Getting Started with SWISSLOG
When you have finished installing the SWISSLOG program on your computer, please take a few minutes and review the sections listed below. These are the most important topics and should be reviewed before exploring other SWISSLOG functions.
The following five sections are the most important:
Start SWISSLOG by clicking on the SWISSLOG icon located on your desktop.
Enter your personal data (Callsign, QTH Locator, UTC Time Difference, etc.)
The first time you start SWISSLOG, a pop-up widow will appear
prompting you for details about your station: Callsign, QTH, Operator
Name, Time Difference compared to UTC, and a few other details. As a
minimum, you are required to enter a callsign; however, it is recommended
that you fill in the other fields at this point. Please see
My QTH for additional details.
Hint: You can make changes to your personal
data or the details describing your station at any time. For example: If
you need to add another QTH or change the time difference between UTC and
your local time due to Daylight Savings Time.
Now is a good time to register the program
From the main menu Select Help | About
Click on Register, type your callsign and press the Add Register button.
Now open the QSO Entry Window by clicking on the button located on the toolbar, or use the main menu and Select View | Add QSO’s, or use the keyboard shortcut which is Ctrl+A.
NOTE: You must register Swisslog with your amateur radio callsign in order to use it with no limits. Otherwise you will be limited to add a maximum of 100 records. This condition will be indicated as DEMO (Unreg) in the window title.
Select the Callbook database
Select the QSO-Entry-Options
At this point, you need to decide whether you want to enter QSO's in
real-time mode, or whether you want to add QSO's that you made previously.
When the program is first installed, real-time mode is enabled. You can
disable real-time mode by pressing the right mouse button and selecting Options (or by using the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl+O). You can also switch realtime entry ON/OFF easily by double
clicking in the date field. In realtime mode, background colour in the
start/end time and date fields will be set to yellow. Otherwise will be
set to white colour.
Hint: Remember to place the mouse
cursor inside the QSO Entry Window and then right-click to activate the
pop-up menu; then select Options. For
detailed information on the QSO-Entry options, click on Options.
When the real-time mode is enabled, the time and
date for the QSO is automatically inserted in the appropriate field. If
you select Store UTC in Logbook from the
options menu (default and recommended option), the time will be based on UTC. If you did not select Store UTC in Logbook, the contact time will
be based on your local time. Both of these times are derived from the
clock in your computer – be sure it’s set correctly and check it
occasionally. Also verify that the date is changing at the correct time
– midnight rather than noon.
When the real-time mode is not
enabled, you can manually enter the time and date for a QSO. The time and
date will be shown in these fields; however, you will be able to overwrite
the data.
Hint: If
you've disabled real-time mode in order to make a few manual entries,
don't forget to enable it when you're finished.
This
is a good time to review some of the other options which can be selected
from the Options for Add QSO menu. You can also select the default value for signal reports
received and sent.
Now you can start adding QSO's - While the QSO's Entry window is very intuitive, you may have questions about specific fields and how they relate to your log. For a detailed explanation of the QSO Entry window, click on QSO Entry Window. Also review the various options as mentioned in the above paragraphs.
After you've entered data for a QSO and would like to save it in your log, click on the Save button, or press the F10 function key.
If you have another logging program, it may be possible to transfer previously logged QSO’s into SWISSLOG; for information on the process, click on import these QSO's.
Setup your transceiver
Setup a DX Cluster Telnet server connection to receive DX spots
A further step: Setup rotator control
Copyright © 2004 SWISSLOG
Last modified:
19 jul. 2021