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Manual Logging

Manual logging is the fastest way to record a contact while you are on the air. Open the QSO form, type a callsign and frequency, and save -- Hamtrax fills in the rest automatically.

Prerequisites​

  • You must be signed in to your Hamtrax account.
  • Your account must have a callsign set. If it doesn't, tapping Save on a new contact opens an "Add your callsign first" prompt instead of saving — and the prompt takes the callsign. Type it in, Hamtrax runs the same callbook check it runs in Settings, and Save Callsign appears once your call is confirmed. Your contact stays in the form while you do, so nothing you typed is lost; tap Save again once your callsign is saved. Add it in Settings instead is still there for anyone whose callsign the callbook can't find; see Hamtrax Can't Find My Callsign.

Where manual logging opens today​

Manual logging from the Logbook starts in either of these places:

  • Add Contact with Import Contacts -- the two entry actions share one centered responsive band above the folder list. On phones, Import Contacts appears above Add Contact in full-width rows; on wider surfaces they share the centered band and wrap when the panel width requires it. Outside Bulk Edit, the Logbook shows this general full-form action even before the first folder exists. The Folder card starts on Auto-organize and names the predicted destination as soon as Hamtrax knows it. You can also select a compatible existing folder or create a custom folder inline. With Auto-organize, the same filing policy used by Import chooses your recognized From Park activation first. Only when the contact carries no MY activity identity may an explicit worked Hunt target or foreign DX entity claim it. Unsupported or ambiguous MY identity remains intact and requires a custom folder, while a recognized installed program with an invalid reference is rejected rather than filed somewhere less protected. A missing automatic monthly or activation folder is created at Save; a custom folder is selected or created inline first. A future contact cannot create an automatic folder or QSO.
  • Add Contact on a content folder -- activation, monthly, and custom folders have an Add Contact action, sitting beneath the folder's Contacts heading, above the List / Map / DX switch, alongside Bulk Edit. Both appear only on the List tab, so switch back to List if you're on Map or DX. Tapping Add Contact slides in a compact quick-add card in place of those two buttons, tuned to that folder and its program: custom folders ask for just the callsign, frequency, and date/time; a POTA month also asks for a Park and mode; a DX month asks for a Country / DXCC entity and mode; activation folders show the activation's park and date with a lock, because the activation fixes them. No quick-add card carries report fields, so each one records a perfect 59 / 599 only while Pre-fill perfect signal reports is on and the mode has one — turn the setting off, or pick one of the FT8-family digital modes, whose dB reports have no perfect value, and the contact saves with no report, which you can add later via See full contact form or an edit. Custom and activation cards stay bound to that exact folder. Opening a monthly leaf binds the program instead: the contact's UTC date chooses or creates that program's month, and a back-dated compact save confirms the destination month first.

Outside the Logbook, you can use the main search: search the other station's callsign, select it under Callsigns, and tap Log Contact in their callsign details. That opens this same general form on Auto-organize, with their callsign filled in, plus the frequency, mode, and POTA park from a live spot. Back-date it for an older POTA hunt, DX contact, or repeater contact, and Save creates that program's missing month. See Search.

The Repeaters list also offers + Add Contact on each row, opening this same form with the repeater selected while leaving the contacted station's callsign for you to enter. See Logging a repeater contact.

The quick-add card covers the fields you fill in most often. For everything else, tap See full contact form at the bottom of the card — it opens the full QSO form with the same callsign, frequency, mode, and date/time. A resolved target and its location come too; unfinished target text remains unstamped and must be selected in the full form before Save becomes available. Custom and activation cards open with their folder selected. A monthly card opens on Auto-organize, keeping the entered date so it still chooses the destination month, and retains its program's target control: a POTA month shows its park control, a Repeater contacts month its repeater control, and a DX month its country/entity control. That park, repeater, or entity is the source of truth for the contacted station's location, so these program-bound forms do not show competing generic City, State, or Grid Square controls (DX's entity picker replaces Country). The full form also gives you the Folder card, My Location or Park, equipment, notes, and the restrictions described below. Equipment sits in the form body, and the contact's transmit power comes with the radio you select there; My Location or Park and Notes are collapsed rows you tap to open (see step 5). A monthly Hunt form keeps From Park visible but greyed out with guidance to use a recent or historical activation, because a contact made from a park belongs in its activation/P2P log.

