Logging QSOs

Overview

A QSO is a contact you worked, and your logbook is where it is filed. Every QSO is filed in one logbook, and that logbook logs under one callsign, so the callsign a contact was worked with is never in question.

There are three ways a QSO reaches your logbook.

Manual entry. A web form, one contact at a time. With your callsign and your locations set up, manual entry takes very little typing, because the form already knows which callsign you are logging under and where you are operating from.

ADIF import. QSOs are imported from any logging program that exports ADIF. You choose the file from your computer and upload it. You see exactly what would happen before anything is added.

Integrations. A connection to QRZ or to Logbook of the World brings contacts in automatically on a schedule, or immediately when you press a button.

You can use all three on the same logbook. QSOs already in your log are recognized and skipped, so the methods do not fight each other.

How To Log A QSO Manually

1. Open your logbook. If you keep more than one, choose the one you want from the dropdown under the page heading. The QSO is filed in whichever book is showing, and the form on the next screen has no logbook control, so this is where the choice is made.
2. Press Log a QSO, the green button on the right.
3. Choose where you worked from in Operating from. Your logbook's own station location is already selected, so in most cases there is nothing to do here. To log from somewhere new, choose + Create New and add the place without leaving the form.
4. Enter the Worked Callsign. As you type, QSL Shack looks the callsign up and tells you underneath whether that operator is already on QSL Shack, offers you a link to invite them if not, and warns you if you have entered your own callsign.
5. Check QSO Date (UTC) and Time (UTC). Both are filled in with the current UTC date and time, which is right if you are logging as you work.
6. Enter the Frequency (MHz) and the Band fills itself in. Then choose the Mode.
7. RST Sent and RST Received are already 59. Change them if you exchanged something else.
8. Fill in anything else worth keeping. Their Name, Their QTH, Power and Their Grid Square are all optional. Entering their grid square gives you an exact distance instead of one measured to the middle of their country.
9. Use Comment for what the other operator should see. It appears on the QSL card, and a long one may be shortened to fit the card design. Use Notes for what only you should see.
10. Decide whether to switch on Show this QSO on my public logbook.
11. Press Save QSO.

Only the Worked Callsign and the QSO Date have to be filled in. The date, the time, the band and the mode are what decide whether this contact ever confirms against the other operator's log, so fill in all four whenever you know them.

How To Import QSOs From An ADIF File

1. Export an ADIF file from your logging program. Most write .adi or .adif.
2. Open your logbook and press Import ADIF.
3. Choose the file. Up to 32 MB.
4. If you keep more than one logbook, pick the one the contacts belong in. Your station location and grid come from the book you pick.
5. Choose Private or Public. Public is already selected. If your logbook is set to public and you wish to keep some QSOs in a batch private, set the logbook to Private before you import and, once imported, set the individual QSOs to private, then set the logbook back to Public.
6. Decide whether to tick Look for matches with other operators' logs. Ticked, any contact that matches a QSO another operator already logged is confirmed for both of you straight away. Left off, the contacts are imported and you can run the check later from the results screen.
7. Press Preview import. Nothing has been added to your logbook at this point.
8. Read the three numbers. Would be added is what is new. Flagged as duplicates is what is already in your log or repeated inside the file itself, and it is skipped. Could not be read is what QSL Shack could not make sense of, listed record by record with the reason.
9. Press Add QSOs to my logbook.

Uploading the same file again is always safe. Anything already in your log is skipped, so nothing is duplicated.

A very large log may stop partway and tell you so. That is normal rather than a failure. Upload the same file again and it picks up where it stopped.

Confirmation marks in your file are ignored on purpose. A QSO is confirmed on QSL Shack only when both operators have logged it here.

How To Bring QSOs In From An Integration

1. Go to Account, then Integrations.
2. Connect the service you use. QRZ needs the API key for the QRZ logbook you are connecting. Logbook of the World needs your LoTW sign-in.
3. Choose which QSL Shack logbook the connection belongs to.
4. Switch on automatic checking to have contacts brought in on a schedule, or leave it off and pull whenever you want to.

The full instructions for each service are on the QRZ Logbook Sync and Logbook of the World pages.

Contacts arriving this way follow the same duplicate rule as an import: anything already in your log is skipped.

Any record a service sends that could not be written to your logbook appears on your Exception Reports, with the reason and the controls that will clear it. Nothing is discarded in silence.

What To Do When A QSO Will Not Import

Three different screens report a problem, and which one to look at depends on where the contact came from.

A record in an ADIF file you uploaded. The import preview and the results screen both list every record they could not read, by its number in the file, with the reason. Your logbook is untouched by those records and the rest of the file still imports. Fix them in the logging program that wrote the file and upload the file again. Records that already came in are skipped, so only the corrected ones are added.

A contact QRZ or LoTW sent that could not be written to your logbook. These are not on the import screens at all. They are on your Exception Reports, under the tab for that service, with the reason for each one and the actions that will clear it.

A contact of yours that has not reached QRZ or LoTW. Also on your Exception Reports, in its own section, with the reason. A contact refused by LoTW carries ARRL's own wording, so it reads the same as it would if you had run TQSL yourself.

Nothing is ever discarded in silence. A QSO you logged stays in your logbook exactly as you logged it, whatever any service says about it.