Hi All, Kimberly, Chris and I hope that you are having a very Merry Christmas and wonderful Holiday season! Amateur Exam Study Buddy is Now Available! When our sons Chris and Brad were young and started showing interest in Amateur Radio, to help them along with their studies, I wrote a simple program to cycle through all the questions in the Technician question pool. While I was at it, I realized the program might be useful to others as well, so I provided it freely and also included the General and Extra question pools, too. Roughly two decades later, we are still receiving e-mail from folks using the software, reporting our study program has been an integral part of their success in obtaining their Amateur Radio license, as well as upgrading to General and Extra! Since the original program was written in VB6, which is no longer supported, Chris and I have completely rewritten Amateur Exam Study Buddy! It is incredibly cool to have Chris, who originally used this software to help obtain his license, now take the lead in rewriting it! This new version functions much like the original, but is now a web based tool with a fresh new look, that will run on any browser and even your phone! We like to think that Amateur Radio is the gift that keeps on giving! This Christmas and Holiday season, we would like to give the gift of Amateur Exam Study Buddy! This free site will help newcomers to the hobby obtain their very first license, or help existing hams upgrade to a new one! And more hams on the air gifts us all more potential QSO's and QSL cards on the wall! Even if you already hold your Extra, please give Amateur Exam Study Buddy a good look and be sure to tell your friends about it! There isn't a manual, but the functions are basic enough that you should find it very intuitive. You can click Feedback on the home page to report a successful experience, any problems or suggestions. You will find Amateur Exam Study Buddy here: https://study.affirmatech.com/ Winter Field Day Upgrade Required! Winter Field Day is only 33 days out! Please be sure to upgrade to version 2.8.5 of our Winter Field Day software in advance, which we've modified for the new Canadian section abbreviations and latest rule changes. In case you missed it in our last announcement, there are several Canadian section abbreviation changes effective January 1, 2023. You won't be able to log these abbreviations or all the categories unless you upgrade. As always, upgrades are free to registered users. If you are currently running a version of our software released after January 2021 and are Internet connected, it should detect the new upgrade and offer to retrieve it for you on start. If you have any problem with the automatic upgrade, or you are running an older version, you can install the latest version directly from the web site. https://www.n3fjp.com/winterfieldday.html And in response to the questions we always receive when we neglect to include the following in our e-mail announcements... Package Upgrade Information... If you have registered one or more individual programs and would like to upgrade to N3FJP's Software Package for full use of all our Amateur Radio software, we would be glad to apply the amount that you have registered so far as a credit towards that purchase. Please send us an e-mail directly and we'll let you know your balance. N3FJP's Software Package includes more than one hundred programs for contesting, net management and general logging Amateur Radio applications, as well as our WX Warn weather software and Amateur Exam Study Buddy! In addition to full use of all these programs, registered package customers are also entitled to receive free passwords for any new software that we add to the package and free upgrades to existing programs. There are no annual / maintenance costs of any kind. Simply register once and you are set with N3FJP Software for life! You'll find all the details on the Register Now page here: http://www.n3fjp.com/purchasepackage.html Donations are Gratefully Accepted! And in response to the often asked question, for

Hi All, Earlier this week, Chris, Kimberly and I let you know that we released Amateur Contact Log 7.0.4. We are very excited to tell you that updates for all our contest logs are available now too! The new features now available in all our contest software include: - A world map (View > World Map) - A gray line map (View > Gray Line Map) - Easy access to hundreds of common help questions via our Juliet chat bot (Help > Ask Juliet) - Notes (Ctrl H) added to Band Map (with rig interface enabled). - Ability to enter a transverter offset value (Settings > Rig Interface) In addition to the global enhancements above, we have upgraded the following specific contest logs as follows: - ARRL Field Day Contest Log 6.2.2 - Removed option to disallow Class D to Class D for points, since allowing D to D stations for points is now a permanent rule change. - Arkansas 2.4.2 - New scoring implementation - Idaho 2.2.2 - In state multipliers do not include counties (software corrected to reflect existing rules) - Michigan 4.4.2 In State and 4.3.2 Out of State - New, non serial number exchange - Ontario 2.2.3 - Bonus station points calculation - Wisconsin 4.5.2 - Digital and CW now independent for duplicate checking All