How Do I Upload a Portion of My Main Log at Once Using N1mm

Operating a Contest

Before the Contest

This section addresses, in a cursory and breezy way, steps that you should have to become ready for a competition flavor and for each competition. It is worth reading. Where appropriate, links are included to point you to more extensive information.

Update Your Information Files

Make sure you take imported the latest wl_cty.dat file and downloaded the latest Super Check Partial (main.scp) file prior to the competition. Menu options for doing this may be establish on the Tools menu of the Entry window.

If you lot are using a Telephone call History file, import that into the database also and make certain Call History Lookup is on. More information about Call History can be found in this section.Load the part key definition file that you lot programme to employ into the database as well. If you brand any changes during testing, export your role keys to make certain your changes are saved. An explanation of how to create office primal definitions is found HERE, with additional information specific to phone function key messages Here. Sample Function Cardinal files for the major contests can be constitute in the >Downloads >Part Key Files folders for CW, SSB, and Digital modes . Click hither to watch videos about downloading and configuring your information files.

If you're going to be operating in a remote location without Cyberspace admission, go to the >Downloads >Documentation Downloads (PDF) folder for a PDF version of the manual. Store a local copy of the documentation in case y'all need to reference it when asunder from the website.

Examination

Today, the program supports CW, SSB and multiple digital modes, close to 300 contests, and a broad variety of radios and ancillary equipment. Contest rules change all the time, and organizers often forget to let logging software developers know. If this were a conventional software projection, whatsoever sane programmer would declare it "untestable."

Since its early on days, the N1MM Logger project has relied on users to do most of the testing. Apace releasing relatively minor updates, with the option of retreating a version or two if necessary, makes this a relatively low-risk arroyo, so long every bit users test each one enough in accelerate of the adjacent contest they want to get into.

If you are planning to operate in a contest a couple weeks from at present, load the latest update NOW, create a competition "case" equally outlined here, sit down down with your radio, computer, DX cluster connection, keyers, and whatsoever else you utilize, and simulate logging a dozen contacts as if you were running (enter a make-believe telephone call, type and hitting part keys as fast every bit you can). Then log a few more in S&P style. Make sure your messages and macros piece of work as expected, make sure you can record and playback SSB messages on the fly, make sure the multipliers you think should be counted are scored right, log some contacts that shouldn't be multipliers or points and make sure they are handled properly. If operating Assisted, grab some spots, make some spots, check the color-coding of spots against the contest rules. Make detailed notes of problems, if any.

A lot of bug are the effect of a local issue – hardware settings, user options or the like. Do accept the fourth dimension to check the documentation kickoff, but then don't hesitate to ask for help on the N1MM reflector. 4000 users and the N1MM team are there to help. With thank you to David Robbins K1TTT, from whose input this section was adopted.

During the Competition

Making Contest QSOs

Make sure you have your CW or SSB or digital function primal definitions set upwardly the way you desire, set upward as outlined in Before the Contest.

At present let'southward begin. There are several ways to make and log a contest QSO with N1MM Logger+, depending on how much yous want to automate the process. The details are the aforementioned for either telephone or CW. The four main ways y'all tin can use the stored messages are listed here in ascending social club of speed and convenience.

1. One central at a fourth dimension – press a function key when you desire to transport the associated message. Utilise the [Infinite] bar to move your cursor. When y'all have everything filled in, press [Enter], and the QSO volition exist logged. Done this way, a typical Run (CQ) QSO would wait like this:

1. F1 (CQ)
2. Station answers – copy phone call in callsign box
3. Say his callsign (phone) or press F5 to send it (CW)
4. Press F2 to transport the exchange (either a stored voice message or CW)
5. Press [Space] to motion the cursor to the exchange field
6. Type in the received substitution
7. Press F3 to send your acknowledgment
8. Press [Enter] to log the QSO

two. Semi-CT Style – CT was the DOS logging programme that pretty much started all this. It used the following convention to save keystrokes:

Enter the callsign of the station calling y'all. Press the [Ins] key to send his call and your exchange (CW), or speak his call and so printing [Ins]. Once you have copied his substitution, press F3 (TU) and [Enter] to Log. If y'all are calling other stations (Search and Pounce, or S&P), you would start printing F4 to send your call, and when the station responds follow the sequence equally above.

