LOGic 7

If ham radio is your definition of fun, then you will enjoy LOGic 7. This new version has it all--features to keep you in step with changes in the hobby, features that take advantage of advances in technology, and features that are just plain fun. Read on to find out how LOGic 7 makes it easy to use the new Logbook of the World, how LOGic 7 puts weather info at your fingertips, how LOGic 7 lets you use the internet to keep your awards lists up-to-date, how it integrates radios, rotors, and such with your shack computer, and much more.

We congratulate Dennis, WN4AZY, for creating LOGic 7. Being solely responsible for a software project as big and complicated as LOGic 7 is tedious, lonely work. Without the encouragement of LOGic users, this project would never have been completed. Thank you. We appreciate each and every one of you.

This article covers features that have been added to the program since LOGic 6. For a comprehensive list of LOGic 7‘s features, go to the LOGic 7 home page, or better yet, download the demo.

LOGic 7 has great support for LoTW. Highlights include tracking of LoTW QSLs, one-step download and check-in of LoTW QSLs directly from the web, automatic management of QSL Sent status for LoTW, and one-step ADIF exporting and uploading for LoTW.

Before LoTW, confirmed status was easy--a QSO was either confirmed or it wasn't. Now, it depends not only on whether you have a LoTW QSL, but also on which award we are talking about. Some awards accept LoTW QSLs, and some don't.

So, the first thing to do is tell LOGic which awards accept LoTW. Go to Tools/Setup/Log Fields, Spotting, and Awards Tracking, and check the LoTW OK for this Award check box for all awards that will accept LoTW. Be sure to check any subawards that accept LoTW.  (LOGic 7 is already set up for current LoTW-accepted awards. Add others as they become available.)

The Log file has a new field, LoTW Rcvd. It works just like QSL Rcvd. You could manually check in a LoTW QSL just like you would for a paper QSL. However, this is not necessary, since LOGic can automatically download your QSLs directly from the web and check them in for you. You may put Requested in LoTW Rcvd if you expect to receive a LoTW QSL for this contact. This way, your awards progress for awards that accept LoTW will show Requested QSLs just as with paper QSLs.

The existing QSL Rcvd field in the Log file refers only to paper QSLs. If a QSO has a paper QSL, it is counted as confirmed, regardless of any LoTW settings. A paper QSL is good for any award. (If someone contrived an award that accepted LoTW QSLs only, LOGic could easily handle it using the Subaward feature.)

If LoTW QSLs are acceptable for an award, LOGic will use the LoTW Rcvd status for tallying awards if it is better than your QSL Rcvd status. In other words, if QSL Rcvd is blank, but LoTW Rcvd is Requested, the status for that QSO will be Received.

After changing the LoTW acceptance status, be sure to go to Tools/Update Awards Progress Info to re-tally progress based on your LoTW selection. This updates QSL status for existing QSOs. New QSOs and changes to existing QSOs will be handled automatically, so unless you import data or change LoTW Acceptance status in Log Fields, you do not have to do this again.

With most logging software, uploading your log to the LoTW is a multiple-step process.  You have to export the data to an ADIF file, run the ARRL TQSL software to generate yet another file, then run your web browser or emailer to upload the data to ARRL.  With LOGic, uploading your log is one streamlined operation!

The log file has a new LoTW Sent field. This field is used by LOGic to automatically track which QSOs have been uploaded, so as not to resubmit them.

To upload your log, click Export QSOs to LoTW in the QSLing menu. Please enter your user (callsign) and password needed to log onto the LoTW web site.

Type your password twice--once in the Password field, and again in the Verify field. Your password will be encrypted and stored securely to disk for future use.

LOGic will proceed to export the data, process it into the required LoTW format, and upload it to the LoTW web site.

The Open LoTW Web Site in Browser button opens the LoTW web site and logs on. It is not necessary to do this before exporting QSOs. It is merely a convenient way to log onto LoTW to do things such as change your account settings.

If you change a QSO that has already been uploaded, and need to upload it again, simply uncheck the LoTW Sent field. The QSO will be resent the next time you upload.

You may check in a LoTW QSL just like you do a paper QSL--by changing the received status to Fulfilled. However, LOGic will automatically do this for you. Go to QSLing/Import LoTW.

You may import a LoTW QSL file that you have already downloaded. Click on QSLing/Import LoTW QSLs. Click the Import LoTW ADIF File from Disk button.

A more convenient way to check in LoTW QSOs is to click the Import Directly from Web button.