The general Logbook form supplies both routes in that guidance. A From Park contact reuses an exact matching live or finished activation. When none exists, Save creates a one-contact finished activation whose start and end equal the contact's UTC instant, so an old single contact no longer needs a folder in advance. For a contact dated today, Start Activation can open activation setup with the selected park prefilled and spotting off when no activation folder remains open; the contact draft remains available when you return. A dormant open activation is not treated as live, but it must still be finished before a new live session can start. If exactly one dormant folder matches the contact, Save finishes it through the normal lifecycle and reuses it; a currently mounted match or multiple matching folders stops the save and leaves the draft open for review. The destination is checked again against current Logbook state immediately before the save.

The compact duplicate warning uses the same rule as the save. POTA and DX both preserve contacts on different bands or modes; POTA also preserves distinct submodes and recorded park regions. The contact's program still controls its duplicate rule in a custom folder. See the complete repeat-contact rules.

On phones and tablets, Hamtrax also removes the most annoying parts of typing callsigns on glass. Callsign characters are evenly spaced and fixed-width, giving you clearer places to tap when you need to position the cursor and finish a call you heard in fragments — and once you place the cursor it stays there, because uppercasing what you type no longer knocks it to the end of the field. Autocorrect, spell-check, and saved-value autofill are switched off on the form's Their Callsign and Grid Square fields, so your phone never "corrects" a call into a word or drops a suggestion box over what you're typing. The live activation logger goes one step further: its Add Contact callsign field adds touch chevrons for moving the cursor and, when enabled under Settings → Preferences → My Activations, a 0–9 row above the keyboard. Other callsign fields use the normal on-screen keyboard without that extra row.

Logging a contact step by step​

  1. Open the QSO form. Tap the persistent Add Contact in the centered entry band with Import Contacts for the general full form, or, on a folder's List tab, tap Add Contact beneath Contacts, above the List / Map / DX switch for that folder's quick-add card and use See full contact form when you need every field. The form opens with today's date, the current UTC time, and the default mode (SSB) pre-filled — except on an activation folder, where the date comes from the activation itself and is locked. See Locked fields in auto-folders.

  2. Enter the callsign. Type the other station's callsign into the Their Callsign field. Callsigns must be 3–15 characters and can include letters, digits, and slashes (for portable prefixes like JA1/W5ABC). The fixed-width spacing makes cursor placement between characters easier, and the cursor holds its spot while the field uppercases what you type. Hamtrax tries to find the operator's first and last names and available location details, including when a new contact opens with their callsign already filled in. A selected park, repeater, or monthly DX entity owns the worked-station location; callsign lookup supplies only the operator's name for those contacts. Opening a saved contact keeps its recorded details.

  3. Enter the frequency. Type the frequency in MHz into the Frequency field. If you type it the way the dial reads instead -- 14250 rather than 14.250 -- Hamtrax converts it to MHz as the contact is saved, so the stored frequency and every export stay in MHz. Genuine microwave frequencies are left exactly as typed: 1296 is 23cm, not 1.296 MHz. Hamtrax automatically derives the band from the frequency and can auto-fill the mode based on your band plan settings. That includes FT8: log the frequency you actually worked, whether it is the band's calling frequency or a few kHz away from it.