3. Early N1MM style – Enter the callsign of the station calling you. Press the [;] fundamental to transport his call and your commutation. Copy his substitution and press the "['] (correct next to ; on United states of america keyboards). The program sends the F3 (TU) message and logs the QSO. In S&P, you lot would hit F4 offset, and so [;] and so ['].

This saves some keystrokes, only there's an easier fashion. A couple of decades agone, N6TR adult the idea of making TR Log "modal." By that, he meant that the program would behave differently depending on whether you lot were in Run or S&P way. Making this distinction let him massively simplify and shorten the sequence of keystrokes required to complete a QSO.

four. Enter Sends Messages – N1MM Logger has now evolved N6TR'southward invention into what is called Enter Sends Letters, or ESM for short. You'll detect a total explanation of this mode in this section.

In brusk, ESM enables you lot to enter a callsign and and so step through the remaining steps in logging a QSO, merely by hitting the Enter key. The programme anticipates what you'll want to do next, moves the cursor, and highlights what canned bulletin will be sent if y'all printing Enter the next time. Note that if you wish, y'all can all the same press individual office keys at any time, to send a echo or otherwise bypass ESM.

Once you've used ESM, we call back you'll never go back to the quondam way once again.

Bugs Encountered During a Contest

When a bug was missed during testing and comes out during the contest please report it on the reflector right later the contest or, during the contest if it is a evidence stopper. Tom and the developers participate in many contests simply they also read the mail during contests and can suggest piece of work-arounds or sometimes bring out a new version. In improver, in that location are many other hams bachelor there who tin can assist.

Rather than writing down problems during the contest, try the following:

1. Utilise Alt+N to write a Note that will be attached as a comment to the QSO
2. At the terminate of the contest, apply the menu pick >View >Notes to see all the notes you have made during the contest

After the Contest

Start, a Word on Protecting Your Data

Later on almost every contest, we hear from a new user (or sometimes even an experienced one) who is afraid he or she has lost the log from the competition just completed. Fortunately, it is usually not true, just here are a few things to remember:

• Backup – this is just equally important with logging software as with whatsoever other computer application. Data non backed up can be data lost if something happens to your hardware or you make a mistake while manipulating the log database if you haven't backed information technology upwards. N1MM Logger+ stores all your QSO data in a file with the extension .s3db. The proper noun of the file is whatever name yous assigned to information technology when you offset set the program. There are other databases also used by the program – N1MM Admin.s3db, N1MM Packet Spots.s3db, and Do_Not_Use_Or_Erase.s3db, simply all the QSO information are in that first ane. The easiest manner to exercise really secure backup is to utilise a free backup programme such every bit Syncback SE to back up your active QSO database to a USB "pollex bulldoze." Any such drive you can buy today is plenty big plenty, clay cheap, and safe from about annihilation short of a ball peen hammer.

• Salve A Copy – Before you lot exercise anything, even if you just want to peek into your QSO database with an SQLite viewer, save a copy manually to a safe location. You are, after all, merely human; nosotros all can make mistakes, so it'south wise to practice what you tin can to protect yourself confronting them.

• Transaction TRN Files – During normal performance N1MM Logger+ saves the data about each QSO in a elementary text file. These files are stored in a sub-folder in the Databases folder in the user files surface area and tin be used to recover in the result the database file is corrupted.