the details on the enhancements specific to the contest software and your free upgrade instructions follow. These words are very similar to the details we provided in Monday's announcement for Amateur Contact Log, so if you already read that announcement, you are all set! Just be sure to click View > World Map before you start ARRL DX SSB this weekend and enjoy the ride as you work the world! World Map When you tab from the Call field, the world map will fly to and display the location of the station you are working with a red pin. When you enter the QSO, the red pin will turn blue. Red pins will fade over the next 15 minutes and blue pins fade over the next 60 minutes. You can also optionally display DX Spots as purple pins, which will fade over 15 minutes. The world map displays QSOs you have logged and DX Spots received since opening the map. Your station location display is based on the coordinates you enter in Settings > Setup. Remember, western longitude values are negative. In the contest software, the pin location of the station you are working is based on Jim's AD1C country list prefix coordinates. After you press enter to log the QSO, if a USA or Canadian state, province or section is part of the exchange, the pin will move to the location provided in the exchange. Keep in mind that most DX countries each have one set of coordinates in the AD1C country list, but it still gives you a neat idea of where in the world you are working! The contest programs don't have a callbook lookup feature because contest sponsors require the full QSO exchange to be completed over the air. You can optionally display DX spots as purple pins. In addition, needed contest multipliers will have a red center. With rig interface enabled, you can click on the pin to tune your rig to the spot frequency. Right click any of the pins to remove them. The world map use case philosophy for the contest software and AC Log may be different. For general logging, it is fun to see the stations we have worked in the last hour, but for contesting, with lots of DX spots rolling in, you may wish to use the "Hide Logged QSO" button at the top of the map. The control buttons and band filters at the top of the map should be self explanatory. Just be aware you have three options for the DX Spots button: Off, On and Needed Only. When DX Spots Needed is selected, that will only will display DX Spots that are needed multipliers in the contest software. A Gray Line Map While our World Map also displays the gray line, you may be zoomed in to an area of the world, making it harder to keep track, so we have also added a separate gray line map which you can optionally display. Easy access to hundreds of common help questions via our Juliet chat bot Need help with a quick question? Juliet, our help chat bot, is happy, ready and willing to help! Over the last 9 months, J

Hi All, Chris, Kimberly and I are very excited to let you know that Amateur Contact Log 7.0.4 is now available, ARRL International Digital contest log is in the works and that, Lord willing, all new contest software versions are coming very soon! We have added some neat new features that are now available in Amateur Contact Log including: - A world map (View > World Map) - Additional Parks on the Air (POTA) template and support (Settings > Edit Fields Displayed > Load as Saved Configuration: Select POTAConfig.efl) - A gray line map (View > Gray Line Map) - An awards map (Awards > States, Counties, Countries) - Rapid display of your entire log - Easy access to hundreds of common help questions via our Juliet chat bot (Help > Ask Juliet) - Notes (Ctrl H) added to Band Map (with rig interface enabled). - Ability to enter a transverter offset value (Settings > Rig Interface) - Option to immediately upload after an All Since download on the LoTW form (eLogs > LoTW) - Additional listing options (List...) All the details follow... World Map When you tab from the Call field, the world map will fly to and display the location of the station you are working with a red pin. When you enter the QSO, the red pin will turn blue. Red pins will fade over the next 15 minutes and blue pins fade over the next 60 minutes. You can also optionally display DX Spots as purple pins, which will fade over 15 minutes. The world map displays QSOs you have logged and DX Spots received since opening the map. Your station location display is based on the coordinates you enter in Settings > Setup. Remember, western longitude values are negative. In AC Log, the location of the station you are working is based on either the coordinates returned from any of the callbook lookup options (such as Hamdb's free lookup service or QRZ's premium service), or Jim's AD1C country list prefix coordinates. In AC Log, Click Callbook from the menu options to select your callbook data source. If you don't have a callbook lookup service enabled, or you are displaying the world map from the contest software, the call sign prefix coordinates provided by the AD1C country list are used. In the contest software, after you press enter to log the QSO, if a USA or Canadian state, province or section is part of the exchange, the pin will move to the location provided in the exchange. Keep in mind that most DX countries each have one set of coordinates in the AD1C