  4. Choose the destination. The full form's Folder card sits below Their Callsign, Frequency, Mode, and Signal Report, with Radio, Antenna, and the four field groups beside them on wider screens and below them on phones. It shows the selected folder's title and full ancestor path on separate lines that wrap to fit. Tap anywhere on the card to open the folder chooser, or use New beside the Folder heading to create a custom folder inline. Leave it on Auto-organize and the card names the folder the contact will file into, with its program path beneath it, such as Auto-organized · Parks on the Air / Hunting, as soon as the details make the contact a program's — a park alone is enough, before any callsign. A folder that doesn't exist yet adds Will create September 2026 when saved under the card; until Hamtrax knows the destination, the card reads Auto-organize with a line saying what to do next. To choose instead, expand the parent rows to find an existing destination. The nested program/folder path keeps identically named months distinguishable. Program and category headings open and close their children but cannot be selected as destinations; choose a compatible contact folder. Incompatible folders stay visible, greyed out, with the reason beneath their name. Custom folders grey out the moment a park, a repeater, or a foreign country makes the contact a program's — the reason reads, for example, POTA contacts are filed in their monthly Hunting folder. — and New is disabled with that same reason, because a folder you created could not hold the contact either. If a custom folder you already chose stops qualifying as you type, Auto-organize takes over by itself: the card switches to the program's folder, and that is where Save files the contact. A line under the card says why — Moved out of Field Day. POTA contacts are filed in their monthly Hunting folder. — while your folder stays in the chooser, greyed out with the reason. Remove the detail that made it a program's contact and the card returns to your folder. A reference Hamtrax can't validate is the one exception: your folder stays, with a reason such as Enter a valid POTA reference., and Save waits until you fix it. Selection happens inside the expandable chooser without opening a separate folder-browser window.

    You can work in either order. On a fresh, untouched form every valid destination is available: today's date/time and your profile location are defaults, so they do not rule folders out. Pick a folder first and its defining values constrain the form; fill in details first and the list narrows to folders that accept them. Selecting a folder never silently changes a conflicting value you entered or a saved contact's facts. Values supplied only by a previous folder choice can change with the next choice. See folder restrictions.

    Returning to Auto-organize removes the selected folder's restrictions while retaining entered details. My Location or Park → From Park resolves to your activation, Their Park to the contact's POTA Hunt month, Their Repeater to its Repeater contacts month, and a foreign country/entity to the matching DX month. An unclaimed contact requires an existing or newly created custom folder. Choosing a folder affects this draft; it does not navigate the Logbook to another folder.

  5. Fill in optional fields. The form keeps what you touch on nearly every contact in the body, and collapses the rest into four rows you open one at a time.

    These stay in the form body:

    • Mode -- defaults to SSB, or auto-filled from band plan when a frequency is entered. The picker offers SSB, CW, FM, FT8, FT4, PSK31, RTTY, AM, and the three digital-voice modes DMR, D-STAR, and C4FM — pick the one you actually worked and Hamtrax stores it the way ADIF asks for it (see what gets exported).
    • Signal Report -- RST Sent and RST Received, in the shape your mode calls for: 59 for phone and digital-voice modes (SSB/FM/AM, DMR/D-STAR/C4FM), 599 for CW and other RST modes (RTTY, PSK), and a dB signal-to-noise report like -15 or +05 for the WSJT-X digital family — FT8 and FT4 in this picker, plus JS8, JT65, JT9, MSK144, Q65, and FST4 on contacts that arrive by import. With Pre-fill perfect signal reports on (the default), the form starts at that mode's perfect report. Turn it off and both fields start unset (dim dashes) and stay that way until you tap a report in; Clear re-seeds them the same way. No dB report is perfect, so an FT8-family mode starts unset either way and waits for the number you actually copied. Every digit is adjustable in the picker with up/down steppers -- readability (1–5), strength (1–9), and tone (1–9) in RST modes, or a signed tens digit (-3 to 3) and a ones digit in dB modes, where the report reads as one number and starts at 0 0. Changing the mode reshapes a report you have set: switching to an FT8-family mode clears a 59/599 that has no dB equivalent, and switching away from one keeps the dB report you copied. Editing a contact that has no stored report shows the picker unset too, whatever that setting says -- as does an older FT8-family contact saved back when those modes were seeded 59, which is rewritten only if you save it.
    • Radio and Antenna -- select from your saved equipment profiles (configured in Rig Manager). This is your app-wide current equipment, so the same choices appear in Hunt and Activate. The Radio row also shows that radio's watts beside its name -- UV-K5, then 5 W -- and those watts are the power saved with this contact. There is no separate power field: edit Power on the selected radio's card inside the picker and this contact and the radio's own saved value change together, while Configure on that card opens the Rig Manager form and changes the radio alone. Deselect the radio and the contact's power clears.