• Here'due south an explanation of how you can employ those files to recover your information chop-chop, during a contest, or at your leisure if you oasis't done one of the two steps suggested above:
  • The transaction log is created for each competition you log to
  • The file is closed after each transaction and reopened to force the data to be written to disk
  • To keep things elementary and foolproof, you are non immune to change the name of the transaction log
  • The proper noun is used to brand sure yous are loading it properly, and to foreclose mixing logs of two contests. Instance name: 'CQWWCW – 2005-09-19 – xiv.TRN' i.eastward.: Contest proper name – date log created – an internal index number
  • To Recover your log, you lot MUST import the transaction log into a NEW (empty) database and a NEW contest log. Run across THIS LINK
  • The new competition log must be the same competition as the contest from the transaction file (Instance: if restoring CQWPXCW, the new competition must too be CQWPXCW). Why? To prevent a user recovering from a database trouble making the problem worse. This will preclude whatever issues from indistinguishable contacts and a number of other problems
  • As yous load the transaction log, a new transaction log is automatically made with the transactions in the first log. Thus yous should never have to merge logs. You ever utilize the concluding 1

Editing Individual QSOs

The easiest way to edit a QSO is by double-clicking in the Log window on the information you want to change. In rare cases, yous may need to select the QSO in the Log Window and right-click. Select "Edit Contact." The Edit Contact Window volition appear – for total details see the explanation here.

Crackdown on Post-Contest Logging Changes
Contest sponsors are keen down on mail service-competition log "massaging" that uses resource you access afterward the competition is over. The CQWW Contest Commission has recently been particularly explicit nigh this, saying that "the…Committee considers information technology unsportsmanlike to 'clean' your log post-contest using data sources such as recordings, call sign databases, etc." This kind of restriction is not intended to apply to post-contest log changes that are based on things you noted during the contest, such every bit bug with the CTY.DAT file, bad abbreviations for counties, states or provinces, etc. If yous defenseless it during the contest, you should feel free to fix it later.

Sometimes you lot may need to recover a QSO that y'all deleted by mistake during the contest. When a QSO is deleted, information technology is non completely removed from the database; instead, it is moved into a special log called DELETEDQS, from which information technology can be recovered equally follows:

• Commencement, export the competition log to ADIF (File > Consign > Export ADIF to file > Export ADIF to file…). Open that ADIF file with Notepad and look for an entry that looks similar ❮CONTEST_ID:nn❯competition-name in each QSO record. Take a note of what nn and contest-name are – you lot will need to employ them in the next step. Go along that Notepad window open up.
• Open the DELETEDQS log from inside N1MM+ (File > Open Log in Database… – it will exist the lesser log entry on the list), find the QSO in question, correct-click on information technology and select Re-create > Copy ADIF string (Copy is almost the bottom of the popup carte du jour). Then you tin paste that into the Notepad window with the main contest log ADIF file in it. Edit the ❮CONTEST_ID:viii❯DELETEDQS field in the recovered QSO record to change it to lucifer the other QSOs in the file. Relieve the file.
• In N1MM+, create a new database (File > New Database…). In that new database, create a new contest log of the right type. The start engagement and fourth dimension won't be right, but you tin can edit those to modify them to the bodily contest date. Now import the edited ADIF file into the log (File > Import > Import ADIF from File…), and use the Tools > Rescore Current Competition bill of fare detail to recalculate the score.

Entering Multiple QSOs After the Contest

Computer trouble? Made a paper log during (part of) the contest? The program has some nice features that will let rapid QSO entry. You can either enter the time for each QSO, or at that place are features to let yous set the appointment and fourth dimension via interpolation. (Call back, exact QSO times are not critical for competition sponsors, just inside reason).

• Type frequency band (4 or five digit numeric frequency, e.g. 7000, 14000) in the call-sign textbox of the Entry window and hit Enter. Then type the manner (CW, USB, LSB, etc.) and hit Enter.
• Enter calls and exchanges, and log them, every bit long as they are on the same band. Don't worry about date and time right now.
• When you lot need to change bands, enter the new frequency band and continue.

Modify Fourth dimension/Engagement for a Single Hand-Entered QSO

Updating the appointment and/or time of a unmarried QSO is best done by double-clicking on the fourth dimension stamp for that QSO and and so using the appointment-time box that appears to edit the appointment and fourth dimension. Alternatively, you can utilize the Edit Contact option in the right-click menu associated with the Log Window and edit the appointment and/or fourth dimension in the Edit Contact window.