country list, so the location plots will be less precise when using the country list as the data source, but it still gives you a neat idea of where in the world you are working! The contest programs don't have a callbook lookup feature because contest sponsors require the full QSO exchange to be completed over the air. You can optionally display DX spots as purple pins. In addition, needed DX Spots (unworked or unconfirmed in AC Log and needed multipliers in the contest software) will have a red center. With rig interface enabled, you can click on the pin to tune your rig to the spot frequency. Right click any of the pins to remove them. To see all the locations that you have worked historically, in AC Log, click Awards > States, Counties, Countries. Then click Calculate and click the View Map buttons that appear. More details are in the Awards Map section below. The world map use case philosophy for the contest software and AC Log may be different. For general logging, it is fun to see the stations we have worked, but for contesting, with lots of DX spots rolling in, you may wish to use the "Hide Logged QSO" button at the top of the map. The control buttons and band filters at the top of the map should be self explanatory. Just be aware you have three options for the DX Spots button: Off, On and Needed Only. When DX Spots Needed is selected, that will only display DX Spots that are new or unconfirmed in AC Log and needed multipliers in the contest software. Additional Parks on the Air (POTA) Template and Support We've made it even easier for POTA enthusiasts to quickly configure AC Log for POTA activations and chases, by

Hi All, We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and that you are enjoying a wonderful holiday season! Having begun serving you with Amateur Radio software in 1997, I simply can't believe how quickly we've reached our quarter century milestone here in 2022! In addition to having Kimberly with me from the start, now that we also have the joy of sharing this adventure with our son Chris (who was 7 when this all started and now can code circles around me), Lord willing, I am more excited than ever for the future of our software! Amateur Contact Log 7.0.3 and New Versions of All Our Contest Software Are Now Available! Chris, Kimberly and I have some exciting new features to share with you! We know that many of you love our traditional default color scheme. That hasn't changed, but all our software now also includes an easily selectable, fully customizable Dark Theme option! To give it a try, just click Settings > Appearance > Reset Colors to Dark Theme. Here are a couple of examples: Amateur Contact Log CQ World Wide DX Contest Log Being able to quickly transition to Dark Theme during night time operating sure helps give our eyes a rest, reduces fatigue and helps keep us in the chair longer. If you would like to further enhance the colors we've selected, you can modify them any way you like by clicking Settings > Appearance > Colors and Fonts. In addition to Dark Theme, other new features that you'll find in this global release include: - Ability to save color schemes. After clicking Settings > Appearance > Colors and Fonts and customizing the color scheme to your preference, you can save the scheme to easily recall in the same program, or use in different programs. Just click the Save Settings button at the lower left. - Ability to set alternating backcolor on the main list, instead of being limited to the default backcolor. - Option for 24 hour local time display in AC Log (Settings > Appearance). - Rig interface for the Yaesu Newer and Newer 2 options: Added ability to check for the active VFO by using Yaesu's VS; command for rigs that support it, such as the Yaesu FT DX 10. - Ability to disable beep when you are spotted (Settings > DX Spotting > Configure). This feature was already in the last release of AC Log, Now that it is also an option in the contest software, we moved the selection of this option to the DX Spotting setup form in AC Log for consistency. - Added a SETOPINFO Application Program Interface command, to set various operator variables from the connected program. Details are here: http://www.n3fjp.com/help/api.html As always, upgrades are free to registered users. If you are currently running a version of our software released after January 2021, the program should detect the new upgrade and offer to retrieve it for you on start. If you have any problem with the automatic upgrade, or you are running an older version, you can install directly from the respective program's download page. You should not have to uninstall your previous version first. Programs Modified for Rule Changes: In addition to the features detailed above, we've modified these programs, at the request of the contest sponsors, to accommodate contest rule changes: Winter Field Day Contest Log 2.8.1 (updated for new bonus point values). http://www.n3fjp.com/winterfieldday.html Wisconsin QSO Party Contest Logs (in state and out of state) 4.5.1 (addition of digital mode option). http://www.n3fjp.com/stateqsoparty.html The free upgrade instructions, detailed above, apply here as well. RSGB IOTA Contest Log is Now Available! We have added support for the RSGB IOTA contest to our software suite! As always, new programs that we add to the package are free to registered package users! If you are a package user and would like an updated password list to include our new RSGB IOTA software, please request your updated password list here: https://juliet.affirmatech.com/passwords And you will find the RSGB IOTA software here: http://www.n3fjp.com/rsgbiota.html Winter Field Day and COVID-19 Rules Change Reminder! Just a quick rem

