WinWarbler Logging

WinWarbler Online Help Contents

WinWarbler can log QSOs as ADIF records in a text file, referred to as the Minilog. WinWarbler can also log QSOs in real time to DXKeeper, a full-functioned logging program that records and manages QSOs, tracks progress towards DXing objectives, prints QSL cards and QSL labels, and synchronizes with both eQSL.cc and the ARRL's Logbook of the World (LotW).

At the top of its Main window, WinWarbler's QSO Info panel provides textboxes and selectors in which to collect the information to be logged. Some of this information can be directly captured from decoded data by double-clicking on received words in a PSK receive pane or RTTY receive pane. Double-clicking a received callsign, for example, will place that callsign in the QSO Info panel's Call textbox, and initialize many items:

• if clear QSO Info on callsign capture is enabled, all QSO Info panel textboxes except the callsign textbox will be cleared

• the TX Pwr and QSL Msg textboxes are set from their default values in the Configuration window's Log panel

• if Contest Mode is enabled

  • the Contest text box is set to the contest named in the Configuration window's Contesting panel

  • the rst S and rst R textboxes are set to 59 or 599 as a function of the current mode

• if Contest Mode is disabled

  • the Contest, TX#, and RX# text boxes are disabled if the Don't log contest, TX#, or RX# if contest mode is disabled option is enabled

  • if the logged button is clicked, values for Contest, TX#, and RX# will not be recorded with the QSO

• if initialize RST items to 59/599 is enabled, the rst S and rst R textboxes are set to 59 or 599 as a function of the current mode

• if DXKeeper is running and Automatic Lookup is enabled, then

  • DXKeeper will display all previous QSOs with the callsign, perform a callbook lookup (if installed and enabled), and perform a DXCC database lookup

  • information logged in previous QSOs, found in the selected callbook, or found in the DXCC database is used to set the  DXCC selector, to set the Grid, Via, QTH, IOTA, CQ, ITU, State, County, and Province textboxes, and to record the Country Code and Continent

  • the Call textbox's caption will indicate the number of previous QSOs with this callsign

  • details of the most recent QSO with this station are displayed in the expanded QSO info panel

• if DXKeeper is not running but DXView is running, then DXView will perform a DXCC database lookup to set the DXCC selector, to set  the IOTA, CQ, ITU, and State textboxes if they can be unambiguously determined from the callsign, and to record the Country Code and Continent

• if DXView is running, it will display the location of that callsign

• if Pathfinder is running, it is directed to perform a QSL route search for the callsign

Manually keying a callsign into the Call textbox and then striking the Enter or Tab keys will also perform the above actions. 

To direct DXKeeper to produce a filtered display showing previous QSOs with the station whose callsign is shown in the Call textbox and perform a callbook lookup on this station, click the ? button to the right of the Call textbox's caption. This will update the Call textbox's caption to indicate the number of previous QSOs with this callsign, and display details of the most recent QSO with this station in the expanded QSO info panel. If WinWarbler's Contest Mode is enabled and the current QSO duplicates the callsign, band, and mode of a previous QSO displayed by DXKeeper, WinWarbler will display a Dup! indicator to the left of the QSO info panel's Call textbox rather than the number of previous QSOs.

To indicate that a QSO has started, click the QSO info panel's Begin button; the start time will appear in the panel caption. If set QSO start when RST received is enabled, entering a received signal report in the rst R textbox will automatically start the QSO, whether this is done manually, by double-clicking on a received signal report, or because Contest Mode or initialize RST items to 59/599 are enabled. Executing a macro containing the <RSTsent> or <TX_serial_number> command will also start a QSO.

To indicate that a QSO has ended, click the QSL info panel's End button; the end time will appear in the panel caption.

Clicking the Log button also ends the QSO, and checks the information contained in QSO info panel's textboxes and selectors. Errors or omissions are flagged by flashing the offending item's caption  in red font; the flag invalid callsigns and require DXCC options are considered when identifying errors and omissions. If no errors or omissions are found, the information to be logged is recorded in the minilog and sent to DXKeeper, if running. If Contest Mode is disabled and the don't log contest, TX#, or RX# if contest mode setting is disabled, values for Contest, TX#, and RX# are not recorded with the QSO. Depressing the CTRL key while clicking the Log button directs DXKeeper to immediately uploaded the information to eQSL.cc . To prepare for the next QSO, WinWarbler then clears all QSO info items except Freq and, if Contest Mode is enabled, TX#. You can clear the QSO info items without logging a QSO by clicking the X button in the QSO info panel's upper right corner.

Callsigns not containing at least one letter and one number are considered invalid unless flag invalid callsigns is disabled.