Change Time for Multiple Hand-Entered QSOs

This method tin can be used to interpolate gauge times for a series of contacts. This time interpolation feature is most useful if you take a bunch of QSOs to enter. If you have ane or two QSOs whose times need changing information technology is easier to do it by editing in the Log

Make a Re-create of Your Log
Make a backup copy of your log database. You cannot (automatically) reverse the time interpolation process below. Y'all accept been warned!

• In the Log window, single-click the first QSO whose time and date you want to change. to highlight the row
• With mouse over the Log window, correct click
• Select >Prepare Start Interpolation Time Row
• Enter the new timestamp for the first QSO, and click [OK]
• Now, click on the terminal QSO whose time/date you desire to alter, to highlight the row
• With mouse over Log window, right click
• Select >Set Stop Interpolation Fourth dimension Row
• Enter desired time for that last QSO, and click [OK]

Changing QSO Time and Date
The utility volition average out and interpolate the time for each QSO in the group of QSOs you have selected. Call up there is no "disengage" feature. If you have a large gap in time in your mitt log, enter the showtime batch of QSOs, and exercise the interpolation. And so enter the second group of QSOs and practice a 2nd interpolation.

Single Computer Fashion But
If y'all have more ane estimator networked in N1MM+, this feature does not work. The pick is disabled whenever Networked Computer Way is on.

Change All QSO Times/Dates by a Fixed Amount

Support Your Log Database
While you could easily recover from a error during the following adjustment by performing another get-go, it is still a adept idea to play safe.

This will fix a log where all QSOs are off past a stock-still amount of time (for example, when the times are correct but the dates are wrong by 1 or more than days considering the QSOs were entered after the competition).

• Right click in the Log window
• Select >Change timestamps of the unabridged log by a fixed amount
• A dialog box will open, and enter outset fourth dimension (+ or -) in minutes

The date volition automatically arrange if the get-go rolls a QSO into a different twenty-four hour period. Fourth dimension is entered in minutes, and can be negative time to go backwards. (You might need a reckoner to determine the get-go minutes if your date was off past many days, months, or years). For example, entering +1440 volition shift a complete mean solar day forwards; -2880 two days dorsum.

How to Create Cabrillo Files

To submit your log, you need to consign it from the database in the proper format. Cabrillo is used by all major contests.

• Select File >Generate Cabrillo File.
• Make sure that your Station information (Config >Alter Your Station Data), and overall contest setup are correct (in the Contest Setup dialog, reached through File >Open up Log in Database …). For example, is your entry class correct? Your power classification? Whether Assisted or not? Are your State and ARRL Section both entered correctly in your station data?
• Did you put the right information in the Sent Commutation field, and nothing else? For case, when the commutation in a contest is 5NN WV, it may be tempting to put the whole thing in the Sent Substitution. That volition screw upward the Cabrillo file with multiple point reports for each QSO, so get in the addiction of putting the signal written report in your stored messages, not in this field.
• A Cabrillo file will be created named your_call.LOG. Past default this is placed in the ExportFiles sub-folder in the N1MM Logger+ user files directory, merely yous are given the options of choosing a dissimilar name and/or of saving the file anywhere else y'all wish.

It is a good idea to rescore your log (Tools >Rescore Current Competition) before generating the Cabrillo file.

How to Merge Contest Logs

If yous ran a multi-op station but did not network your logging computers, y'all will need to combine the logs from each figurer into a single log submission for the contest sponsors.

Using N1MM Logger+ and ADIF Files to Merge Logs

This merge method is the most automated and should require no transmission log editing, merely will only succeed if the contest types in each logging estimator were identical. If the contest types were non identical, it may be possible to recover with the aid of a text editor and some detective work, merely it will likely not be like shooting fish in a barrel. It'south better by far to avert this situation past using the identical contest types during the contest.

