Logging & the main window

The window

Frame by frame

Frame	What is in it
My Station	Your callsign, operator, locator and location, set in Station Setup. Operator, locator and location are buttons: press one to change it, for example to hand over to another operator or when you are portable.
Rig Control	Pick your radio preset and press Connect, or tick Auto Connect - see Rig control.
QSO Date & Time	Always in UTC (world time, as used in every log). With Track Time ticked it follows the clock; untick it to type a date and time yourself, for example from a paper log.
QSO Entry	The contact you are logging - see below.
Message keys	F1–F12, under the entry, in a contest. See Message keys & voice keyer.
DXCC Info	The country and more, worked out from the callsign - see the country line.
Worked Before	Your earlier QSOs with this station - see below.
Status bar	Tells you what just happened, in a few words. Click it, or use Help → Status messages…, for the full history.

In a contest log the window looks different - see Contesting.

The main window: my station, QSO date and time, QSO entry, the country line and the worked-before list — The main window.

The short version

Logging a QSO

Type the callsign. Country, flag, zones, distance and heading appear while you type, and the worked-before list fills itself in.
Press Tab to go to the reports. 59 or 599 is already filled in, to suit the mode.
Want the name and locator? Press Ctrl+L for a QRZ lookup, or type them yourself.
Press Ctrl+G, or the green Log button. The QSO is saved at once - there is no Save button.

A duplicate - the same call, band and mode in the same minute - is refused before anything is written, and the entry stays filled in so you can correct it.

Ctrl+W clears the entry for the next contact. With the radio connected, tuning away does that for you - see QSY wipe.

Reference

Every field in the entry

Field	What it is
Callsign	The other station's call. The magnifier beside it is the QRZ lookup. You can also type commands for the radio here.
Sent / Received	The signal reports (RST). The green buttons beside them open a list to click instead of typing.
Locator	The other station's grid square. The distance and heading are worked out from it.
Mode and Submode	SSB, CW, FT8 and so on. Locked while the radio is connected - the radio sets it.
Band and Freq	With Track ticked, the radio fills them in and the frequency is red. Untick Track to type the frequency yourself; the band follows.
Name	The other operator's name.
QSL via	The station's QSL manager, if he has one. It is printed as via DL5XYZ on a QSL label.
Comment	Free text. It can be printed on a label.
Satellite and Propagation	For satellite and other non-direct contacts; you can edit the satellite list.

What you type always wins. A lookup only fills a field you left empty.

While you type

The country line

As you type the callsign, ShackAssistant shows:

Country and flag, and the continent.
CQ zone and ITU zone, which are saved with the QSO. They come from the call area and not just the country, which is what a big country needs: W1 and W6 are not in the same zone, and the country file says so per prefix. It matters for more than the display - a zone multiplier in a contest counts on it.
Distance in km and miles from your locator, and the short and long path heading to point your antenna.

This comes from the BigCTY country file (cty.dat). Keep it up to date with one click under Settings → General; the date of the file you have is shown beside the button.

Do I need this one?

Worked before, and the colours

The list under the entry shows every earlier QSO with this station. The colours tell you at a glance whether you need him.

Colour	It means
Red	This call, today, on this band and mode - a dupe (you already have him)
Blue	The same station under another prefix or suffix, today, same band and mode
Orange	This call, today, on another band or mode
White	Worked before, on another day

Right-click the list to see this legend; click anywhere to close it.

Use the event period filter above the list to see only the QSOs of one contest or expedition.

The worked-before list with the colour legend open — Right-click for the legend.

Filling in the rest

QRZ and the call history

QRZ lookup

You need a QRZ.com XML subscription. Enter your account under Settings → QRZ Lookup and switch it on there - it is off until you do.
Click the magnifier beside the callsign, or press Ctrl+L. Empty name and locator fields are filled in; the status bar shows the result.
Changing the callsign clears the name and locator, so the previous station's details never stay behind.
There is no QRZ lookup during a contest.

Call history

A call history file (N1MM format) fills empty fields with what a station sent before: name, locator, section, age and so on. You pick the file when you make a contest log.
Your own logbook works as a call history too. Work a station again and what he sent last time is already in the exchange field. Always check it against what you hear.

It happens

Fixing a mistake

The QSO you just logged was wrong: press Ctrl+Delete to delete the last one. It shows the call, date, time, frequency and mode first, and No is the default button. In a contest you get the serial number back if it was the last one sent.
An older QSO: open the logbook (Ctrl+B) and double-click it. See The logbook window.
The same mistake in many QSOs: select them in the logbook and use Bulk Edit.
You logged into the wrong logbook: export those QSOs to ADIF, import them into the right logbook, then delete them here.

Keyboard

Shortcut	Does
`Ctrl`+`G`	Log the QSO
`Ctrl`+`W`	Wipe the entry fields
`Ctrl`+`L`	QRZ lookup
`Ctrl`+`B`	Open the logbook
`Ctrl`+`D`	Open the DX Cluster
`Ctrl`+`K`	Open Key Master
`Ctrl`+`Delete`	Delete the last QSO (asks first)
`Enter`	Logs the QSO in a contest, once the entry is complete
`F1`–`F12`	The message keys of the window you are typing in
`Esc`	Stop the voice keyer and the radio's own voice memory

To change a shortcut, go to Settings → Keyboard, click the box and press the keys you want. Not allowed:

A single letter or digit - it would fire while you type a callsign.
F1–F12 - those are the message keys.
If a combination is already in use, you are told which function has it.

Settings, Keyboard tab: every shortcut, changeable — Click the box, press the keys.