Hi All, Kimberly, Chris and I have three quick announcements for you! NAQP Contest Log 5.3 is Now Available! We have updated the NAQP software to also support scoring for K1USN SST! Just click settings > Setup and select K1USN SST on the Setup form. You can also click View > K1USN 3830 Scores Submission Info for your submittal information. As always, upgrades are free to registered users. If you are currently running the last released version, it should detect the new upgrade and offer to retrieve it on start, but if you have any problem, or you are running an older version, you can install the latest from here: http://www.n3fjp.com/naqp.html WSJT-X and our Field Day Software Interface Reminder If you have been following along, you know that our software now interfaces directly with WSJT-X and color codes dupes, needed entities, etc.! In addition to AC Log, lots of folks used the new integration feature during the ARRL June VHF contest and LOVED seeing all the duplicates identified as red, right in WSJT-X! You can do the same thing with WSJT-X and the Field Day software! The settings for interfacing with WSJT-X and all our software are easy, identical and detailed here: http://www.n3fjp.com/help/digitalsetup.html#wsjtx What we wanted to be sure to remind you of is that you do have to configure WSJT-X for Field Day on it's Advanced tab as show here: Also, On WSJT-X's Reporting tab, make sure that you enable the option to Accept UDP requests to see the colors. Instant Help With Our Live Bot Juliet Now Available! In addition to all our other support options, we are excited to introduce Juliet, a live bot, who can answer many common questions instantly! Juliet is still learning the ropes, we are still adding content and you may have to try a couple different phrasings of your question before you find the answer that you are looking for, but every question that you ask her will help train her for next time. So, you might have to be patient with her right now, but please ask Juliet any N3FJP Software related questions you like! You will find Juliet here: http://juliet.affirmatech.com Juliet's responses should steadily improve in the coming weeks! Many Thanks to ARRL's LoTW Team! Many thanks to the folks at ARRL, who quickly corrected and restored LoTW's functionality with AC Log last week! LoTW is a tremendous service to the Amateur Radio community and we very much appreciate all of your hard work maintaining and enhancing LoTW! And in response to the questions we always receive when we neglect to include the following in our e-mail announcements... Package Upgrade Information... If you have registered one or more individual programs and would like to upgrade to N3FJP's Software Package for full use of all our Amateur Radio software, we would be glad to apply the amount that you have registered so far as a credit towards that purchase. Please send us an e-mail directly and we'll let you know your balance. N3FJP's Software Package includes more than one hundred programs for contesting, net management and general logging Amateur Radio applications. In addition to full use of all these programs, registered package customers are also entitled to receive free passwords for any new software that we add to the package and free upgrades to existing programs. There are no annual / maintenance costs of any kind. Simply register once and you are set with N3FJP Software for life! You'll find all the details on the Register Now page here: http://www.n3fjp.com/purchasepackage.html Donations are Gratefully Accepted! And in response to the often asked question, for which Kimberly, Chris and I are very grateful... "I know your upgrades are free, but I also realize how much time and effort coding these enhancements and new programs take and that your pricing policy doesn't fully reflect that. Can I send you something to show my appreciation for your continued efforts?" Yes, thanks so much, your continued support in any amount is very welcome and deeply appreciated! You can use this page: http://www.n3fjp.com/donations.html or send your contribu

Hi All, Please be aware that LoTW is currently not working properly. If you attempt to do an LoTW download from AC Log's LoTW form, you will receive a "(405) Method Not Allowed" error. If you attempt to view the LoTW status page with your web browser (https://status.lotw.arrl.org/), this is returned: We have been receiving lots of e-mail requests for updates on the LoTW outage. Any status updates will have to come from ARRL, as we have no insights on the details of what may be occurring from here, but I have no doubt they are working hard to correct the problem. Thanks for your patience! 73, Scott N3FJP http://www.n3fjp.com Serving the Amateur Radio community with contesting and general logging software since 1997. 1 Peter 3 vs 15: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect...

