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Simple Fast Log Entry

Simple Fast Log Entry is for typing a pile of contacts quickly, usually from a paper log after a portable session. It lives under the QSO menu, next to Contest Logging.

The idea comes from DF3CB's Fast Log Entry. OK2CQR wrote the web version. You type a short line per contact. Band, mode, and time carry forward until you change them, so the second contact on the same frequency is little more than a callsign and a report.

Picture needed: simple-fle.png Simple Fast Log Entry. Station Call/Location, the date, the text box with two or three lines, the QSO list on the right, and Save in Cloudlog.

The left side

QSO Data is the card on the left.

  • QSO Date. Leave it blank and Cloudlog uses today.
  • Current UTC Time. A clock. The log wants UTC.
  • Station Call/Location. The active station location starts selected. The contacts join that location's log. If you were somewhere new, create the station location first. The page warns you when this box is still the empty option.
  • Operator. Who was at the key. It starts as the operator callsign on your session.

Under that is the text box, Enter the Data. A green satellite note appears above the box when a line has set a satellite and a mode.

What is that? opens a short explanation. Syntax Help opens the line format, and Close and Load Sample Data drops an example into the box so you can see a legal line. Clear that example before you save. The page refuses to log while the sample is still in the box.

One contact per line. On each new line, write only what changed.

Start with the band, or a frequency in MHz such as 7.145, and the mode. Then the time as four digits, UTC, and the callsign.

20m ssb
2134 2m0sql

That is 2M0SQL at 21:34 on 20 m SSB. Leave the report out and Cloudlog uses 59, or 599 on a data mode. When the report was different, write the sent report first:

6 la8aja 47 46

The 6 is the only digit of the minute that changed, so the time is 21:36. Band and mode were the same, so they are left out.

A new band is a line of its own. A new date is date 2021-05-14. day ++ moves on one day and keeps the time.

date 2021-05-14
40m
40 dj7nt
day ++
df3et

The full syntax, including contests and the rest, is DF3CB's, at df3cb.com/fle/documentation.

A few extras Cloudlog understands on the callsign line:

  • A gridsquare of four or six characters, such as io91 or io92tn.
  • Several squares separated by commas and no spaces, for a station on a corner. Those are stored as the VUCC grids. io91,io92
  • A comment in angle brackets. < great signal > goes in the comment, and it is kept out of the callsign.
  • A satellite. A line sat or satellite, then the name and the mode, such as ao-7 V/U. Modes look like V/U, U/V, L/S, V, or U. Cloudlog fills the frequencies from its satellite list.

Refs in the list on the right can be a SOTA, IOTA, POTA, or WWFF reference. The syntax help on the page is the place to check the exact line for those. The hint under the list names the four.

The list on the right

Reload QSO List reads the text box and fills the table: date, time, callsign, band, mode, RST sent, RST received, operator, refs, grid, and comment. A badge counts the contacts. Fix the text and reload again until the table matches the paper log.

Save in Cloudlog asks you to confirm, writes the contacts into the station location you picked, and clears the session. After that they are ordinary QSOs. They show up in the logbook and the awards like any other contact.

Clear Logging Session wipes the text box and the list. It asks first.

When it will not save

The page names the problem:

  • Band is missing.
  • Mode is missing.
  • Time is not set.
  • The date is not a real date.
  • Station Call is not selected.
  • Operator is empty.
  • The sample data is still in the box.

Fix that line. A single bad line blocks the whole list, because Save writes the list as one session.