    Below Radio and Antenna sit four field groups. Each one is a single row showing its name, a bullet list of the values it currently holds, and a right chevron -- most empty groups show a short hint of what belongs there instead ("Their city, grid, or park", "When you made the contact", "No location set"). Tap a row and the form slides left while that group's fields slide in from the right, and the group's name, with a left chevron, replaces the window's title (such as Add Contact) in the header. Tap that name to slide back to the main form; the title returns.

    • Their location or park -- City, State/Province, Country, and Grid Square for the other station in general and custom-folder forms (auto-populated by callsign lookup), with two cards beneath them: Their Park and Their Repeater (see below). Its collapsed row shows only the resolved park's name and where it is -- its US state, or its country outside the US -- or a resolved repeater and its town, or the station's town/QTH and county when neither is set. Program-bound monthly forms use their required target instead of the generic city/state/grid fields, and that required control lives in this group too.
    • Date & Time (UTC) -- the contact's date and time, pre-filled in UTC. Choose UTC or local entry inside this group; see Date and time entry. A program-bound monthly form can be back-dated but cannot create a future contact.
    • Notes -- free-text notes about the contact, in a full-width box.
    • My Location or Park -- how your own operating location is recorded (step 6). The collapsed row shows a single line: where you were, which is the park’s name while you are activating one and your town otherwise. The grid square, coordinates, and which source it came from -- such as via device location -- sit inside the row when you open it.

    Their Park and Their Repeater hold the other station's activity reference. Their Park, the green card, searches the POTA park catalog by name or reference. Their Repeater searches the repeater directory by callsign, output frequency, or town; a repeater's reference is its callsign plus its output frequency in MHz (W0ERH 442.100). Each card tags only its own program: paste a repeater into Their Park (or a park into Their Repeater) and the card says which one it belongs in, and Save waits until you move it. A contact holds one or the other, never both. Entering a park -- theirs, or your own under My Location or Park → From Park -- clears a repeater already entered, along with the location it filled in. While a park is set, Their Repeater dims and is disabled, with the reason beneath it. For your own park it reads Repeater contacts don't count toward an activation. Clear your park in My Location or Park to use one. For theirs it reads A contact can have their park or a repeater, not both. Clear their park to use one. A repeater never disables Their Park. Either reference makes the contact a program's, so custom folders refuse it; with no park of your own, Auto-organize files it in that program's monthly folder.

    A monthly folder's form shows only its own program's card. A POTA month shows only Their Park, and you must select a real resolved park; typing park-shaped text alone does not stamp POTA or enable Save. A Repeater contacts month shows only Their Repeater, required the same way. A DX month shows neither card: its Country picker is the target.

  6. Set your location (optional). Open the My Location or Park row to choose how your operating location is recorded:

    • From Park -- use the location of a registered POTA park you are activating. Choosing the park clears a repeater in Their Repeater and disables that card (see step 5). Switch to another source and the park you picked is cleared, so the contact no longer files into that park's activation. In a monthly Hunt form this option remains visible but greyed out, with guidance to use a recent or historical activation instead.
    • Use callsign location -- use your registered callsign location.
    • Use device GPS -- use your current device GPS position.
    • Enter location manually -- enter a grid square or coordinates, or search for a place (cities, parks, and landmarks).

    The three common choices match the Hunt and Settings picker. Here they change this contact's draft; Save or Update Contact records its operating location. Your preferred Hunt/Settings location source stays unchanged, and an existing contact keeps its recorded location until you deliberately change it.

Save, Clear, and Delete belong only to the main form's footer. Opening a field group removes that footer, so the window holds only the group's fields beneath its name in the header; tap that name to return to the main form and its actions. There is no separate confirm step for a group, and stepping back is not what commits it. Everything you type is held by the form, not by the panel it was typed into, so opening and closing groups never discards a value. Clear resets the fields while retaining the chosen destination and its restrictions. Minimizing and restoring the form retains both the draft and the folder choice.

If a save is refused because a field failed validation, the group holding that field is marked Needs attention in red on its collapsed row, so you can see which one to open without hunting through all four.