The QSO info panel can be toggled between two states: an expanded state, in which all items are visible, and a contracted state, in which only a subset of the items are visible. When contracted, you can expand the QSO info panel by clicking the  button in the panel's upper right corner; when expanded, you can contract the QSO info panel by clicking the button in the panel's upper right corner. When you expand or contract the QSO info panel, WinWarbler's Main window expands or contracts to match.

When operating PSK31 or PSK63, WinWarbler provides three receive panes, each capable of decoding an independent PSK signal; when operating RTTY, it can provide two receive panes, each capable of decoding an independent RTTY signal. WinWarbler independently records QSO information for each receive pane. The QSO info panel shows the information associated with the currently active receive pane, and the active receive pane is identified by number in the QSO info panel's caption. Making another receive pane active causes the QSO info panel to display information for the QSO being decoded in the newly-activated receive pane. This allows you to accumulate information captured from multiple signals, separately retaining each signal's information until a QSO is completed and logged.

To allow operation without removing one's hands from the keyboard, WinWarbler provides keyboard shortcuts for navigating among QSL info items and the Transmit Pane, and for invoking functions like starting or logging a QSO.

Macros can be invoked from QSO info text boxes and selectors by striking the appropriate Function key. Macro substitution commands are available for many QSO info items.

If SpotCollector is running, clicking the QSO info panel's Spot button will generate an outgoing spot for the station designated by the call textbox on the current receive frequency. By default, the spot notes will indicate the QSO's mode; depressing the CTRL key while clicking the Spot button will prompt you to specify the spot notes. If you want SpotCollector to generate a local spot rather than one sent to all packetclusters, depress the ALT key or the SHIFT key while clicking the Spot button.

If DXKeeper is running, changes to items in WinWarbler's QSO info panel are immediately reflected in DXKeeper's Capture window; this allows you to begin logging a QSO in WinWarbler and complete it in DXKeeper's Capture window, should you desire to do so. However, changes to items in DXKeeper's Capture window are not reflected in WinWarbler's QSO info panel. If Contest Mode is enabled, logging a QSO via DXKeeper's Capture window will increment the Capture window's TX# textbox, but will not increment WinWarbler's TX# textbox; thus when switching from "logging from DXKeeper" to "logging from WinWarbler" in the middle of a contest, you must manually update WinWarbler's TX# textbox at the time you switch.

The Minilog

The Minilog is a text file whose simple name is the operator's callsign (with any forward slashes or back slashes replaced by hyphens) and whose suffix is .adi; the Minilog resides in the folder into which you installed WinWarbler. If VU4DX has installed WinWarbler in the folder 

c:\program files\DXLab\WinWarbler 

then the pathname of VU4DX's Minilog would be

c:\program files\DXLab\WinWarbler\VU4DX.adi

Every time you log a QSO, an ADIF record is appended to the Minilog's contents, whether or not DXKeeper is running. You can load the information contained in a Minilog into any logging application capable of importing standard ADIF. After importing the Minilog's contents into a logging application, you may wish to clear the contents of the Minilog; you can do so by clicking the Clear Minilog button on the Config window's General tab.

If you will be importing the Minilog into the logging program DXbase, select export for DXbase in the Log panel on the General tab of the Configuration dialog; this ensures that frequencies are represented in a format acceptable to DXbase.

Capturing Information from Decoded Data

To facilitate logging, WinWarbler provides several mechanisms for copying information from decoded data into textboxes in the QSL info panel.

• Right-clicking in a receive display pane in which one or more contiguous characters have been selected produces a window with buttons that let you choose a destination textbox in the QSL Info panel into which those characters are copied

• Selecting one or more contiguous characters in a receive display pane 

  • while depressing the ALT key, copies those characters to the QTH textbox

  • while depressing the ALT and CTRL keys with Contest Mode disabled copies those characters to the Notes textbox

  • while depressing the ALT and CTRL keys with Contest Mode enabled copies those characters to the RX# textbox

• Double-clicking on a word in a receive pane with neither ALT nor CTRL depressed copies that word to the appropriate QSL info textbox:

  • if the word contains both letters and digits, it is assumed to be the station's callsign and placed in the call textbox; the following actions are taken:

    • the TX Pwr and QSL Msg textboxes are set from their default values in the Configuration window's Log panel

    • if Contest Mode is enabled

      1. the Contest text box is set to the contest named in the Configuration window's Contesting panel

      2. the rst S and rst R textboxes are set to 59 or 599 as a function of the current mode

    • if initialize RST items to 59/599 is enabled, the rst S and rst R textboxes are set to 59 or 599 as a function of the current mode

