Install & first start

What you need

A radio, a sound card and internet are optional. You can install, make a logbook and type in QSOs without connecting anything.

Running the setup

1. Download the setup file, ShackAssistantSetup_vX.Y.Z.exe. Got the .zip instead? Right-click it, choose Extract all, and use the .exe inside.
2. Double-click it to run it. Windows may show a warning - see below.
3. Accept the licence and keep the default folder (C:\Program Files\ShackAssistant).
4. Select Additional Tasks: the desktop shortcut is ticked. Untick it if you do not want one.
5. Ready to install shows what you chose - and, on an update, what is left alone: the flags folder and hamlib, when they are already there. You update Hamlib yourself from Settings → Rig Control, so what is on the machine can be newer than what the installer carries, and putting it back would be a step backwards. Click Install.
6. When it is done, let it start ShackAssistant.

“Windows protected your PC”? Choose More info and then Run anyway. This is not a virus warning. Windows just has not seen this new installer often yet.

What goes where

Your own files - logbooks, macros, QSL templates - are kept outside the program folder, so an update never touches them.

Tip: to open a folder like %APPDATA%, type it into the address bar of File Explorer and press Enter.

The first start

While the program loads you see a splash screen - you can turn it off under Settings → General. After it, the very first time on this computer, the setup wizard opens by itself. It takes a minute and you have a logbook to work in.

Five steps, and it only asks what it needs to know:

1. Welcome - what is about to be asked.
2. Your station - callsign, operator, locator (your grid square) and QSO location. Those four go into the logbook itself and travel with every QSO in it: a Cabrillo header asks for them, and so does an ADIF file somebody else reads. Your address, your zones and the upload accounts come later, in Station Setup.
3. Your logbook - on this computer or on a MySQL / MariaDB server, its name, where it goes, and whether it is a database (.sadb, recommended) or one file (.sak). The folder is tried while you type it: on some machines Documents is redirected to a network share that can be read but not written, and that is worth finding out here rather than on the last page.
4. Your radio - optional; a logbook works without one. Configure radio… opens the same fields as Rig Control, and two switches: connect at start, and let other programs use this radio through the rigctld server.
5. Ready - everything you chose, on one page.

Nothing is created or changed until you press Finish, so you can walk away at any point with Cancel. Everything asked here can be changed afterwards in Settings and Station Setup, and the wizard itself comes back under Help → Setup Wizard….

Already using ShackAssistant? Then you never see it: it only opens when this computer has no settings yet.

After Finish the logbook is open and you can log a QSO straight away; if you asked for it, the radio is connected too. From now on ShackAssistant opens this logbook at every start. The cluster, CW and contests can be set up later, when you want them. To make another logbook, or a different kind, see Logbooks & storage.

The firewall rule

The installer adds a Windows Firewall rule for ShackAssistant, and removes it when you uninstall. You only need it for the contest network, where several PCs in the shack work together.

• Do the other PCs see you, but you see none of them? Then the firewall is blocking.
• The fix: run the installer again. It repairs the rule, also when someone once clicked Cancel on the Windows firewall question.

Nothing goes out to the internet unless you ask for it. QRZ lookups and uploads to QRZ and Club Log only run once you have switched them on in Settings. Country data, Hamlib updates and LoTW run when you press their button, and the cluster connects when you ask. The one exception is the update check at start-up, which only asks shackassistant.com for the newest version number - switch it off under Settings → General → Updates.

Updating

1. Close ShackAssistant.
2. Run the newer setup over the old one. No need to uninstall or export anything first.

Your logbooks, settings, macros and QSL templates are kept. Your version is in the title bar and under Help → About. The newest one is on the download page.

• ShackAssistant tells you: at every start it looks whether there is a newer version, and says so only when there is. No internet: it stays quiet.
• Help → Check for Updates… always answers, also when you already have the newest.
• The download zip carries release notes: what changed, in plain words.

And what that costs, because it is worth knowing: an update leaves the flags and Hamlib alone once they are there, so a flag that is new in a later version does not arrive on a machine that already has some. Delete C:\Program Files\ShackAssistant\data\flags and run the setup again to get the full set.

Uninstalling

Use Settings → Apps in Windows, like any other program. This removes the program, the shortcuts and the firewall rule.

Your logbooks and settings stay in Documents\ShackAssistant\ and %APPDATA%\ShackAssistant\. Re-install and everything is back. Want a clean slate? Delete those two folders yourself - but copy them somewhere first, because your whole log is in the first one.

If something goes wrong