Do you keep detailed logs?

[w3sy]

Can't help it --I get a little sentimental around this time of year. It's November 21 -- the 32nd anniversary of my very first real live ham QSO. It was on 15 CW with a local, and was as a result of a "sked" (scheduled contact), but it was the first time I pumped RF onto the ham bands signing that brand new call, WN3PQM.

I can relive this and other Great Moments in Ham Radio History just by opening one of my old ARRL logbooks and thumbing through the yellowed and dog-eared pages. The old logs show the date and time of each contact, along with a comment about how enjoyable the QSO was. The logs also show "unsuccessful" calls -- Back then, we had to log ALL transmissions, even unanswered CQ's. That was the rule.

Logging requirements have since been dramatically relaxed -- all but eliminated. But I still log every QSO. Every one. And I still use a paper log. No flames please -- I run the e-mail servers for a huge company, so it's not like I'm computer shy. I just like to be able to pull a log book off the shelf, flip through, see the handwriting, read the comments.

Computerized logs are impressive. You can key in a call and say, "Nice to work you again for the first time since May 3, 1998." Computerized logs also instantly track status of operating awards. They can be sorted, printed, sliced, diced, exported to spreadsheets. They can automatically spit out a QSL. They're cool.

But my paper logs are irreplaceable personal artifacts.

But enough of that. I'll shut up before they take me away to The Home.

Do you log? Do you log EVERYTHING, including that regular roundtable QSO with your local buddies? Do you use a computer, or a paper log book?

[WB2GOF]

Nope. #It's no longer required by law. #I am not interested in pursuing awards. #I am quite computer literate, but my computer is in my home/office/bedroom, and my rigs are in the basement (where my wife banished us because she thought they were arcane and unsightly), so that doesn't work for me either.

Enjoy The Home, OM!

[K7ADB]

I log every QSO on my computer. I didn't want to pay the high price for commercial logging software so I wrote my own. It works exactly the way I want it to. It took some time to write but was well worth it.

[WB2WIK]

I use computer logging during contests only, since the software is very powerful and performs many functions that are too time consuming to do manually.

But for casual operating, I leave the computer "off," and use a paper log, the same kind I've used for 37 years: The ARRL Logbook, 40 sheets per book, 25 contacts per page (1000 QSOs per book), and I just started logbook #252 on Sunday, November 17th. With its completion, I'll have logged 252,000 non-contest QSOs.

No, I don't log casual chit-chats with friends, roundtables, or any mobile contacts, at all. I log at the home station all contacts I think might result in a QSL request, so I can check when cards come in, and that's probably 80% or so of all contacts. When that big envelope comes from the bureau each month (usually packed full of JA cards, at least!http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif, I really do check them, and really do fill out cards and send them back out through the outgoing bureau. Even after all these years.

And I do have the logs, back to #001 in 1965.

WB2WIK/6

[K9STH]

I definitely keep a paper log of every QSO that I make at home. The form that I use is a modification of the ARRL logbook that works for me! Now, for mobile contacts, I don't log those I make on FM. However, I do have my wife keep notes when I operate on 10 meter SSB. When we get to where we are going, I normally transfer these notes to a permanent log. This helps for things like DXCC and the fact that I seem to get a fair number of QSL cards from my 10 meter mobile operation.

Now, I don't log CQs that I make and no one comes back to me. Believe it or not, when I was first licensed in 1959, you had to record each and every CQ even if you were not answered! If your signal wasn't that good, you would have page after page of station called = CQ and over in the "comments" you would write "ND" for "nothing doing"! Fortunately, after a few years, the FCC eliminated that requirement, then eliminated the need for logs from mobiles, and then basically eliminated logs totally.

There can be a need for a written log (or computerized log) if you find that someone is "bootlegging" your call, or if someone is causing interference in your neighborhood (not you, someone else). If you can show the FCC that you maintain a log on a regular basis, this goes a long ways in helping your position.

Glen, K9STH

[N7CPC]

When I returned to Ham radio a few years ago I was relieved to find that logs are no longer required. But guess what. The first thing I did upon returning to HF was start keeping logs! I guess old habbits die hard.

I did run across some of my old novice logs from the late sixties. Oddly enough I remembered most of the more interesting QSO's. Now, if I could only remember to take out the trash!

73 de Craig.........N7CPC

[WB2GOF]

CPC - Is that "habits" or "hobbits" which die hard?

[w0dz]

I log everthing except unanswered cq's in the original logbooks that I bought in 1966! Still haven't used all the ones I bought. I put comments in there like "Apollo 11 a huge success" and "Now using new HD-10 keyer" and "T/R switch fell apart" and "Today is cloudy" and so on, and it is fun to look at those old comments. In fact, sometimes I wish I had put more in, to help me remember when I removed the AM modulator from my homebrew rig for example. It's a great memory jogger. It's a diary of what I've been doing for the last 36 years. And yep, it's inefficient and I could easily switch to a computerized log. Just don't want to.

