Main Log
The County-Hunting Mapper's 'Main Log' is a storage area for imported QSOs from external logging programs, or any program that can generate logs of contacts in the 'ADIF' or 'Cabrillo' format. For more information about logs in general, see this help-guide's 'Logs' section. To learn about importing a log into the County-Hunting Mapper, see this help-guide's 'Importing a Log' section. The 'Main' log tab displays the entries in the 'Main Log' database, after it has been parsed to extract data and look for errors. You will notice that the 'Main Log' tab-page has some columns with data that was not found in the original imported log: for instance 'State', 'Section', 'Grid', 'County', 'Cnty Frm', 'Lat', and 'Lon'. The data in these columns were generated when the log was examined, by taking into account the type of log, the type of contest, and the values found in the contest-exchange. Other data that may have been in the original log is not shown, because it is not pertinent to the way that the County-Hunting Mapper operates. When a column contains data-values for some QSOs but not for others, this means that the program was unable to find or make sense of the source-data that it was looking for.
Row and Column Notes:
Each row of the data-table represents one QSO in the imported log. You can select a row by left-clicking on it. You can select more than one row by holding down your keyboard's 'Control' key, then left-clicking on multiple rows. Holding the Shift-Key down whilst clicking will select all lines from the last selection to the current line.
Right-clicking a line in a Log will show a context-menu with various options: Show County on Maps, View Callsign Online, Copy Line to Clipboard, Edit Line, Delete Line, Delete All Selected.
Most commands operate on just one row at a time. The 'Delete All Selected' command takes action on multiple selected rows.
You can sort the log by the data-values in any column by clicking on the header of the required column. Click once to sort in Ascending Order, and click again to sort in Descending Order.
You can export the log in CSV or ADIF format by clicking 'Export > Export ... Log to CSV File' or 'Export > Export ... Log to ADIF Format'. See those sections in this help-guide for further details. The advantage of re-exporting a log in ADIF format is that the QSOs will now include the derived values for State, Grid Locator, County, etc. This is useful for importing into other programs that can make use of this data.
Column Contents
Date - Contains the formatted date of a QSO. ADIF and Cabrillo dates are shown in the same format, so the QSOs can be merged from logs of a different format.
Time - Contains the formatted time of a QSO. ADIF and Cabrillo times are shown in the same format, so the QSOs can be merged from logs of a different format.
Call - Contains the callsign of the received station in a QSO. Canadian and DX calls may have been filtered out of the log during importing - see this help-guide's 'Options > Logs' section for details.
Band - Contains the band that the QSO was made on. This value may have been derived from a supplied frequency, or converted from a band entered in a different format.
Mode - Contains the mode that the QSO was made in. This value may have been converted from a mode entered in a different format.
Exch1 S - Contains the first part of the sending-station's exchange, made during the QSO. The content depends on the identified contest-type in the log header.
Exch2 S - Contains the second part of the sending-station's exchange, made during the QSO. The content depends on the identified contest-type in the log header.
Exch1 R - Contains the first part of the received-station's exchange, made during the QSO. The content depends on the identified contest-type in the log header.
Exch2 R - Contains the second part of the received-station's exchange, made during the QSO. The content depends on the identified contest-type in the log header.
State - If this is a QSO Party log, the State entry will contain the state associated with a county-value.
Section - If this is a QSO Party log, the Section entry will contain the states and sections not associated with a county-value.
Grid - If a Grid Locator is found in the Exch2 R column, it will be shown here, and the position values of its center-point will be shown in the Lat/Lon columns.
County - If a County is found in the Exch2 R column, it will be shown here, and the position values of its center-point will be shown in the Lat/Lon columns.
Cnty Frm - Explains how a county was identified in the Exch2 R column
Lat - Contains a formatted latitude value, if one was found in the QSO, or the calculated latitude derived from a County or Grid Locator center point.
Lon - Contains a formatted longitude value, if one was found in the QSO, or the calculated longitude derived from a County or Grid Locator center point.
QSL - Indicates whether the received station has confirmed the contact within the QSO, or not.
Column Plotting
When we want to plot the contents of our log, we choose to plot the States, Sections, Grid Locators, or Counties found in each QSO. The actual values that are used when plotting are the contents of the 'State', 'Section', 'Grid', or 'County' columns. If those columns have no value, they can't be plotted.
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.