  1. Save the contact. Tap Save. The full form files the contact wherever the Folder card points when you tap it, checking that destination again before writing: Auto-organize re-runs the filing decision and creates a missing reviewed destination, while an explicit folder choice must still accept the contact. If that folder was deleted, or changed since you chose it so it no longer matches, the save explains the problem rather than choosing another folder. The general Add Contact form closes and clears as soon as you tap Save, finishes the save in the background, and shows a notification with the outcome. Its draft is not retained if the save fails. Folder-bound compact and full forms, plus contact edits, close and clear only after a successful local save; if the save fails, the draft stays open so you can retry without retyping it. Success means the contact command is stored in this device's durable queue; cloud acceptance follows separately. If the cloud later permanently rejects the queued save, Hamtrax shows a warning notification and the Logbook keeps the original under Needs Filing with a plain outcome, reason, and next step rather than an internal id or raw server message. Only a new contact rejected for folder hygiene offers Choose folder and asks you to pick a destination -- impossible folders are greyed out, and Save confirms the filing or explains the refusal; a contact-limit rejection offers View plans, while other permanent create errors stay review-only.

You can save to a monthly or custom destination already available on this device while the Logbook is still syncing. Its local filing checks still run, and cloud validation follows separately. A From Park save that asks Hamtrax to choose an activation still checks current activation-session information when connected before deciding where the contact belongs.

[SCREENSHOT: QSO form with callsign and frequency entered, showing the four collapsed field group rows with their value bullets]

[SCREENSHOT: the Their location or park group open as a sub-form, its chevron and name in the window header in place of the title, and no action footer]

Date and time entry​

When adding or editing a contact, open Date & Time (UTC). The date and time fields come first, pre-filled in UTC. Beneath them, Time format options is collapsed; tap it to reveal two dropdowns. The first starts on Enter as UTC, with fields labeled UTC Date and UTC Time. Choose Enter as local time to use your device's timezone for the contact's date, including the daylight-saving offset on that date. The labels use that timezone's abbreviation, such as CDT Date and CDT Time.

The second dropdown starts on 12-hour (AM/PM). Choose 24-hour (military time) to enter times such as 13:30 instead of 1:30 PM. Switching formats keeps the same contact instant.

Local entry shows this message beneath the dropdown: "Date and Time will be automatically converted to UTC upon saving." Switching between UTC and local entry changes the displayed clock values while keeping the same contact instant. If the date is blank, choose it before entering local time. Your choices stay in effect after you collapse Time format options again. Enter your date and time, then tap Date & Time (UTC) in the window header to return to Save or Update Contact.

Contacts are still saved in UTC. Folder date restrictions and future-contact checks use the converted UTC values, so a local evening can belong to the following UTC day or month. These entry choices are separate from Show my local time, which controls how saved contact rows are displayed.

For an activation, the date stays read-only. Changing the local time can move its displayed local day so the contact remains on the locked UTC day.

Auto-populated fields​

When you open the QSO form, several fields are filled in for you:

  • Date and time -- set to the current UTC date and time.
  • Mode -- defaults to SSB; automatically changes based on frequency and your band plan settings. Digital voice is stored the ADIF way — mode DIGITALVOICE with DMR, D-STAR, or C4FM as the submode — but you never have to type that: the picker speaks submode names, and editing a contact stored that way shows its submode name back to you. Switch such a contact to a non-digital-voice mode and the stale submode is cleared with it.
  • RST defaults -- RST Sent and Received start at the mode's perfect report: 59 for phone and digital-voice modes (SSB/FM/AM, DMR/D-STAR/C4FM), 599 for CW and other RST modes (RTTY, PSK). Switching mode reshapes the value automatically. The WSJT-X digital modes — FT8 and FT4 in the picker, and JS8, JT65, JT9, MSK144, Q65, or FST4 on an imported contact — log a dB report like -15 instead, and no dB value is perfect, so those start unset and wait for the number you copied. Turn off Pre-fill perfect signal reports and every mode starts unset instead — that one switch covers every contact you log by hand, this form included.
  • Your location -- determined by your chosen location mode (callsign address, device GPS, POTA park, or manual entry).
  • Equipment -- your app-wide current radio and antenna are shown. A change here appears immediately in Hunt and Activate and applies to future contacts; if you have never chosen equipment, the fields stay unselected.