[ae4fa]

sy: It's my 39th.

You're right - there's nothing like paper logs. I log all my contacts in a master log edited from the big notebook I keep notes on at home, as well as the small notebooks I use mobile and portable. Everything but 2 meter FM and our local 6 meter ragchew sessions.

The backs of the log pages are filled with drawings of antennas ideas, notes on new equipment, whether purchased or built, weather observations, results of tests I conduct, notes of experiments I want to try, initiation of new modes, and lots more.

If it in any way relates to ham radio, that's where I note it. I still have every log I've used - and its a real blast to go back through some of the old ones - especially the first one.

73, Bob

[AB0SI]

I log all contacts (not unanswered CQs or when the other end grabs someone else rather than me). I use a computer based log. Why? Mostly becuase I can not read my own writing.

73

paul ab0si

[wb6bcn]

I just got back on this year after a long absence and started logging all my HF QSOs on the computer. About a month ago I had a computer crash: All the info lost. and as for my old log books from 1969 to ?? got lost when I moved here in 1985.

Sometimes it doesn't pay to try anything.

Doug Flory
WB6BCN

[W6ECE]

In 1948 the FCC said I should retain a log for a year.

I DID!

[n0xu]

I keep logs for anything QSO that somebody may ask me a card for. So far, its only been for HF and satellite. I don't even bother for V/UHF jawboning.

73 de Drew N0XU

[w3sy]

Yeah, I don't log 2 meter FM mobile or portable either. Forgot to mention that.

I also logged comments about non-ham stuff that happened! Not sure where I got the idea to do that, but nice to see I'm not the only one that does that.

WB2WIK --- log 252... Awesome.

As for the unanswered CQ's, yup, in 1970 that was still the rule. But what was interesting to see was when I went from an indoor dipole to a HyGain 14AVQ vertical, the "unanswered CQ frequency" dropped WAY down. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

The handwriting in the log was also interesting to see. Sometimes it was very neatly printed. Other times looked like scrawl. I think the sloppiness of the handwriting was a gauge of the "teenage angst" I may have been experiencing at the time. HAW!!

Of course, I use computerized logging during contests. Paper logs during contests is an exercise in extreme masochism.

[KG4PWO]

Although it's not required, I keep a log of ALL my time on the air. I made a modified log from one I saw on ARRL. I also keep a site log with general comments in the same binder. There is also a scematic of each piece of new gear I have in my shack (Homebrewed or bought). It's what I'm used to doing in my long years of working on computers.

It nice to be able to reference problems, fixes and thoughts long after the fact just by flipping to the right page.

A phone company in Maryland put it best,"Numbers you write down are easy to recall".

[k3sam]

There was a period of time when I stopped logging every contact on paper, then it was just computer, however now I log them all (except mobile and 2 meter) on paper and just use the computer for quick callsign lookup. # I have also found it to be a nice asset. #I also log daily activities as well when important. #Such as a call to HRO, who I spoke to and for what reason. #Another good use for this is contact with utility companies. #If you are disputing a phone charge, and they say "look for a credit on next months bill", get the persons name and ext. number. #Next month if it's not there, go back a month on your log book so when they ask "who said that", you know.

-Sam

[W5ATX]

I logged all my QSOs for years, and like others here, I have a nice collection of written memories in my old logs. But I don't log mobile/portable stuff anymore. And since that's all I work . . .

I've never been a very good record keeper. Which is a shame too probably. My doctor yells at me all the time for it. I've been diabetic for almost 30 years, and of course we diabetics are supposed to log our blood sugar tests, medications, food intake, exercise, etc. And I just can't bring myself to do it. I know, I should. But my lab work comes back pretty fair, and I'm still alive, so I guess I'm doing something right.

Funny how one aspect of your life will be matched in others.

Keeping logs . . if I ever get an HF station in the house, I suspect I'll keep the paper log again too. Too many good memories to pass up.

73,

Chris

[ae4fa]

Well, I gotta admit there's a drawback to paper logs - at least the way I do 'em, transcribing from 3 different notebooks (home, mobile, portable).

I spent a cozy couple of hours the other night catching up - 9 & 1/2 pages worth . . . and that was just from late August until this past weekend!

At 25 entries per page - plus notes on the back of the pages - I had a severe case of writer's cramp. But a few cold 807s, and a good night's sleep . . .

Ah, well

73, Bob

[vo1ja]

while we are no longer required to log EVERY use of air time, I still do; it is amazing how useful a complete log can be, for all kinds of reasons.[ I have a hx in CF, which might explain things] I tried a 'puter log a few years back, only to lose a moth's worth of logs, and then went back to manual logging again: working cw tends to lend itelf to paper anyhow, and, again, it is nice to kick back and see what condx were like a decade or so ago : >
http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
de vo1ja,
harold.