Last October, I purchased a used, iBook G4 Mac laptop and promptly started looking for logging programs. I found one that was kind of expensive (MacLoggerDX); one that was free, but didn’t want to work so well (RUMLog); and one that worked OK and cost somewhere in between the first two (Aether).
I ended up purchasing Aether, but was never very happy with it. For one thing, it took forever to do any kind of sort or look up previous QSOs. Another pain was that it carried over none of the information from the previous contact, so you had to enter all of the information from scratch, even if you didn’t change frequencies or bands. It also had an odd way of doing notes about a contact, and I was disappointed to find out that it didn’t import the notes from the ADIF file I created from the N3FJP logging program I used previously. Since I had paid for it, though, I was reluctant to just dump it.
Well, a couple of weeks ago, I’d had enough and decided to start searching again. Since RUMLog was still free, I decided to give the new version (v 3.0, March 15, 2008) a go. I’m happy to report that this version likes my computer a lot better, and I like using it a lot!
One of the coolest things is that it did import the notes from my N3FJP ADIF file properly. So, now, when I type in a callsign, the program searches the database, finds all the previous contacts I’ve had with that station, and then displays them in spreadsheet style WITH the notes. If I’ve taken notes about a previous conversation, I can pick up right where I left off. Very cool.
It also has a very nice way of showing you what countries you’ve worked, on what bands you’ve worked them, and whether or not you’ve QSLed that country or not. Not only that, it shows what type of QSL you have, either a paper QSL or a Logbook of the World (LOTW) QSL. To get it to show LOTW QSLs, you have to somehow feed it information that you download from LOTW. I haven’t figured out how to do that yet.
According to RUMLog, I have 142 countries worked, but only 69 confirmed. After getting this report, I pawed through my QSL file and found cards from 18 countries that weren’t QSLed via LOTW, so I’m still 13 short for DXCC. I guess I’m going to have to generate some more paper to get that certificate.
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