Saving also records your account callsign as the contact's station callsign, or the activation's callsign in an activation folder. The form doesn't show it, but it decides which QRZ logbook the contact syncs with.

In general and custom-folder forms without a selected park or repeater, entering a callsign lets Hamtrax look it up and auto-fill:

  • Name -- the operator's first and last names when available from callsign databases.
  • Grid square -- their Maidenhead grid locator.
  • QTH -- their city with state/province when available, or city and country for foreign records that do not provide a state/province.
  • State, Country, Continent -- location details from the callsign record. When the record itself carries no country, Hamtrax derives one from the callsign's prefix using the complete ITU call-sign series, so a DX call still fills in its country.
  • Coordinates -- latitude and longitude for map visualization, when the record carries a real position. A registration a callbook can't place on a map — a PO box or a military APO/FPO address, say — fills the other fields and leaves coordinates empty rather than guessing.

When you enter a park reference in Their Park, Hamtrax can auto-fill:

  • Grid square, QTH, state, country, coordinates -- from the park database.

When you choose a repeater in Their Repeater, Hamtrax can auto-fill:

  • Grid square, QTH, coordinates -- from the repeater directory.

In a POTA or Repeater contacts monthly form, those park- or repeater-derived values replace the callbook's worked-station location and require a real resolved selection. In a DX monthly form, the selected entity similarly supplies the country, DXCC number, and centroid; callsign lookup may add the operator's name but cannot replace that target.

info

Callsign lookup requires an internet connection. If you are offline, the contact is flagged for deferred lookup and the callsign data will be populated automatically when connectivity returns.

Editing and deleting contacts​

You can edit or delete any contact directly from the contact list on the Logbook page. Each contact row includes Share, edit, and delete actions (Share is covered below). Tap edit to reopen the QSO form with that contact's data pre-filled, make your changes, and tap Update Contact. To remove a contact, tap delete and confirm. Once a live POTA or DX spot card reads Contacted, its Edit Contact button opens this same form for the contact you logged — see Finding Live Activations. The changes sync to the cloud automatically. For a contact linked to QRZ, edits that would rewrite QRZ wait for review. Deleting in Hamtrax leaves QRZ intact and excludes the known counterpart from automatic re-import. See QRZ sync rules.

The edit form starts with the contact's current Folder selected. You may choose another compatible destination; the contact moves only when Update Contact succeeds, keeping the same contact rather than creating a second one. The contact and both folder counts update after the change is stored in this device's queue. If local storage fails, the original contact stays unchanged. A custom folder is a compatible destination only for a contact no program claims: an activation, POTA hunt, DX, or repeater contact stays in its program's folder, and every custom folder greys out for it with that reason. An unclaimed contact keeps its recorded location, equipment, and timestamp when it moves to a custom folder. This single-contact edit follows normal local-save/cloud-sync behavior; the separate custom-folder Move and Merge commands have their own online limits.

If an offline edit or delete is later rejected permanently by the cloud, Hamtrax shows the same warning notification as a rejected new contact, and Needs Filing keeps that command for review only. It never turns the failed update or delete into a new contact, so recovery cannot duplicate the existing QSO. A rejected update may leave the last valid cloud version visible in the Logbook. A delete for a contact already absent is treated as complete and creates no review item; another failed delete says Contact not deleted and asks you to reload before trying again.

Contacts with a safely recognized activity reference display the activity location's name and region directly on the row when catalog data is available. POTA contacts keep their familiar park state and name; unknown, contradictory, or catalog-missing activity data stays visible and neutral instead of being guessed as POTA.

