Online you can find sample log sheet formats that you can view or download, or you can even buy logbooks from organizations like the ARRL, or lots of others sources online. By using a common composition book with bound pages, you can add information in the order that makes sense to you. The format of your log can be your own personal preference. The hard copy paper logbook is the traditional keeper of the contacts. If logging manually during a contest, it’s often impractical to record the start and end times for each station so these log areas can be used for contest-exchange information. A month after the contact, when you can’t remember if you sent a card to that rare DXpedition that won’t happen again for 10 years, those notes alone will be worth the cost of the logbook or program. It is also useful to note in the log when you send a QSL and if you receive it. For an interesting contact, you can include notes about your conversation or a QSLing route (many DX and DXpedition stations cannot be QSLed directly but must be QSLed through a QSL bureau or manager). You might also want to note comments about the contact’s rig, antenna and quality of their CW, if pertinent. Non-essential information that is worth recording is your signal report and that of the contact. It is unwise to mix UTC and local times and dates together in the log use one or the other. Of course, you are free to use local time as long as you indicate this clearly in the log. They keep UTC date and time straight automatically. This is one of the advantages of the computerized logging programs. You can purchase radio clocks that will keep time in both local and UTC, making it easy for you to get both times quickly and easily. In the past this meant keeping a clock near your station that was set to UTC instead of local time. Using UTC eliminates confusion over time zones or daylight saving time. When you enter the date and time, Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) or Zulu as it is commonly called, is highly recommended. There are two essentials types of information that every log needs: Information about your operation and information about the station you contact.įor your operation record the date, frequency, mode and power output for the contact station record their call sign, the time the contact started and ended, their signal report, name and location (QTH).
While we don’t have to keep rigorous log books anymore, there are still reasons why you would want to. In the past keeping a log was a requirement of operating an amateur station, it was a way for the government to make sure that you were operating within their guidelines. And having some records and proof of these contacts is why we log. For some of us the hobby of Amateur Radio is about making contacts.
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