ShackAssistant
Guide › The logbook window

The logbook window

Press Ctrl+B to open it. It shows every QSO in your log, and it stays fast however big the log is. Everything you do to a QSO after logging it, you do here.

The grid

The grid and its colours

The logbook window: search options, buttons and the QSO grid with green confirmation cells
Search and filter at the top, your QSOs below.
  • Newest first. The QSO you just logged is the top row.
  • Click a column heading to sort by it. Sorting changes nothing in the log.
  • Double-click a QSO to edit it; right-click for everything else.
  • Select several the usual Windows way - Shift for a range, Ctrl to pick single rows, Ctrl+A for all. Every action in the right-click menu then works on the whole selection.

You can keep the window open while you log. New QSOs appear in it straight away, also those from WSJT-X or from another PC on the network.

The colours
Light green cell Confirmed: QSL card or LoTW, sent or received
Dark green cell The same, on the row you have selected
Tinted rowLogged today
Grey row (in the print queue)Already printed
Searching

Finding a QSO

Search in log

Type in the search box and the list narrows while you type. Click Select Search Fields to choose which fields it searches - callsign, name, comment and 31 more.

Tick only the fields you need: then a search for PA will not also find every QSO with Japan in the country field.

Display Filter

Hides rows by mode, by band, by QSL sent or received, and by whether a QSO is a contest QSO. Nothing in the log changes - it only changes what you see.

  • The filter window can stay open; each tick works at once.
  • Contest: Yes / No - two tick boxes rather than one, so you can isolate your contest QSOs as well as hide them. A QSO counts as a contest QSO if any one of six fields is filled: the contest name, the sent or received exchange, the ARRL section, the transmitter ID or the station name.
    What is deliberately left out matters more: the state, your own section, the CQ and ITU zones and the radio number are all filled on ordinary QSOs too, so counting them would make every QSO a contest QSO and the filter would say nothing.
  • Show all clears the filter.

Reset View

Clears the search text and the filter, and closes the filter window, so you see the whole log again.

Select Search Fields: the 34 fields a search can cover
Which fields a search covers.
Display Filter: modes, bands and QSL states to hide or show
Tick what you want to see.
Your grid

Columns

  • Customize Layout sets which columns you see and in what order. This is remembered.
  • Auto Column Width makes every column wide enough for its longest value in the whole log.
  • You can also drag a column edge, but widths are not remembered.

Useful columns: My Operator (who logged it - see operators), Contest, QSL via, and the four confirmation flags with their dates.

Customize Layout: which columns are shown and in what order
Your own columns, in your own order.
Changing QSOs

Editing one, or a thousand

Edit QSO

Double-click a QSO, or choose Edit QSO in the menu. You see every field of that contact, including the QSL and LoTW flags and their dates.

Bulk Edit

Changes one field on many QSOs at once. Select the QSOs, tick the field, give it a value. Handy when a whole weekend has the wrong locator, or you want the same comment on all QSOs of an expedition.

  • Setting QSL or LoTW to Yes fills in today's date, unless you enter a date yourself. Setting it to No clears the date.
  • Only the fields you tick are changed.

Changes are saved at once.

Edit QSO: every field of one contact in one dialog
One QSO, every field.
Bulk Edit: change one field on a whole selection
Tick a field, give it a value.
Cards and LoTW

Confirmations

A confirmation is proof that a QSO really happened: a QSL card, or a match on LoTW (Logbook of the World, the ARRL's online confirmation system).

Got a card but did not send one yet? When you set QSL Received on a QSO whose QSL Sent is still No, you are asked whether to add it to the print queue.

Out of the log

Uploading

WhereWhat you need
QRZ logbook The QRZ logbook key for this logbook, in Station Setup → Upload. Select QSOs and upload; you see the result per QSO.
LoTW The ARRL's TQSL program installed, and the station location spelled exactly as in TQSL. ShackAssistant hands the QSOs to TQSL for signing.
Club Log Your Club Log app password. Upload each QSO as you log it, or a selection afterwards.

Each service has its own columns in the grid, so you can see what has been uploaded.

What you have done

Statistics

Logbook Statistics: summary, QSOs per band and mode, and the DXCC table with worked and confirmed per band
Totals on the left, your DXCC countries on the right.
  • Summary: total QSOs, DXCC entities (countries), QSLs and LoTW sent and received, and how many entities are confirmed.
  • Per band and per mode counts, with how many are confirmed.
  • The DXCC table: a row per entity, split over CW, phone and digital, with a cell per band showing WKD (worked) or CFM (confirmed). Tick the bands you want and press Update Table.
  • The numbers are counted fresh each time you open the window.
Tidying up

Duplicate finder

Imported the same QSOs twice? Find Duplicates groups QSOs that are the same contact, each group in its own colour.

  • Time comparison precision sets how close the times must be: the same hour, minute or second. Programs often log different seconds for the same QSO, so second is usually too strict.
  • Delete Dupes (Best Kept) removes the copies and keeps the one with the most filled in, confirmations included.
  • Delete Selected deletes only the rows you pick.
Duplicate Finder: duplicate groups in colour, with delete options
Each colour is one contact, logged more than once.
Files

Files in and out

In the logbook window's own File menu:

The other guides