This application looks great as POTA type logger. Can it be used as a general logger for all my QSOs? Immediately I see a problem with dates, but as I am completely new to this perhaps there is a simple work around. Currently I plan to use it on my iPhone. Any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks!
There’s a difference between “logging general contacts” (i.e. not a POTA activation or anything else), which PoLo can do just fine, and “managing your general log”, where you accumulate all your QSOs, export to other services like QRZ or LoTW, search for past contacts, etc, etc, which PoLo cannot do yet.
I regularly use PoLo for general logging, creating a new “operation” each month, and then at the end of the month I export the ADIF, save it in my desktop, send to QRZ, etc.
And we do have future plans to extend PoLo, or complement it with a separate app, to provide a desktop logger and the kind of log management you are probably thinking of.
But in the meantime, you’re going to have to look at other options (and in my opinion, there are no great ones, which is why we do have the future plans mentioned above).
73 de KI2D
Hank,
Portable Logger (PoLo) certainly was designed as a portable activities logger (SOTA,POTA,WWFF,BOTA etc etc), with the logic of operating for distinct periods and closing off the “Operation” ready for submission to an “authority” and/or import to your everyday desktop logging environment from which you then distribute to your favourites of QRZ, LOTW, Clublog etc.
There is a desktop version of PoLo coming maybe next year. So for the purpose using PoLo as a general logger you will need to accommodate certain things and come up with a workflow that suits your thought process.
One way is to keep your PoLo “Operations” short e.g. down to one day or a week at most depending on your other activities. Operations will scroll out of view if there are too many which are still in need of your attention so too many “active” operations will be a nuisance.
If you have no other logging system, then you may think of fewer longer operation periods.
If PoLo is all you have, then you may find that your QSOs will go too far out of view to make it pleasant. But then you may not want them in view other than to show history when you make your next contact.
Ultimately you will have to find your own recipe for doing this.
Alan
So the main problem I have found initially is changing the date for the QSO from one day to the next while being in the same operation. Suppose on the 24th I log 5 contacts. Then I come in on the 25th and wish to continue logging in that same operation. How is the new date recorded? I don’t see the date anywhere in the log. Thanks for your patience!
You can just keep logging. The app captures the right time and date. Because the space is limited, the date is not displayed as another column, but instead it is a “sticky header” that groups all the QSOs on the same day. As soon as you log a contact on a different day, you’ll see the header for that date.
You may also use the quick adjustments as documented here:
Thank you for your quick replies. I thought I had tried that and found it didn’t work, but that’s probably because I am still unfamiliar with the program. I will try it again in about three hours when UTC here in Denver rolls over to a new day. Thank you.
