Suggestion to enhance SOTA logging

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NR3E
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Suggestion to enhance SOTA logging

Post by NR3E »

I am a new user for the program and think it is a great product. Being an active SOTA chaser and activator, I noticed that the SOTA section has an oddity. When a spot comes up on the SOTA spotting network, it lists the operator and summit disignator. Example: "KI4TN on K0M/SE-001" plus of course the time, frequency, mode, and comments by the poster. If I successfully work that station and use Log4OM to log the contact, I find it cumbersome to find the correct summit designator in the drop down menus. I must first look up that association W0M is Michigan and then choose Michigan in the list. I then have to look up that SE stands for the Southeast region and choose that in the list. Some associations have many regions and the letters don't always conform to what they represent. On the SOTA spotting network, you only see "K0M/SE-001" and "Michigan" is not mentioned. You have to know that or look it up.

I suggest that in the drop down menus for the associations to make it look something like this:
"USA W0M-Michigan" and for the region to have it look like this: "SE-Southeast". Once you choose the right association and region, it is then simple to find the right summit designator.

I did discover that you can search for the suffix of the summit and it will give you a couple of choices, but I think it would be better to add the more descriptive association and region designators.

Thanks for considering this,
Ron Burns, KI4TN
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Re: Suggestion to enhance SOTA logging

Post by G4POP »

We download and use the SOTA summit list! so your request should really be directed to SOTA MT.

The summit list we receive from SOTA is comma delimited into fields as follows:

Summit Code (Reference) = W4C/CM-137
Association Name = USA - Carolinas
Region Name = NC-Central Mountains
Summit Name = Burnt Mountain
Etc., Etc

As you will see we just use the data provided by SOTA

I believe that entering W4C/CM-137 as received from the cluster or other station in the 'Search' field and watching the fields auto populate is easier than using the drop down selections?

There are over 114000 entries in the SOTA summit list, editing them as you request would be a mammoth task :(
73 Terry G4POP
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Re: Suggestion to enhance SOTA logging

Post by G4POP »

BTW we prefer users to use their call sign as their user name on this forum
73 Terry G4POP
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Re: Suggestion to enhance SOTA logging

Post by NR3E »

First of all I apologize for not using my callsign as the login. I did not see that suggestion when I created my account.

I understand that you are getting the data from SOTA. I guess I was just wondering why in the drop-down list it shows an association as "USA-Minnesota" instead of "K0M-Minnesota" and so on for the rest. If it is easier to use the search box and type in "K0M/SE-001" then why have the drop down lists at all?

73, Ron
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Re: Suggestion to enhance SOTA logging

Post by G4POP »

rburns4147 wrote: 20 Sep 2017, 18:14I was just wondering why in the drop-down list it shows an association as "USA-Minnesota" instead of "K0M-Minnesota" and so on for the rest

Because, as I already stated, that is the content of the summit list provided by SOTA! - Its the incoming data and we do not change it!

If you open the summitlist.csv which is in your C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Roaming\LogOM folder in Notepad, you can see for yourself that SOTA do not provide the information in the format that you are requesting!

If it is easier to use the search box and type in "K0M/SE-001" then why have the drop down lists at all?

Its easier than what you say are doing - You said ...........

I must first look up that association W0M is Michigan and then choose Michigan in the list. I then have to look up that SE stands for the Southeast region and choose that in the list. Some associations have many regions and the letters don't always conform to what they represent. On the SOTA spotting network, you only see "K0M/SE-001" and "Michigan" is not mentioned. You have to know that or look it up.
When SOTA MT or the US Association simplify their references we will conform to that but for now we are stuck with what SOTA give us! ask them why they use KOM instead of something more meaningful.

If the other operator has told you he is in Utah - Kane County and then provides the reference the drop down lists save you keystrokes, this was what the SOTA guys wanted when we started supporting SOTA at the beginning so we did what was requested!

You can choose if the drop down method or search method suits you best, its your choice!
73 Terry G4POP
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Re: Suggestion to enhance SOTA logging

Post by DF5WW »

Hi Ron,

that it shows an association in "USA Minnesota" instead of "KOM Minnesota" is not a problem
of Log4OM. The actual downloads for those award listings are comin from the SOTA database.

If there´s any problem please contact the SOTA assiciation for further help. B.t.w. it´s ablolute
not easier to type in the references. They would not be found if not in the Database.

The dropdown only show the references of the actual SOTA list. Not a L4O problem ... ;) ;)
73´s .. Juergen ... ALT-512 SDR (10W) , 50 m random wire at SG-211 autotuner, 2 x Xiegu G90 (20W HF TRX) one as portable Radio. Also TS-790E (40 W) for VHF/UHF with X-50 vertical and Duoband 4-Element LPDA.
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Re: Suggestion to enhance SOTA logging

Post by NR3E »

Log4OM has so many features and I am just getting into many of them. My concern of having to know or look up that K0M is Minnesota (and all the rest) may have been solved. I found in the manual that you can enter the address of the SOTA spotting site and the spots will show up on the right side of Log4OM. If you see a spot and work the station, you just have to click the entry on the right and it auto-populates all the data in the log. Now that is really cool!

Ron, KI4TN
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Re: Suggestion to enhance SOTA logging

Post by NR3E »

I just reviewed the CSV file, not because I doubted what was posted, but to see if there was a way around changing the display in the drop down menus. I thought at first that there would be a way to pull the data out of the fields to display the drop-downs in a more friendly manner by maybe using string functions. But the SOTA people have not made it easy. There seems to be no consistency in their data. Sometimes a name is at the beginning of a field and sometimes it comes at the end after a country name. Oh well, I am sure their data is kept by many different folks, all volunteer and they are doing the best they can.

I'll keep using Log4OM and click on the spotting window to fill in my log data. That seems to work real well.

Thanks for a great product!

Ron, KI4TN
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Re: Suggestion to enhance SOTA logging

Post by G4POP »

I have changed your user name to your call sign
73 Terry G4POP
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Re: Suggestion to enhance SOTA logging

Post by NR3E »

Thanks!
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