You may enter a date. This date will be sent to the LoTW Web Site so that only QSOs on or after this date are downloaded.

LOGic will scan all imported QSLs looking for the proper matching QSO. If no matching log record is found, the Not Found in Log column will be checkmarked, and the QSL will be ignored. For a QSO to match, the Call and Operator fields must match, as well as Date and Time. Note that LoTW returns the QSL with the same date and time as the QSO that you uploaded. It does not matter that the other station may have a slightly different time. This is handled automatically by the LoTW web software. Only LoTW records with QSL_Rcvd=Y

 will be processed. You do not need to worry if you accidentally import a LoTW file with unconfirmed QSOs in it.

If a LoTW QSL is imported, and that QSO already has LoTW Rcvd set to Fulfilled, the Already Updated column will be checkmarked, and the QSL will not be processed.

Click the Automatically check in these QSLs button to process the imported data.

If a QSL has CQ Zone, ITU Zone, State, VE Province, County, or IOTA included, the log record will be updated with these values when checking in the QSL.

LOGic's DX spotting facility has several new and exciting features. One of the more significant features is the Alerts facilty. Until now, spots were announced and highlighted based on awards progress. Now, you can specify any criteria to announce and highlight spots. For instance, you may watch for a particular callsign you are interested in--for a DXpedition or a call for which you need a QSL route. Or spots posted by a particular station. Or a particular IOTA or DXCC country. In addition to these simple alert criteria, you may use LOGic's powerful filtering ability to create an alert based on any combination of spot log fields--spots on a certain band in a certain continent, for example.

Alerts are announced in voice or CW, and displayed in a separate display, so that they are easily distinguished from normal spots. Even if you have been away from your shack, you can easily check to see if any alerts have been received.

Another really handy feature of the Alerts feature is that it permits you to copy ordinary spots into the Alert display. Suppose you see a spot that you are interested in working. Simply turn it into an Alert, and it will be readily available, even if you have Scroll Lock turned off and the spot scrolls off the main window. Transfer more than one spot of interest to the Alert display, and you may easily tune your rig among them.

Other new spotting features include: •An Undo button for rig QSYs. After tuning to a spot, press Undo to return to the original frequency. Multiple spot QSYs may be undone. A Redo button is also provided. •CW announcements may now be made through your sound card. Volume adjustment, as well as Left, Right, or Both speakers is available. Of course voice announcement via the sound card, and CW announcement through the PC speaker is still supported. •A new record lock feature preserves the highlighting of the currently-selected record. New spots will still be received if Display Lock is off, but they will not cause the current record to scroll off the screen. •A new Process Spots for this Band field can be used to disable spotting for a particular band segment. If Process Spots is turned off, spots for this band segment will never be shown in the spot log.

LOGic 6 introduced our patent-pending web callbook interface, which automatically and intelligently looks up and logs name and QTH from web callbook databases such as

 the FCC, DOC, Australian Communications Authority, QRZ, and others. And, since its early days, LOGic has supported callbook lookup from CD-ROM and disk-based databases. (Actually, some of the earliest callbook databases we supported came on floppy diskettes!) LOGic 7 combines web callbook logging and disk-based logging into one super callbook interface. Disk-based databases appear in the same setup list as web databases. This means that you may now have multiple disk-based databases, as well as multiple web databases. You may determine in which order they are searched. For example, you could set up LOGic 7 so that it first searches LOGic 7's new, lightning-fast, internal callsign database, then if not found there, to proceed to search your favorite CD-ROM database next, then finally search several web databases. This is a real boon to those with low-speed internet connections, offering the speed of disk-based lookups and the currency and completeness of the internet databases. A new checkmark control quickly turns off web lookup if you are offline or do not wish to search the web.

LOGic features a new, lightning-fast, built-in callbook database. Lookups are absolutely instantaneous. This callbook uses information that you import from the internet at the click of a button, so it may be easily (and at no charge) kept up-to-date. Currently, USA and Canada are supported. We will add others as they become available. Lat/lon and gridsquare info are provided for US addresses.

Another new callbook feature is a US ZIP code database that provides lat/lon and gridsquare information for databases that do not normally provide them. Therefore, any lookup you do of any US station from any callbook database, web or disk-based, will display lat/lon, gridsdquare, and county.

You may now turn off auto-logging of QTH. There is a new option in Log/Setup.

LOGic's Info form, which displays information about the area

 you are talking to, such as distance, beam headings, country name, zones, etc., has a new Wx lookup button. The weather at the station you are in QSO with is a click away. LOGic uses lat/lon information to retrieve weather from an airport nearest the other station. Information from over 3500 airports worldwide is available. Make sure you are connected to the internet when using this feature.

