What’s This Club Log Thing?
By Jim Wright N2GXJ
If you have an interest in ham radio, eventually you’ll hear of things like “DX” and “OQRS”. That’s when you’ll want to familiarize yourself with Club Log. Generally, Club Log is a free full featured online database and analysis tool suite at https://clublog.org designed to support the active amateur radio operator in managing, searching, and verifying radio contacts. Originally created as a software project to analyze amateur radio contact data and build targeted league tables for Clubs, it has evolved into so much more since then.
If you’re already familiar with Club Log, great! If not, here’s a brief intro, and an invitation as a GCARC Club member to join us on our DX league there.
What Can I Do With Club Log?
Ready to expand your tool kit on this ham radio learning adventure? Here’s a sampling of some of the things I have found useful that you can do with a free account at Club Log :
Join The GCARC Club League On Club Log
One of the interesting ways to use Club Log is to participate in your own leagues with friends. Your Club, GCARC - Gloucester County Amateur Radio Club, is a listed Club with a league at Club Log. We’ve a few members that have joined (https://clublog.org/league.php?Club=284). Many may not be aware of this service. Want to join us there? Please do!
To join us there, first, you’ll need a free Club Log account. To get one, go to the sign up form on Club Log at https://clublog.org/signup.php. Here you’ll enter your name (not callsign), email, and some other details. You’ll also be asked to provide an “invite code” (which I’ll explain in a minute). Once submitted, you’ll then check your email for an activation key that you then enter on the site to finish your registration. Once you have an active account to log in to, then you add your callsign, and can then (optionally) go to the Clubs section to join the GCARC Club league. Easy enough.
About that “invite code”…. As part of creating your account they’ll ask you to enter one provided by an existing user, which is not a problem, as a growing number of your Club members are now existing users. We each have 3 to give at any time, and when one we give gets used, we get another to replace it. Why they do this? They say that asking you to prove you have an association with the hobby by giving a code that another user issued to you helps them avoid the “serious inconvenience” of internet bots trying to create accounts. So that’s what we’ll have to do. Anyway, you can ask Jeff Garth WB2ZBN, or me, Jim Wright N2GXJ for one of these one-time-use codes when you need one. Then, once you have joined Club Log, Jeff (along with Marc Federici WM2Y) now has admin rights to approve you to the GCARC Club league.
Give it a try, and have fun. Then let us know if what you discover at Club Log is useful to you too!
By Jim Wright N2GXJ
If you have an interest in ham radio, eventually you’ll hear of things like “DX” and “OQRS”. That’s when you’ll want to familiarize yourself with Club Log. Generally, Club Log is a free full featured online database and analysis tool suite at https://clublog.org designed to support the active amateur radio operator in managing, searching, and verifying radio contacts. Originally created as a software project to analyze amateur radio contact data and build targeted league tables for Clubs, it has evolved into so much more since then.
If you’re already familiar with Club Log, great! If not, here’s a brief intro, and an invitation as a GCARC Club member to join us on our DX league there.
What Can I Do With Club Log?
Ready to expand your tool kit on this ham radio learning adventure? Here’s a sampling of some of the things I have found useful that you can do with a free account at Club Log :
- Search for active DXpeditions (temporary radio operations in rare locations). Some have Livestream links showing where they are making contacts to on the planet at any given time. See Figure 1 sample screenshot from current details at https://clublog.org/expeditions.php.
- See from the DXpedition’s perspective if they have uploaded a contact with you yet. See Figure 2 sample screenshot of QSOs they show logged with me from American Samoa. (Very useful to know if you’re in their log or not, as a first step towards getting a confirmation of contact).
- Access OQRS (Online QSL Request System). OQRS helps operators request confirmations for contacts. (Useful because many DXpeditions require you to use OQRS to ask for a confirmation).
- Generate personal reports from your uploaded contacts. These include which DXCC (DX Century Club) entities, and which Satellites, Zones, and Grid squares you have worked and confirmed
- Get personalized active DX spots listing active stations from DXCCs you do not have contacts with yet. (Very useful for increasing your contacted country counts)
- Run a “propagation wizard” that will create a 24-hour by-band propagation report between your location and a selected destination DXCC. The report shows not only expected band openings based on predicted solar flux history, but also shows the times and bands recently open to that DXCC based on actual QSOs uploaded by other Club Log users. (Very useful to help you know when best chances are for you to try to get through to that DXCC you are looking to contact)
- Join a Club league, to share your DXCC chase progress with those of your friends
- Generate a great circle map from any grid square of your choosing
- Sync and secure your credentials safely with ARRL Logbook of the World
Join The GCARC Club League On Club Log
One of the interesting ways to use Club Log is to participate in your own leagues with friends. Your Club, GCARC - Gloucester County Amateur Radio Club, is a listed Club with a league at Club Log. We’ve a few members that have joined (https://clublog.org/league.php?Club=284). Many may not be aware of this service. Want to join us there? Please do!
To join us there, first, you’ll need a free Club Log account. To get one, go to the sign up form on Club Log at https://clublog.org/signup.php. Here you’ll enter your name (not callsign), email, and some other details. You’ll also be asked to provide an “invite code” (which I’ll explain in a minute). Once submitted, you’ll then check your email for an activation key that you then enter on the site to finish your registration. Once you have an active account to log in to, then you add your callsign, and can then (optionally) go to the Clubs section to join the GCARC Club league. Easy enough.
About that “invite code”…. As part of creating your account they’ll ask you to enter one provided by an existing user, which is not a problem, as a growing number of your Club members are now existing users. We each have 3 to give at any time, and when one we give gets used, we get another to replace it. Why they do this? They say that asking you to prove you have an association with the hobby by giving a code that another user issued to you helps them avoid the “serious inconvenience” of internet bots trying to create accounts. So that’s what we’ll have to do. Anyway, you can ask Jeff Garth WB2ZBN, or me, Jim Wright N2GXJ for one of these one-time-use codes when you need one. Then, once you have joined Club Log, Jeff (along with Marc Federici WM2Y) now has admin rights to approve you to the GCARC Club league.
Give it a try, and have fun. Then let us know if what you discover at Club Log is useful to you too!
