Setup CQRLOG

Sat, Jan 21, 2017

In this “moving ham ops to Linux” entry, I’ll touch on the installation and basic setup of cqrlog, which I’ve found to be a pretty robust logging suite for the linux desktop.

These notes are geared towards running all components of cqrlog on a single system, as opposed to, say, running the backend database on a remote system.

Installation

Installation of CQRLOG is pretty straighforward on an Ubuntu-based system. Petr, the author of the software, maintains a launchpad repo and instructions on using it to install the software.

Keep in mind that CQRLOG has many dependencies, including MySQL (MariaDB). So this is a fairly large installation.

Configuration

I feel a little like I’m mailing this one in, but Petr, OK2CQR, and Martin, OK1RR, maintain pretty good documentation on what’s needed for setting up and running cqrlog. Additionally, much of their information is reasonably specific to Ubuntu distributions. So I highly recommend the CQRLOG help docs. That said…

Running CQRLOG for the first time

The first time you start up CQRLOG you’ll be prompted to allow the software to take some additional setup steps.

The first item is about setting up the local MariaDB database to store data on the local machine. I suppose you could say ‘no’ if you wanted to use an instance of MySQL or MariaDB that was running on another machine. I’m just going to say ‘yes’ to allow the scripts to setup the necessary tables and populate the various support data.

When that’s done the next step is to select and open the initial Log, “Log 001” - so click the log, then click “open log”. Now you’ll see the program’s change log - just click ‘close’.

Now the ‘New QSO’ window will open, as well as another dialog box prompting for additional setup action. Click ‘Yes’ to download and isntall the updated DXCC tables, then ‘Yes’ to download and install the new QSL manager DB.

Setting up preferences

Now with the “New QSO” window open select ‘Preferences’ from the ‘File’ menu.

Following are the values I’ve setup in CQRLOG (v2.0.4-1):

Program tab:

I change the Default web browser to ‘chrome’. Everything else I leave the same.

Station tab:
  • Call: NE4TW
  • Name: Todd Williams
  • QTH: Gainesville, FL, USA
  • Loc: EL89tp
New QSO tab:
  • Refresh data after save QSO - check
  • Enable auto search on HamQTH.com/QRZ.com - check

Everything else I leave the same.

Visible columns tab:

These control which bits of data will show up in the log view.

Leave most things as-is, but adjust the visibility of the QSL columns to reflect the fact that I don’t do conventional QSL cards, but I do use eQSL and LoTW.

Changes:

  • QSL sent - uncheck
  • QSL received - uncheck
  • LoTW QSL sent - check
  • eQSL sent - check
  • Received QSL,LoTW,eQSL (all values in one column) - check
Bands tab:

I’m only setup to operate on the following bands, so I check these and uncheck everything else: 7, 14, 18, 28, 144 Mhz

TRX control:

Skip this one for now… here’s why: the functionality provided by CQRLOG’s rig control is pretty basic. My main need for rig control to expose the various filters that the FT-991 provides. CQRLOG’s rig control provides none of this. Petr, CQRLOG’s developer, addresses this and suggests CQRLOG is intended primarily for people who have access to their radio’s front panel.

Here’s the big reason why you would want to use the CQRLOG’s rig control - auto-population of QSO freqency and mode (and maybe some other fields).

Export tab:

I make the following changes:

  • Locator - check
  • Power - check
  • Remarks - check
  • State - check
  • LoTW QSL sent - check
  • eQSL QSL sent - check
LoTW/eQSL support tab:

Here I fill in the username/password for LoTW and eQSL

  • Include LoTW and eQSL confirmed countried in DXCC statistic - check

Everything else is left as default.

fldigi/wsjt interface tab:

For now I’m using wsjtx, but not fldigi, so I’m just interested in that part of things.

  • Run wsjtx after entering to Remote mode for wsjt-x - check

Everything else left default.

External viewers tab:

Change HTML files to: chrome

Callbook support tab:

I’m a QRZ.com XML subscriber and their datafeed seems pretty solid, so I’m sticking with it. So I select the QRZ.com radio button on this tab and then fill in my User name and Password.

Online log upload tab:

Here I enable ClubLog and HRDLog. Note the HRDLog.net credentials are callsign and code… that code is NOT the same as the HRDLog.net website login password. It’s a separate upload code that HRDLog emailed to you after setting up your account on the website.

I also check:

  • Close the “Status of log upload” window after successful upload
  • Ignore changes caused by LoTW/eQSL upload/download

I haven’t used HamQTH, which is the QRZ.com competitor that Petr runs. I may begin using it. But I do find it a little annoying that CQRLOG doesn’t provide an upload-to-qrz.com function. It’s not hard to work around this, but it does add an extra workflow for me.

other tabs:

Any other tabs that I haven’t mentioned are ones where either I have no need for the functionality that they control, or I don’t fully understand how/why to use their functionality yet.

Wrap-up

That’s it for now. This config should be enough to get up and operating with CQRLOG configured to work with wsjtx and uploading logs to a number of online log services.

73!

Series: Moving ham ops to Linux