We recommend using LOGic's callbook feature to enhance weather lookup when conversing with US stations. When logging a station, the callbook's lat/lon info is transferred to the Info form for a much closer estimate of station location than provided by the callsign prefix. Even many small airports have weather reporting stations that upload their data to NOAA's internet feed, so it is likely that LOGic will find a weather report that is within a few miles of the station's actual location.

If you wish to get WX for a station that you do not want to log, enter the prefix in the new field in the Info form, or select the county from the new dropdown list. Click the WX button and enjoy. There are also WX lookup buttons on the callbook form. To get your local WX, right-click one of the WX buttons.

LOGic 7 features a comprehensive database containing maps and flag graphics of all countries (the flag graphics may be imported to LOGic's QSL printing facilities--they look really slick!), and factual information including population and economic statistics, cultural information such as religion and languages, political information including type of government and latest national election statistics, international disputes, and more. This information may be retrieved at the click of a button or displayed automatically. Information is provided by the US Central Intelligence Agency, and may be updated at no cost via the internet.

With LOGic's callbooks, WX Lookup, and Facts database, you'll know more about the station you are talking to then the guy living there!

LOGic has always been #1 in awards tracking. Its unsurpassed awards tracking ability has been enhanced even further by the new Memberships Database feature. A new window, similar to the familiar Previous QSOs window, displays organizations to which the station you are talking to belongs. For example, if you work a station, you will know immediately if he is a 1010 Member. If you are operating on ten meters, his 1010# will be automatically logged. (If you're not on ten meters, why not ask him to QSY?) You may also do reverse lookups--if you know a 1010 number, find the callsign that owns it. 

Control operators and members of DX nets will love this feature. 

A data entry screen is provided for easy entry and maintenance of membership lists. Lists may be exported to share with other LOGic users. Currently 1010, FISTS, OMISS, and SMIRK lists may be updated from the internet at the click of a button. Others will be added as they become available. If you would like to have your favorite award support internet updating, have the membership secretary contact us. We will provide software for maintaining the list and publishing it on the web.

New fields in Tools/Setup/Log Fields support the new Memberships feature. You may specify if a field has an associated membership list, and specify criteria to conditionally log membership info--very useful for 1010 and SMIRK.

Edit Using Lists Table should be turned off for fields with associated membership lists.

The Memberships list has another purpose. LOGic users have asked for an easy way to be alerted when they work a particular station--DXpeditions or special-event stations, for instance. Simply enter the info in the Memberships form. Since you don't want to log any membership number for these stations, leave Field Name and Value blank. Fields are provided for Name and Comment, so be sure to fill out at least Comment so you will know why you were interested in working this station. The information you enter will be displayed in the Memberships window when you work the station. 

You may now use the mouse wheel to tune your radio. Hold the pointer on top of the frequency display for coarse tune, and on up/dn buttons for fine tune. For fine tune, it doesn't matter which button you hold the mouse on top of. Tuning up or down is controlled by the direction you spin the mouse wheel, regardless of which button the mouse is on top of.  

Holding {Shift}, {Ctrl}, or { Alt} while tuning affects tuning rate. When using fine tune, {Shift} doubles the tuning rate, { Ctrl} quadruples it, and { Alt} increases by a factor of eight. When using the frequency display, the normal step is 100 hz. Shift tunes at 1 khz. Ctrl tunes 10 khz.  

{ Alt} switches to the next or previous band segment in the band table. The term "segment" is significant. Most HF bands are divided into CW and SSB segments. Wheel+{Alt} will tune to the next segment, not necessarily the next amateur band. When tuning to a different band, the proper mode will be set automatically, using the Default Mode setting in the band table.

There is a new Center Frequency field in the band table. When tuning to a new band, this frequency will be used. This field is used primarily for 60 Meters, where exact tuning is necessary. If you do not enter a value here, the center of the band segment will be calculated.

•New feature auto-sizes columns in grid displays. You may auto-size all columns or just the currently-selected column. Right-click the grid, then click either the Autosize Column (name of selected column) or Autosize All Columns button. The column widths are adjusted based on the data that is being displayed. Normally, the column headers are ignored when auto-resizing columns. Only the first letter or two of the column header may be displayed. Touch the column header with the mouse to display the complete column header. However, if you do not wish for auto-sizing to hide the ends of column headers, click the Consider column headers when auto-sizing checkbox. When auto-sizing, only displayed data is considered, not all data in your database. If you later enter or scroll to data that is too wide to be displayed in the column, simply manually or automatically resize that column.