    • if DXKeeper is running and Automatic Lookup is enabled, then

      1. DXKeeper will display all previous QSOs with the callsign, perform a callbook lookup (if installed and enabled), and perform a DXCC database lookup

      2. information logged in previous QSOs, found in the selected callbook, or found in the DXCC database is used to set the  DXCC selector, to set the Grid, Via, QTH, IOTA, CQ, ITU, State, County, and Province textboxes, and to record the Country Code and Continent

      3. the Call textbox's caption will indicate the number of previous QSOs with this callsign

      4. details of the most recent QSO with this station are displayed in the expanded QSO info panel

    • if DXKeeper is not running but DXView is running, then DXView will perform a DXCC database lookup to set the DXCC selector, to set  the IOTA, CQ, ITU, and State textboxes if they can be unambiguously determined from the callsign, and to record the Country Code and Continent

    • if DXView is running, it will display the location of that callsign

    • if Pathfinder is running, it is directed to perform a QSL route search for the callsign

  • if the word contains only letters, it is assumed to be the operator's name and placed in the name textbox

  • if not in contest mode and the word contains two or three digits, it is assumed to be a signal report. If the word is in received text, it is placed in the rst R textbox;  ff the word is in transmitted text, it is placed in the rst S  textbox

  • if in contest mode and the word contains only digits, it is assumed to be a serial number and is placed in the RX# textbox

• Double-clicking a word in a receive pane while depressing the ALT key copies that word to the QTH textbox unless the word is a valid 4-character or 6-character Maidenhead gridsquare identifier, in which case it is placed in the Grid textbox and DXView, if running, is directed to display that grid square's location. If the DXCC selector is set to K, KH6, or KH7 and the word is a valid US State abbreviation, then the State selector will be set accordingly; similarly, if the DXCC selector is set to VE and the word is a valid Canadian Province abbreviation, then the Province selector will be set. 

• Double-clicking a word in a receive pane while depressing the CTRL key copies that word to the Via textbox. 

• Double-clicking a word in a receive pane while simultaneously depressing the ALT and CTRL keys

  • with Contest Mode is disabled, appends that word to the Notes textbox

  • with Contest Mode is enabled, copies that word to the RX# textbox

Summary of QSL info destinations when double-clicking a decoded word in a receive pane

If, when you click the Log button, one or more QSO info textboxes contain invalid information, their labels will blink in red font until you correct their contents and again click the Log button; callsigns not containing at least one letter and one number are considered invalid unless the flag invalid callsigns box is unchecked. Log entries are appended to a file that WinWarbler creates in its application folder; this file's simple name is your callsign, and its file extension is .ADI -- e.g. AA6YQ.ADI. You can import the log entries in this file into your ADIF-compatible logging program; this can be done while WinWarbler is running. After successfully importing these entries, click WinWarbler's ClrLog button  to delete all log entries from WinWarbler's log file.

Information Logged

The following table lists all information logged with a QSO, macro substitution commands and  ADIF tags for each. The QSL info panel column indicates whether the item is always visible in the QSL info panel, only visible when the QSL info panel is expanded, or never visible:

Notes:

1. striking the Enter or Tab keys after keying in a callsign is equivalent to clicking the ? button - the Lookup operation is invoked

2. if the callsign begins with an exclamation point or ends with an /am or /mm suffix, WinWarbler will not check it for validity and DXKeeper will ignore it from an awards tracking perspective

3. the US State and Country items will only appear if the DXCC selector is set to K, KH6, or KL7

4. letting the mouse cursor hover over the contents of the DXCC selector will display an explanatory popup bearing the full name of the selected DXCC entity

5. WinWarbler logs the QSO frequency -- the transceiver frequency in CW, Phone, and FSK RTTY modes, the transceiver frequency plus an audio offset in PSK and AFSK RTTY modes 

6. the Notes and QSL msg items share space; to toggle between them, click the ~ button to the right of the currently-visible item

7. the Canadian Province item will only appear if the DXCC selector is set to VE

8. the Mode is primarily determined by the Main window's Mode panel; if Phone is selected, the Mode is determined by the Phone Xcvr Mode setting

9. the proper Country Code is automatically set whenever a DXCC entity prefix is selected

10. striking the Enter or Tab keys after keying in a grid square directs DXView, if running, to display the location of that grid square

Keyboard Shortcuts

To allow operation without removing one's hands from the keyboard, WinWarbler provides keyboard shortcuts for navigating among the QSO Info items and the Transmit Pane, and for initiating actions. Keyboard shortcuts can be used whenever the mouse cursor resides in a QSO Info item or the Transmit pane.