Creating And Managing Logbooks

Overview

A logbook belongs to one of your callsigns and holds the contacts worked with it. You create every logbook yourself. QSL Shack never creates one for you, so a callsign with no logbook is not a fault and nothing is missing.

Each logbook carries its own station details, which is what stops a portable or club station being re-keyed on every contact. One of your logbooks is the default, and that is the one QSL Shack opens first.

Logbooks are managed at Account Settings, then Logbooks.

How To Create A Logbook

To create a logbook you must be a licensed operator. If you sign up with a callsign, you create your first logbook as part of the guided setup. Every logbook after that is created here.

1. Go to Account Settings, then Logbooks.
2. Press Add a Logbook.
3. Enter a Logbook name. It is only a label, so use something you will recognize: Field Day, Portable, Contest. You can change it later.
4. Choose the Callsign. Only callsigns that do not already have a logbook are listed, and the choice is permanent.
5. Choose the Station location. It is required, so that the book always has a place to hand the next contact. If you have not saved the place yet, choose + Create New and add it without leaving the screen.
6. Press Add.

If the Add a Logbook button is not there, every callsign you hold already has a logbook. Add another callsign in Account Settings first.

How To Change A Logbook's Name Or Station Location

1. Press the pencil on the logbook's row.
2. Change the Logbook name, the Station location, or both.
3. Press Save.

The callsign is not editable. A logbook logs under the callsign it was created with for the life of the book, and contacts cannot be moved between callsigns. If you need contacts filed under a different callsign, that is a different logbook.

Changing the station location changes what the next contact logged in this book receives. A contact already logged copied its values at the moment it was logged and is not altered.

How To Change Which Logbook Is The Default

Press Make Default on the row you want. The default logbook is the one marked with a red asterisk beside its name.

The default cannot be hidden and cannot be deleted, which is what guarantees you always have a book to log into.

How To Hide A Logbook

1. In the Status column, press the word Visible.
2. Choose Hidden.

A hidden logbook comes off your screens, and its View control is grayed out because there is nowhere to go. Its contacts are not deleted. Put it back the same way by choosing Visible.

Your default logbook is offered no visibility control at all, because it cannot be hidden.

How To Delete A Logbook

1. Press the red trash icon on the logbook's row.
2. Read the confirmation. It names the logbook, how many contacts go with it, and whether QRZ connections will be removed.
3. Press Delete.

Deleting a logbook deletes the contacts in it. This is permanent and cannot be recovered.

The delete control is only drawn where a delete is actually allowed. A logbook holding a confirmed QSO cannot be deleted, and neither can your default logbook, so those rows have no trash icon rather than an icon that refuses.

Deleting a logbook also removes any QRZ connection to it. It does not remove the contacts or the logbook from QRZ.

What To Watch For

Hiding is the safe move when you are not sure. Hiding takes a logbook off your screens and keeps everything; deleting takes the contacts with it.

A station location that has been hidden still names itself on the logbook that uses it, so a blank is never mistaken for a place you never set.