Ham Logs
The 'Ham Logs' tab-page is where you go if you want to load an Amateur Radio log in ADIF or Cabrillo format, and then display it on the map in the 'Ham Radio > Ham Log' map-layer. There are facilities to store 3 separate logs, in ADIF or Cabrillo format. Each log can contain up to 3,000 QSOs. Any more that that will not be imported, but a variety of import-filtering options are provided: Only Include QSOs with specified QSL Status, Continent, CQ Zone, or ITU Zone. The limit of 3,000 QSOs will then be applied after filtering. The 'Time Mapper UHD' comes with test-logs already loaded, so that you can experiment with display options. There are also a variety of test-logs supplied in 'Samples', which you can use to practice loading a log if you haven't got one of your own available.
To load an ADIF or Cabrillo Log, select the position (1-3) with the 'Select Ham Log' control, then click the 'Load an ADIF or Cabrillo Ham Log' button. If these are some existing QSOs already saved, you will be given the option of deleting them before adding new ones, or appending the new QSOs to the existing ones. You can also load one of the included test logs by clicking 'Load a Sample Log'. The program will then open the log, and check the format and QSO-count. You will then see the 'Log Load Options' window, where you can filter the log using one of the available options. The program will then proceed to import the log. This may take a little time, depending how many QSOs the log contains, and how fast your computer is. The 'Settings Menu' status bar lets you know how the import is progressing. At the end of the process, the result will be shown in the status bar, and the QSOs will be shown in the upper table.
You can now close the 'Settings Menu', then open the 'Layers Menu' and enable the 'Ham Radio > Ham Log' layer. You will notice that there are colored boxes in each of the 'Point Color', 'Line Color', and 'Label Color' columns. Each can be turned on and off individually by clicking the adjacent check-boxes, and configured by clicking the color boxes. The Point will show the location of the QSO, the line will show the Great Circle route back to the User Location, and the label will show the callsign.
We can have different colors for the QSO points: what these refer to are selected by the 'Additional Layer Features' control. The options are: 'All QSOs, Colored by Band', 'All QSOs, Colored by Mode', or 'All QSOs, Colored by QSL Status'. To choose the actual colors, click the 'Point Color' box. The 'Edit Group Style' window will open, and you will see entries for all the Bands or Modes or QSL Status that the log contains. Click the colored boxes to change any color. You can also use the adjacent checkboxes to hide or show specific bands. Press 'Save' when you have finished making changes, then close the 'Layers Menu' to see the changes reflected on the map.
You can also choose to show all the Countries in your log. This is a better idea if you have loaded a large log. The label options for country-display are Country Name, Standard Prefix for the country, or the country's flag, selected from the Amateur Radio flag-set.
FAQ
Q. Does the log-file need a specific file-type to identify it? (.log, .adi, .cbr, etc.)
A. No, the program will attempt to identify any file's contents as ADIF or Cabrillo. Other formats are rejected.
Q. Does the log need to have positions included for each QSO?
A. Ideally, yes. These should be either in the 'LAT' and 'LON' fields, or the 'GRIDSQUARE' or 'VUCC_GRIDS' fields of an ADIF log. The 'LAT' and 'LON' fields are given priority. If missing, their values will be calculated from the 'GRIDSQUARE' or 'VUCC_GRIDS' fields. If all of these are missing, the position may be found from a reference-database, or it will be given a random value based on the prefix region and prefix sub-region. If a random value has been applied, this entry will not be shown when displaying 'Worked Grid Squares'. A Cabrillo log never has positions for its QSOs, though if the recognised contest used Grid Locators as an exchange-item, these will be used to determine latitude and longitude. The program includes reference data bases for Radio Amateur callsigns in the United States, Canada, and Australia. These can be updated as often as you like.
Q. How can I geocode a log with all the correct positions?
A. At the moment, the 'Time Mapper UHD' does not provide a full geo-referencing service for an empty log. The random values that the program generates will be more than adequate for a world map without zooming, and in most cases you won't notice the difference. You can also get positions from HamQTH.com and QRZ.com, though for stations outside of USA, Canada, Australia, and Germany (countries which publish license data) these will depend on whether each individual station has entered the correct location themselves.
Q. Why is the import-routine so slow?
A. Because of all the processing that the program has to do! Each callsign is parsed to see if it is valid, and which ADIF Country-Entity it comes from. If no position is included, we try to get one from a number of different sources. Then, it creates a minimum feature 'Plot Log' that is ideal for speedy plotting. Then it needs to cross-reference the bands and modes, and see which countries were worked on which band and which mode. Then it creates a Grid Locator table, and then it has a lot of clearing up to do, deleting unwanted tables and datasets.
Q. Why aren't all QSOs imported?
A. Because they can't be recognised as a genuine callsign, or it is impossible to find a position for them: QQ9AB, or EI8IC/W2, or EI8IC/MM for instance. They will also be rejected if they contain faulty parameters. Faulty QSOs, with the error-reason, are stored in the 'LastImportErrors.txt' file, which is shown after the import-routine ends. You can also see it at any time by clicking 'Settings Menu > Log Stats > Show Last Import Errors'. The file will then open in your default text-file viewer.