This is the place to start if you are new to Club Log, and have questions about how to use it and what it can do. With explanations of how to perform common tasks and walk-throughs of using the site, you should find you are up to speed in no time.
For more personal help, don't forget to join the Club Log reflector.
Introduction
Club Log is an online database system for amateur radio logs. Users periodically upload their log files to the database, and the system updates various lists, league tables and records using the uploaded information. Here is a selection of features that Club Log provides you:
- Personal DXCC reports and league tables
- Detailed analysis of your log, using researched DXCC information, LoTW activity and so on
- Zone charts for your log, again based on detailed research
- A personal timeline of your activity (DXCCs per year, band and mode info)
- Your own log search tool, eg. to link from your web page or QRZ profile
- The ability to offer online QSL requests for your log, including direct and bureau cards
- A filtered DX Cluster which only tells you about DX you still 'need'
- A say in the Club Log most wanted report: your log is part of the trend data
- Access to propagation and activity predictions, using everyone's logs
- QSL suggestions to help you send out just the cards you need
- Club-based competitions on a per band, mode or year basis (eg. DXCC or WAZ leagues)
- Free access to developer resource such as Club Log’s DXCC mappings database
- Real-time logging from popular loggers such as Logger32, DXKeeper, Win-Test, N1MM
- Satisfaction from taking part in and improving a free DXing resource.
All in all, Club Log offers a valuable suite of tools for active DXers, and best of all it is provided for free, in the best tradition of amateur radio.
The number of features in the system is increasing as time goes by. For example, in 2011 a new Online QSL Requests system was added, allowing any expedition to offer OQRS for direct or bureau cards. This reduces the burden of incoming bureau cards on the national bureaux for example, conserving precious resources. Another source of rapid growth is that many logging products are now integrating directly with Club Log, making it a very convenient solution for those users with access to supported products.
What is different about Club Log?
Great question.
Club Log is a web-based system for DXers to upload their ADIF log files. Any radio amateur in the world with an electronic log can sign up. Like other systems, notably LoTW and eQSL, Club Log then imports the content of those files into a large, central database.
The most well-known feature of Club Log is the expedition tools, which provide a slot-chasing system as part of an expedition log search page, with propagation and activity suggestions and a free, PayPal online QSL request system. This facility has been used by high-profile expeditions like FT5GA, K4M, T32C, VP8ORK, K5D and many others. However, although this is understandably the most prominent part of Club Log (receiving over 6 million visitors per year) it is only a tiny part of the overall project.
Most importantly, Club Log is open to all radio amateurs interested in Dxing, and deals with more than just expeditions.
When a user uploads their log, Club Log analyses each QSO in order to assign it to the right DXCC entity, and then creates reports and statistics for the user to explore their log. Many of these reports are similar to those found in advanced logging software, providing tables of DXCCs worked, confirmed and so on. However, where Club Log differs is that it also provides an environment for comparing logs with each other. For example, Club Log provides a DXCC league table which shows the relative ranking of different operators based on their logs. It also allows for league tables to be established within clubs, which has been a source of great competition and enlivens local Dxing clubs. In fact, many regular users attribute a huge surge in activity on the bands to Club Log “mini competitions” between club members.
Club Log also goes further than normal logging software by offering most-wanted lists, created purely from empirical data in members’ logs on a daily basis, and generates propagation and activity analysis charts that are mined from the aggregated sum of all the QSOs that Club Log can see. It is capable of filtering the DX cluster to find new DX, and tracks QSL states for DXCC and WAZ awards. It allows charts, leagues and reports to be generated by band or mode, and filtered by year, so it is possible to say (for instance) that ‘G3TXF worked the most CW DXCC slots in 2010 on 80m”.
Club Log is of interest to most radio amateurs, but is squarely aimed at the Dxer who wants to work DXCCs on many bands, and obtain an accurate log that he or she can be proud of. Club Log does not overlap with other web systems like eQSL or LoTW in this sense, as it provides an analytical toolkit and statistical reporting service, rather than a QSLing solution.
Principles of Club Log
Club Log is unusual in that it is not run as a business, and does not have any commercial interests.
The overriding principle of Club Log is that it is a free, community-style resource developed and managed by volunteers (currently four people). It is free in both senses: free of charge and free from commercial encumberances. There is no charge to use Club Log and no advertising on the site. Instead, donations are accepted to help cover the costs. Donors are thanked publically and in general, donations are made by regular users who have found Club Log useful as well as occasionally by DX foundations (notably CDXC in the UK).
Secondly, Club Log is built on the principle of accuracy. This may seem like an unusual principle to list. There is an important reason why accuracy is so critical, though! The target audience for the system is Dxers, both novice and expert, and with the league tables being competitive it is paramount to make them fair and accurate. Without certain checks and measures, the system will be a victim of poor quality logs and would be far less useful or credible. Please read on.
More about DXCC Mappings Notes
As most Dxers will appreciate it is important to have a clear idea of which DXCC is being worked when logging a callsign (eg. K7C is Kure Island, but KH7X is not). Although many DXCC entities map distinctly to a single prefix, a very large and significant set of callsigns require exceptions.
The average logging software in use today will only refer to current prefixes, and is generally poor at handling prefixes like TX, VP8, FO and many Asiatic Russian callsigns. Unfortunately, the average log is riddled with faults as a result – especially historical QSOs from the 1990s and earlier. Club Log tackles this problem head-on. When a log is uploaded to Club Log, a sophisticated analysis is performed taking into account rules, dates and exceptions going back to 1945 that help match the callsign to a DXCC entity. Special callsigns are handled by Club Log’s built in exceptions database. It is important to put date ranges around these exceptions as prefixes are added and removed from use over the decades.
Club Log’s DXCC database contains nearly 10,000 exceptions, each meticulously investigated and recorded by Alan 5B4AHJ, who spends many hours a day investigating and validating callsigns (in much the same way that Bill Moore on the DXCC desk does). Alan works on a purely voluntary basis, in unison with Jim AD1C and Bill NC1L wherever possible.
The outcome of our research and analysis is made freely available for the benefit of other software developers. The hope is that every logging product will be able to refer to our database and use it to improve logging accuracy and help Dxers to obtain an accurate measure of their performance.