Hi All, Thanks so much for your great enthusiasm and kind words on last week's release of Amateur Contact Log 7.0! Kimberly, Chris and I really appreciate it! For those of you who missed last week's announcement detailing our direct WSJT-X integration, support for the 13 Colonies event and more, with lots of details and setup information, you will find that here: http://www.n3fjp.com/news/news2021-05-13.html We knew that you would really enjoy having the WSJT-X direct connect integration into Field Day, VHF and other contest logs that use the FT modes too, so we have been working hard on that as well. As a result... The following contest program upgrades are now available! ARRL RTTY Roundup 3.9 (which also supports FT Roundup) CQ WPX 4.9 (not WSJT-X applicable, but you can enjoy the rest of the enhancements in next week's CQ WPX CW contest) Field Day Log 6.6 VHF Log 6.6 World Wide Digi DX 1.2 You will find all the details on directly connecting these programs with WSJT-X here: http://www.n3fjp.com/help/digitalsetup.html#wsjtx In addition to the WSJT direct connect feature, which will also display duplicates in red, right on the WSJT-X Band Activity list, etc., these programs also include many of the features you've already been enjoying in the recent releases of Amateur Contact Log including: - Font scaling based on manual form height changes of main form. - Frequency Privileges form enhanced to show current frequency and DX spots. - Winkeyer settings now saved along with your other CW settings when you click the Save Settings button. - Winkeyer: Use _ to merge characters and | to add a small amount of space between characters. - RI: commands in F1 now can be programmed with loop delay. - You can now toggle most rigs from transmit to receive with Ctrl + Shift + A. Lord willing, we plan to release upgrades for the rest of the contest programs with these new features within the next few months. As always, upgrades are free to registered users. If you are currently running the last released version, it should detect the new upgrade and offer to retrieve it on start, but if you have any problem, or you are running an older version, you can install the latest from the specific program's download link on n3fjp.com (you should not have to uninstall your previous version). Amateur Contact Log 7.0.1 Now Available! Immediately after releasing Amateur Contact Log 7.0 last week, along with the great feedback, we received lots of requests for two features related to the WSJT-X decode coloring including: - A color for AC Log Watch List decodes (displayed with a black background and different foreground, depending on duplicate status). - The ability to control what defines a needed entity (new, new on band, new on mode or new on band and mode) based on your selection in Settings > New Contact & QSL Alert Options. Not only have we accommodated both of those requests in AC Log 7.0.1, you can also optionally set an audio alert that will let you know when a call sign in your Watch List is decoded. That way, rather than staring at the screen, waiting for that rare, juicy DXPexpedition callsign to appear, AC Log will let you know the moment WSJT-X decodes it! After you click Settings > Application Program Interface and check the Listen for WSJT check box, just click the Configure button to enable audio alerts and customize the colors that will appear in WSJT-X. We also corrected the circumstance in which grids were sometimes appearing with the purple color, indicating they were needed, when they had already been confirmed. Also, immediately after releasing AC Log 7.0, the 13 Colonies folks contacted us to let us know that there will be an additional bonus station from France this year. If TM13COL (TM1 on the display) is not appearing in your 13 Colonies display (View > 13 Colonies), just click File > Download Country Files from AD1C and that form will update as well. As always, AC Log upgrades are free to registered users. If you are currently running AC Log 6.8 or later, it should detect the new upgrade and offer to retrieve it on start, bu