Locked fields in auto-folders​

The selected Folder controls the restrictions below in both Add Contact and Edit Contact. These keep the contact consistent with how Hamtrax auto-organizes folders:

  • Activation: your recorded MY program/park must match, and an entered date must fall within the session's inclusive UTC-day span. A session that crossed midnight accepts either recorded day; the form preserves a compatible entered date and an existing contact's timestamp. Missing activation identity is supplied from the folder, then park, the accepted date, and your operating location are locked with explanations. For a fresh form, a compatible default day is kept; otherwise the recorded session's starting day is supplied. An abandoned open folder is not treated as an activation happening today. The folder name's opening day does not overwrite a valid overnight contact's day. A contact recorded under another station's callsign, such as an imported club-call contact, can't join the activation: the folder greys out with This contact's station callsign doesn't match this activation's callsign. Portable and country-prefixed forms of the activation's callsign, such as /P, count as its own.
  • Monthly Hunt: the date remains editable within that UTC month, and the folder's program/reference requirements apply — for example, a resolved POTA park or a selected DX entity. A contact with MY activation identity cannot go here. If today's untouched default falls outside the selected month, Date is cleared so you can enter the actual day. An entered or saved date outside that month makes the folder unavailable instead of changing the date for you. The form still rejects a future contact.
  • Custom: no field is locked, but the folder accepts only a contact no program claims. A No Program month that QRZ sync creates, such as October 2026 - No Program, also keeps Date within its UTC month, exactly as a monthly folder does. Enter a park, a repeater, or a foreign country and every custom folder greys out with the reason, New is disabled for the same reason, and a custom folder you had already chosen hands the contact to Auto-organize (step 4). A program contact an older version filed in a custom folder stays editable there — notes, equipment, QSL details, and coordinates all save — but an edit that first gives a contact a park or a repeater, even one with a foreign country, hands it to Auto-organize too, and Update Contact moves it to its program's folder. Entered or saved location, equipment, and date/time stay intact.

An activation's lock reasons appear in the Locked fields section, and each locked value wears a lock icon where it appears -- the park card inside My Location or Park, and the read-only date inside Date & Time (UTC) when you switch to local entry. A monthly folder or a No Program month shows its allowed date range in Date & Time (UTC).

Every other field stays editable as normal. For a compatible single-contact move, change Folder and save the edit. If the whole activation is at the wrong park — a mistyped reference, or the wrong park picked at the start — use park correction to change the folder and its contacts together.

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If a save is ever rejected for breaking folder organization, Hamtrax shows an error message explaining the reason instead of saving the change. This keeps a contact from quietly landing in a folder it doesn't belong in. The full rule set lives in Logbook Hygiene Rules.

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Contacts are logged and displayed in UTC — the ham radio standard, and what ADIF requires — on a 24-hour clock with a z suffix (e.g. 02:22z, ham shorthand for Zulu/UTC), so every row shows the same UTC day its folder is keyed by. Hover over a row's time to see it in your local timezone (e.g. 9:22 pm CDT). Prefer reading local time? Turn on Settings → Preferences → Logbook → Show my local time and rows switch to your local timezone on a 12-hour clock, with the UTC value in the hover tooltip instead.

Wrong park?​

The park lock protects the folder, not a typo. If you logged an entire activation under the wrong reference, open that activation folder in the Logbook, tap its folder-name card, and choose Change Park from Folder options — or, while the session is still running, click Wrong park? under the park line in the activation header.

The Change Park dialog shows the park you're currently logged at, then lets you search for the right one by name or reference, and tells you how many contacts the change will touch. Update Park stays disabled until your pick resolves to a real park and differs from the one you're on. The correction needs an internet connection. Confirming validates the whole activation first, then commits the folder's name, reference, and location together with every re-stamped contact. The change is all-or-nothing and safe to retry, so an interruption cannot leave only part of the activation corrected. Per-contact park editing stays locked while that activation folder is selected.

This is also the repair for a folder listed under Unrecognized program because its saved park was never a usable reference — a park name stored where US-1234 belongs. The dialog shows that unusable value as the current park; search for the real one and confirm, and the folder rejoins its program and accepts contacts again. You don't need a valid park in order to set one.

Three limits worth knowing:

  • If another activation folder already exists for the corrected park on the same date, Hamtrax blocks the correction rather than making a second folder for the same park and day, and tells you which folder is already there.
  • If you already sent that log to POTA, use POTA's log-support process to arrange a correction. Hamtrax cannot change what POTA already has or send replacement uploads in this version.
  • Renaming the folder is not a shortcut for this. A rename only changes the label, so a new name in the callsign@reference-YYYYMMDD form that claims a different park, date, or callsign is refused — it would leave the folder advertising one activation while its contacts say another. The folder-name card is the one route that moves the folder and its contacts together.

