Settings & integration

General

Setting	What it does
Reload the last logbook at start	On by default. Off, you choose a logbook yourself.
Startup window	The splash screen at start. Untick it to hide it.
Updates	Look for a newer version at startup. Says nothing unless there really is a newer release; Help → Check for Updates always answers.
Windows that open by themselves	DX cluster, logbook, Key Master - tick the ones you want open at every start.
Ask before closing	Asks for confirmation when you close the program. Off by default - everything is saved as you go.
Country file	The BigCTY cty.dat, which gives each callsign its country, zones and flag. Shows the date of your copy, with a one-click download for the newest.
Backup folder	Where backups go, how many days to keep them (7) and how many per logbook (5). See Logbooks & storage.

Time is always UTC, straight from the Windows clock - there is no offset to set.

Rig Control

Connecting your radio, the transverter and QO-100 row, sharing the rig with WSJT-X and updating Hamlib. See Rig control. An Icom radio on the network - audio, scope and all - is on its own page: Icom over the network.

DVK

The voice keyer: Voice keyer (WAV playback), the card that plays the recorded messages of the message keys, and its own PTT line - see PTT per transmitter.

A recording is not a keyed tone. It can come off a different card, at a different level, and on a radio with a second audio input that is exactly how a voice keyer is wired - so it gets to say which card, on its own.

Key Master's sound cards are not here. They moved into Key Master itself, where they are used: with four modes they are no longer one station-wide pair, and CW and RTTY each have their own.

Cards are remembered by name, so the right card stays selected even when Windows lists your cards in a different order.

Two columns, if your screen allows

On a wide enough screen the frames on every tab are laid out in two columns and the window is much wider and much shorter than it used to be. On a narrow screen it stays one column.

• The screen decides, not the window. That is not a detail: the window still has its design size while it is being laid out, so asking whether two columns fit in the window would always answer no, and it would never get wider.
• Rig Control lays itself out rather than being packed evenly: the radio - connection, transverter - on the left, everything around it on the right.
• The left column fills first. A tab with few frames keeps them in one column; the second column is only used once the first is full.
• A tab with one frame stretches it across the full width instead of leaving half the tab empty.
• The window may now shrink too, and follows what the tabs ask for - it gets shorter as soon as you pick a Dummy or a network rig, because the serial panel is not there.

Does a tab not fit on a small screen? It scrolls, and the frames keep clear of the scroll bar.

UDP Traffic

UDP is a simple way for programs to send messages over the network. This tab has two parts:

Radio status out

• Sends your frequency, mode and more in the N1MM Logger+ format, so anything that works with N1MM can follow it: dashboards, band decoders, antenna switches, amplifier control.
• Add as many destinations as you like (name, address, port) and set the interval in seconds.
• A broadcast address such as 192.168.1.255 reaches every PC on your network.

QSOs in

• UDP Receive ADIF QSO Record - the port on which QSOs from other programs arrive (for example WSJT-X). See below.

What goes out, every few seconds

<RadioInfo>
  <App>ShackAssistant</App>
  <Freq>1402530</Freq>          <!-- in 10 Hz, as N1MM does -->
  <Mode>CW</Mode>
  <MyCall>PA5DJ</MyCall>
  <OpCall>PA5DJ</OpCall>
  <RadioName>Icom IC-7610</RadioName>
  <MyLocator>JO22LO</MyLocator>
  <Call>DA0HQ</Call>              <!-- last worked, this session -->
  <contestname>PACCPA</contestname>   <!-- only during a contest -->
</RadioInfo>

QSL Handling

Which new QSOs are added to the QSL card queue automatically. One main switch, then a tick per source:

Typed by hand	On
Key Master window (CW and RTTY)	On
Over UDP (WSJT-X)	On
From an ADIF import	Off - one import can be thousands of QSOs
Contests	Off. Contest QSOs from any source are only queued when this is ticked

A QSO already marked QSL sent is never queued again. See QSL printing for the queue.

QRZ Lookup

• Fill in your QRZ account (it needs a QRZ XML subscription) and switch lookups on. It is off until you do.
• Then the magnifier appears beside the callsign, and Ctrl+L looks up the call. No lookups during a contest.
• The key for uploading to your QRZ logbook is set elsewhere: Station Setup → Upload.

LoTW

• Where TQSL is. ShackAssistant uses your installed TQSL and certificates to sign uploads.
• Your LoTW account, to download your confirmations.
• The station location is set per logbook in Station Setup, spelled exactly as in TQSL.

Check LoTW in the logbook window downloads your confirmations and marks the matching QSOs green. The button stays grey until TQSL and your account are both set; its tooltip says what is missing.

Network Logbook

Your MySQL or MariaDB servers, with Test connection. See Multi-Op & network logbook.

Keyboard

Change any shortcut: click the box and press the keys. The default list is on the Logging page.

• A single letter or digit is not allowed: it would fire while you type a callsign.
• F1–F12 are not allowed: they are the message keys.
• If a combination is already in use, you are told which function has it.

UDP QSO forwarding, step by step

WSJT-X, JTDX, MSHV, JS8Call and similar programs can send each QSO you log straight into ShackAssistant. The steps below use WSJT-X; the others have the same settings. Sharing the radio is separate - use either one, or both.

Secondary UDP Server (deprecated):
  [x] Enable logged contact ADIF broadcast
  Server name or IP: 127.0.0.1
  Server port number: 2333

Rig:             Hamlib NET rigctl
Network Server:  127.0.0.1:4532
PTT Method:      CAT
Mode:            Data/Pkt

Uploads, and where each key lives

Rule of thumb: anything for one logbook is in Station Setup; anything for this PC is in Settings.

For other programs, use ADIF import and export - see Logbooks & storage. Contests are exported as Cabrillo.

Log files

Help → Open Debug Log Folder opens Documents\ShackAssistant\debug\:

The logs stay on your PC. Attach them when you ask for help.

Messages that flash by on the status bar are kept too: click the status line, or Help → Status messages, for the last few hundred with their time.