Importing a Log
The County-Hunting Mapper has the ability to store two separate and independent amateur radio logs: 'Main' and 'Auxiliary'. The only difference between them is that you can transfer all, or selected lines, from the Auxiliary to the Main log, but not the other way around.
There are no file-suffix requirements or name restrictions in any form at all: you can import any file, and the program will try and determine whether it contains a valid log. If not, the file will be rejected, and an information box will report this.
The program can import two types of log: ADIF, or Cabrillo. You don't need to specify the contents of a log file: the program determines what type of log it is automatically. The data that it finds in there will be parsed by the type of Contest, if available. This is especially useful when trying to determine which state a county with a county-code in the contest exchange derives from.
Parsing an ADIF file is simpler, as specific values are held in tags designed solely to contain that data-type, so there is no guessing.
Cabrillo logs, on the other hand, can contain different numbers of fields, and those fields can be used for different purposes, so we completely rely on the type of contest, found in the log-header, to work out what is going on. The program requires every Cabrillo log to have an included 'CONTEST' tag, and that the format for that log should follow the specified Cabrillo template for that type of contest. It is no good having columns missing that are supposed to be there, or extra columns that are not, or columns placed in the wrong order.
Field Day Logs: These should have 11 columns, including the 'QSO' column:
QSO: 7005 CW 2010-06-26 1803 N3ABC 4A EPA K8ABC 1E MI
Some loggers add extra columns for 'Name', but they must be deleted before a FD log can be imported.
For more information on this subject, see the Contest Notes section. To learn what the Cabrillo template should be for a specific contest, see the website of the contest-organizer. Some general Cabrillo templates, and the Cabrillo specification, can be seen online: https://wwrof.org/cabrillo/
(Link will open in your Browser). The ADIF specification can be seen here: http://adif.org.uk/ (Link will open in your Browser)
Do not be nervous about examining a contest log in a standard text-editor program, such as 'NotePad'. It will work best if you use a fixed-width font, such as Consolas or Courier New. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monospaced_typefaces (Link will open in your Browser) for more. Although a '.cbr', '.adi', or '.log' file suffix will probably not be recognised by your text editor, opening it will not harm it or cause any unwanted actions to occur. If you do worry that you might make some changes to your log by mistake, then right-click the log and set its properties to 'Read-only', or create a copy and examine that.
Log Requirements - Header
For a log to work with the 'County-Hunting Mapper', certain items are required in the log header:
1/ A Cabrillo log requires a 'CONTEST' tag, such as 'CONTEST: ARRL-SS-SSB'. This is used by the program to understand what the log contains, and what data-items it will be mapping: States, Sections, Counties, Grid Locators. I would recommend that your ADIF log has a 'CONTEST' tag as well, but it is not a requirement. As long as the required items find their way to the 'State', 'Section', 'Grid', or 'County' columns in either log, you will still be able to plot them by selecting the desired option in the 'Log Plotting > Plot Counties, States, Sections, or Grid Locators in the Log' panel.
2/ For an ADIF log, there must be an End-Of-Header tag: <EOH>
Log Requirements - Body
For a log to work with the 'County-Hunting Mapper', certain items are required in each QSO:
1/ A frequency or band, formatted to ADIF or Cabrillo specifications.
2/ A mode, formatted to ADIF or Cabrillo specifications.
3/ A date, formatted to ADIF or Cabrillo specifications.
4/ A time.
5/ A sender's and a receiver's callsign. Although the sender's callsign is not used very often, it is required to meet the ADIF or Cabrillo template sepcifications.
6/ A sender's and a receiver's contest exchange. The items in the exchange must be the same as the specified exchange for that contest. The exchange may be split into multiple columns. Do not omit columns just because you assume that their data won't be displayed on a map. The exchange data will be shown in two columns in the Main or Auxiliary log tables. If the original exchange data had more than two columns, some may be combined. The second exchange column 'exch2R' is the one that contains the data that will be plotted on the maps.
7/ For a Cabrillo log, each QSO line must begin with 'QSO:'.
8/ This program only maps the US and Canada, so therefore the QSOs should predominantly feature US or Canadian callsigns. There is no point trying to import a log full of foreign calls, as they can't be plotted on a map of North America!
Log Errors
When the Log Import routine has completed, you may see a 'LastImportErrors.txt' file open in your default Text Editor program. For more information about that, see the 'Show Last Import Errors' help-topic.
If you have a log that won't import properly, I would be pleased to see it. Please send a copy to my email address, which you will find on the Contact Page of my websites, or on QRZ.com
Test Logs
The program is supplied with two pre-loaded sample logs - one uses the ADIF format, and the other uses the Cabrillo format. They are useful to experiment with, but please replace them with your own logs at any time.
In case you have deleted the sample logs, but wish to reload or examine them, you can find copies in your User Application Data folder. To access the User Application Data folder, type '%appdata%' in Windows Search, or in the Address Bar of the 'Windows Explorer' or 'My Computer'. Once there, click on 'Mapability > CountyHuntingMapper > test logs' to find them.