Hi All, Chris, Kimberly and I are very excited to let you know that... Amateur Contact Log 7.0 is Now Available! We think that you will really enjoy the upgrades that we are bringing you in Amateur Contact Log 7.0! They include: - Easy, direct, integration with WSJT-X - Support for the 13 Colonies annual event - States lookup for DX Spotting (and WSJT-X) - Support for the free Hamdb Callbook Lookup service (which includes USA, Canada and a few other countries) - Grid is now returned with the free Callook lookup service (grid is already provided in most other callbook lookup options) - Right clicking on the main form's Spot Last button provides the opportunity to add a comment The first three items are the most fun and need just a bit of set up, so details for those follow: Easy, Direct, Integration with WSJT-X! You can still use an intermediary program like JTAlert or Grid Tracker to connect WSJT-X to Amateur Contact Log if you like, but now you have the ability to connect WXJT-X directly to Amateur Contact Log! To do so: - From Amateur Contact Log's menu options, click Setting > Application Program Interface and then select the option to Listen for WSJT-X. Clicking configure allows you to select a different port and customize the colors that appear in WSJT-X, but that typically isn't necessary to get you started. The other API options in AC Log aren't relevant for directly connecting to WSJT-X. - On WSJT-X's reporting tab, make sure that you enable the option to Accept UDP requests to see the colors. My settings look like this: As calls are decoded, your log is checked for the call and entity status. The colors that you see are determined as follows, in this priority: Red - Duplicate call on Band and Mode (will be very handy in the contest software) Green - Unconfirmed Country Blue - Unconfirmed State Purple - Unconfirmed Grid No color - the call has not been worked, but the country, state and grid are all confirmed. Here is an example: Only one program can connect directly to your rig, so you can either let Amateur Contact Log or WSJT-X perform rig interface. If you want WSJT-X to perform rig control, from AC Log's menu options click Settings > Rig Interface and select None from the rig list (be sure to click the Save Settings button below the rig list first to save your working settings). Then configure rig interface in WSJT accordingly. Alternatively, you can set AC Log to perform rig interface and set WSJT-X's rig selection to None. Please note that if you go this route, it is best to set AC Log to return Mode by Frequency and enable All Mapped Digital Modes. Otherwise, AC Log will display SSB for mode until you log a contact, but the mode will be saved as the proper digital mode either way. Also, AC Log will set most rigs to transmit as WSJT-X transmits, so WSJT remains fully functional with AC Log performing rig control. We've heard from our beta testers that JTDX works well too, though we understand the JTDX developers have not yet enabled the colors we send to appear, so you won't see the neat coloring if you choose the JTDX app. If you wish to have AC Log and other programs such as JTAlert and GridTracker all connect directly to WSJT-X, so you can benefit from AC Log's coloring feature, as well as the great information these other apps display, you can configure the apps for multicasting as detailed here: http://www.n3fjp.com/help/wsjt-x-integration-with-n3fjp-software.html Our beta testers are really excited about this new functionality and have been asking if we will have time to add the direct connection to WSJT-X to our Field Day log. Yes, we have been working on Field Day simultaneously and hope to have an announcement on that in the next week or so (and Lord willing, we definitely plan to accommodate the next VHF and World Wide Digi DX contests this year, too)! Support for the 13 Colonies Annual Event! The 13 Colonies annual event, which runs from July1 though July 8, continues to gain popularity and we have been receiving lots of requests to support it. Since the objective is simply to work as many of th