second channel, not as your primary one.

Paper QSL cards

A printed card sent by post, directly or through a bureau. Slow, and the only confirmation anybody pins to a wall. Direct exchange with return postage takes weeks. Bureau exchange costs almost nothing and takes a year or more. Many operators send cards only for contacts that meant something.

Choosing logging software

There is no single right answer, and the choice matters less than committing to one. All of them export ADIF, so switching later costs an export and an import.

• A dedicated desktop logger is the traditional choice, works offline, and integrates with rig control so band and mode fill themselves in.
• A cloud logger syncs across devices and handles confirmation uploads automatically, at the cost of needing a connection.
• WSJT-X logs digital contacts itself and hands them off to whichever logger you point it at, so a digital-heavy station needs almost no manual entry.
• Paper works, and plenty of portable operators use a notebook and type it up later. A Camp Field folding aluminum table and a pencil in a field kit is a perfectly respectable logging system.
• For an award chase, pick a logger that tracks worked and confirmed status per entity, band and mode, because doing that by hand becomes impossible quickly.

The awards a log unlocks

Gear that reduces logging friction

What removes the manual entry

Rig control fills in band and mode automatically, which is where most logging errors come from.

Digirig

Digirig Mobile digital modes interface

CAT control plus audio on one small board, so the logger always knows the band and mode you are actually on.

Check price$64.95

Not on Amazon

microHAM

microHAM USB III interface

Full station interface with CAT, keying and audio for a rig that has no USB of its own.

Find comparable gear

Sold by microHAM, not Amazon. The link searches the category.

Icom

Icom IC-7300

Single USB cable carries control and audio, so logging software and digital modes both work with no extra hardware.

Check price$1,255.74

Camp Field

Camp Field folding aluminum table

A field table that gives a paper log and a radio somewhere to live that is not your lap.

Check price$59.99