•Column headers for user-defined fields are now displayed in Proper Case. (The first letter of each word is capitalized, as when writing someone's proper name.) This results in less screen space used by column headers. Previously all capitals were used, and capital letters are almost always wider than their lower-case counterparts.

•Touch help now has potentially unlimited size. Previously, we were limited to around a hundred characters. You will notice that some of LOGic's touch help is quite detailed.

•Support for Top-Ten band decoder.

•Support for TIC-Ring rotor.

•Support for Ten-Ten Orion radio.

•PTT and CW Keying may now share a serial port with your radio's remote-control interface. Simply select DTR or RTS, and a COM port, or specify that the PTT or Keyer should share a port with Radio 1, 2, 3 or 4.

•Icoms may now be polled. Normally, LOGic does not poll Icom rigs. Icoms are great rigs in that they have a CI/V Transceive feature (sometimes called Transceive Matrix) that causes the rig to automatically send information out of the serial port whenever you change mode or frequency. This provides an instantaneous display update in LOGic, with no polling overhead to slow down your computer. However, this feature is often problematic when using multiple rigs on the same serial port. Even if the rigs are set to different addresses, tuning one rig will sometimes cause other rigs using the same serial port to tune also! Previously, the only solution was to use separate serial ports for each rig. Of course you could turn off all but one rig, but that's no fun. A neat thing about LOGic is that it is one of the few, if not the only, comprehensive logging software package(s) on the the market to support multiple rigs simultaneously. LOGic 7 offers the option to poll Icom rigs. Simply turn off CI/V Transceive on all rigs, and turn on polling in LOGic. Polling isn't ideal, it it works well. It is the only way to read many rigs including Yaesus. Most other software polls Icoms and Kenwoods, even though these rigs do not require it.

•Polling interval may be set for all rigs except Kenwoods, which do not require polling. Polling of Icoms is optional as discussed above.

LOGic 7's manual now has 98 pages!

•LOGic 6 provided full support for parallel port keying and PTT, even on Win 2000 and XP, without the need to install third-party libraries. In most cases, you can specify which parallel port to use by number--LPT1, LPT2, or LPT3. On a few computers, the mapping is not standard, and the only way to use these ports was to specify a base address. This required editing an .INI file. Not a big deal, but LOGic 7 simplifies this task by providing the option to specify a port by address in all setup windows that permit choosing a parallel port. A button provides a shortcut to the Windows Device Manager to make it easy to look up the addresses of your parallel ports.

•You may look up information on a callsign or country using new inputs provided on the Info form.

•New feature makes renaming user-defined fields easy. Click the Rename User-defined Field button in tools/setup/log fields.

•Tools/Database Maintenance remembers the last hundred or so commands entered. Simply arrow up to the desired command and press {Enter} to re-execute it.

•Backup-restore now permits backing up to a user-selectable folder and filename. To do this, select Advanced in the Backup/Restore window. If you choose your own folder and filename, multi-volume spanning is not supported. To back up to a series of floppies, use Basic backup and restore. It functions exactly as previous versions of LOGic did.

•New style file selector used on Windows XP and 2000.

•Most file selectors remember the last drive and directory selected.

•When setting up LOGic's station info, it must of course know your approximate latitude and longitude to calculate distance and beam headings. If you do not know your exact latitude and longitude or grid square, previous versions of LOGic would approximate it based on your callsign prefix or US state. LOGic 7 permits US stations to enter their ZIP code to get an almost perfect estimate of their latitude and longitude. DX stations that do not know their lat/lon may select the coordinates of a nearby airport.

•In the log form, you may double-click the date and time fields to set them to the current UTC.

•The report writer has a new export facility. Look at the new controls near the botton of the Run Report form. Data can be exported in a number of different formats, including spreadsheet, common text formats, dBASE, XML, and more. This export is different than dumping the report output to disk. The data used to generate the report is printed, formatted as a database file.

•The Awards report now displays only fields for which awards tracking is turned on. There is a check box that shows all fields if you desire. The Awards report works from raw data, and does not use LOGic's internal awards tallies, so it will track progress on any field without any prior setup.

•Progress 1 and Progress 2 forms no longer show unused rows. As you enable tracking for more modes, more rows will appear.

•The List of Valid Values form has a new navigation feature to make it easy to find the list you want to see. Just click on the desired item in the Navigate to List box.

Click here for info on the 7.0.100 release.

Click here to order!