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Cloudlog Aurora

Cloudlog Aurora is the Windows program that sits on the shack PC, next to the radio. Cloudlog is the log, in the browser. Aurora is what joins the radio, WSJT-X, and the other shack programs to that log.

You want it when the logging screen should follow the rig, when FT8 contacts should land in Cloudlog as you log them in WSJT-X, or when a click on the bandmap should tune the radio.

The program's own guide is at aurora.cloudlog.org. This page is how it fits with Cloudlog.

Picture needed: aurora-main.png Cloudlog Aurora running, the main window, so the status area is visible. No need for every setting.

What you need

  • Windows, with the .NET 9 desktop runtime installed. The Aurora site links it.
  • Cloudlog 2.4.1 or later. A current Cloudlog is fine.
  • A read and write API key. Aurora sends contacts and radio data, so a read-only key is the wrong one.

Download the zip from the Aurora site. There is no installer. Extract it somewhere you will leave it, such as C:\Ham Radio\Cloudlog Aurora\, and run Cloudlog Aurora.exe. Extracting it into Downloads and then deleting Downloads is how it goes missing.

Pointing it at your Cloudlog

File, Settings. Aurora asks for the address of your Cloudlog and the API key. The address is the same one you use in the browser, and the API Keys page shows it with a copy button.

Tell Aurora which station location the contacts belong to. A home station and a portable station are different locations, and a contact filed against the wrong one shows up in the wrong logbook. The WSJT-X side has its own station location setting, so FT8 can go to a different location from the contacts you type.

On the Cloudlog side, your callsign, Hardware Interfaces, is where a radio appears once Aurora has introduced it. Until something connects, that page is empty. That is expected.

What it talks to

  • The radio, through Hamlib, so frequency and mode reach Cloudlog. Clicking a spot on the bandmap sends a tune command back down the same path. Bandmap tuning wants Aurora 2, with the radio connected and that radio selected in Cloudlog.
  • WSJT-X and JTDX, over the UDP link those programs already use. A contact you log there is uploaded to Cloudlog. Aurora can also read the decodes, which is how it knows who is calling CQ.
  • SatPC32, for satellite operation.
  • A Winkeyer, for CW from the logging screen. Winkeyer support in Cloudlog is still rough around the edges. Switch it on only after you have read the note on your account.

Leave Aurora running while you operate. Close it, and the logging screen stops hearing the radio, and WSJT-X stops filing contacts.

Picture needed: aurora-settings.png File, Settings, the part with the Cloudlog address and the API key. Blank the key out of the screenshot before you save it, or cover it. A picture of a real key is a picture of the key to your log.