1. Examine the logs to ensure that the competition types are identical in each computer: >File >Open Log in Database
2. Export an ADIF file from each logging reckoner: >File >Export >Export ADIF to file. Assign a unique proper noun to each ADIF file to distinguish it from others when importing. Before standing, guarantee that the contest types from each computer were identical by opening each ADIF file with a text editor (like Notepad) and looking for the ADIF expression CONTEST_ID. They should all be the aforementioned length and contest name. For example: ❮CONTEST_ID:14❯ARRL-FIELD-DAY
3. Copy all exported ADIF files to the computer that will create the merged log
4. Launch N1MM Logger+ in the merge computer. If the merge computer is 1 of the ones that was used during the contest, you volition need to create a new database for the merged log: >File >New Database. At present in the new database or on the new computer, create a new competition log for the merged records: >File >New Log in Database. Be careful to brand the contest type identical to the competition type that was used during the competition
5. Import the extracted ADIF files ane after some other into the new competition log: >File >Import >Import ADIF from file
6. Use >Tools >Rescore Current Contest to rescore the contest
7. Extract the new, merged competition log for submission to the contest sponsor: >File >Generate Cabrillo File

Using Excel and Cabrillo Files to Merge Logs

In some circumstances, it might exist easier to combine logs outside N1MM Logger+ by importing the Cabrillo files into a spreadsheet program similar Excel. As with the ADIF method, this works all-time if the contest types are identical, or at least utilise the same Cabrillo format (i.eastward. similar contest exchanges, same columns).

1. Create a Cabrillo file from each log: >File >Generate Cabrillo file. Assign a unique name to each log file to distinguish it from others when importing
2. Re-create all exported Cabrillo log files to the reckoner that will create the merged log
3. Combine the QSO records from each Cabrillo log into a single text file using a text editor (like Notepad). Open each Cabrillo file, and copy only the QSO records – leave out the header information in the outset and Finish-OF-LOG statement at the cease. Paste this QSO data into a new text certificate (a .TXT file) with the QSOs from every log.
4. Launch Excel in the merge computer, and import the combined .TXT file into a spreadsheet. In Excel: >File >Open, set file type for TXT, and select the merged QSO log file. In the Excel text import wizard, declare the original data type every bit fixed width. In the Data Preview dialog window, adjust the field delimiters as necessary to brainstorm each Excel column at the showtime of a log field. Printing [Finish]. Examine the QSO columns in the spreadsheet to ensure that your import was successful
5. Select the unabridged spreadsheet using your mouse or [Ctrl]A, then sort the spreadsheet by appointment and time: >Information >Sort, column D (date), and column East (time)
6. Export the sorted log data to a infinite-delimited file: >File >Relieve equally >FORMATTED TEXT (Infinite Delimited) .PRN
7. Using an editor, copy/paste the Cabrillo header information and END-OF-LOG statement from ane of the original Cabrillo logs into the sorted data file. Rename this file as a .LOG file blazon and submit it to the contest sponsor.

How to Print the Log

There is no specific choice for printing a log straight. Notwithstanding, if y'all Click on Export on the File card, in that location's a variety of options that can be used to create a file that you lot tin can then impress a copy of:

The nearly likely reason for wanting a printed log is for awards submissions or archiving. Because N1MM Logger+ is not intended as a general-purpose logging program, it does non offer honor tracking functions. Nonetheless the ADIF file option will give you a file that can be readily imported into any popular full general logger. If you lot only desire something for a notebook, the Generic consign volition requite you a text file that tin can be printed from Notepad.

How to Get Statistics

From the View menu item in the Entry window, choose Statistics. This tool allows y'all to select whatever two data points of involvement. For case, you can select hours for the Row and Zones for the Column, and the program will display a tabular array of how many QSOs in which zones were worked in which clock hours. This is a lot easier to use than information technology is to explicate in words, and so requite information technology a try.

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Source: https://n1mmwp.hamdocs.com/getting-started/operating-a-contest/