Activation QSO edit warning​

When you save an edit to a contact in a POTA activation folder, or move a contact into one, Hamtrax first displays a warning dialog. Activation contacts have already been logged under a specific activation session, and changes you make in Hamtrax are not synced back to the POTA website. The warning reminds you that any edits (callsign corrections, frequency changes, etc.) must also be updated manually on pota.app to keep both logs consistent.

You can check "Hide this message in the future" in the warning dialog to suppress it for subsequent edits. This preference is saved to your account.

Share Contact​

Every contact in your logbook can be turned into a shareable digital contact card — your digital QSL card, a visual confirmation of your radio contact, complete with a map showing the signal path between stations.

Generating a card​

  1. Open the Logbook and find the contact you want, or open one of your own activation or hunting folders from Showcase.
  2. Tap the contact row to expand its actions.
  3. Click Share. A modal opens and generates the card automatically.

The card shares the folder contact map's charcoal background, clear type, and cyan-and-gold accents. Your callsign leads the image, with cyan marking your station and gold marking the contacted station and signal path. Distance has its own large gold display above the footer, which keeps mode, frequency or band, date, and time together. Station labels show the available locations, contacted operator's name, activity references, and radio details. A recognized activity reference uses its program's label and, when available, its resolved location; unknown or contradictory program data uses the neutral Reference label.

Tap the preview for a full-screen view. Use the zoom controls to read station labels and footer details, and drag the enlarged image to move around it. Close the viewer to return to Share Contact. Zooming leaves the downloaded and shared PNG unchanged.

Tap Options in the footer. The card stays above the options on phones, tablets, and desktop. Turn on Feature QRP / low wattage to reveal Exact wattage if you want to feature a specific value. The card keeps showing your applied choices until you tap Generate, which updates it; Back discards your changes and leaves the card as it was. Either one brings back Download and Share. These choices last only until you close Share Contact and do not change the saved contact.

Downloading and sharing​

Use Cancel at the bottom left to close the sharing window. The footer also offers two export actions:

  • Download — saves a 1600 × 900 PNG, ideal for social media, messaging, and printing. On iPhone, finish by choosing Save Image or Save to Files in the system sheet.
  • Share — on supported devices (mobile, tablets), opens the native share sheet so you can send the card directly to messaging apps, email, or social media.
note

Contact cards need coordinates for both stations. Hamtrax first uses coordinates already saved on the contact and can recover a missing activation origin from the recorded activation location. Set your location in Settings only when a non-activation contact does not already contain your coordinates or grid; the contacted station must also have coordinates or a grid.

Tips​

tip

The general Add Contact form closes immediately on Save and reports the background save's outcome in a notification; a failed save does not restore its draft. Folder-bound forms and contact edits close after a successful local save and keep the draft open if the save fails. If you need to log another contact quickly, open it again -- it starts fresh at the current UTC date and time with the mode's standard report (SSB and 59, reshaped if you change mode -- or unset, in the FT8-family dB modes or if you turned off Pre-fill perfect signal reports), and the radio/antenna fields show whatever is currently selected across Hamtrax.

warning

Callsign and frequency are required, and both are in the form body. A POTA month also requires a resolved park, a Repeater contacts month a resolved repeater, and a DX month a valid selected entity -- all three controls live inside the Their location or park group, so open that row if Save stays disabled. None of these months accepts a future date/time, and the date is inside the Date & Time (UTC) group. A save refused for a failed field marks the group holding it Needs attention. Contacts without a date or time may cause issues when exporting to ADIF or syncing with external logbooks. It is best to let the auto-populated date and time stand unless you are back-filling old contacts.

Photos​

Open a content folder and choose Add photos in Logbook details. The picker accepts several photos in one browse (up to 4 per folder, 10 MB each). Only attached thumbnails appear; empty folders keep the add action without empty photo slots. Delete an individual photo by tapping the red X on its thumbnail. See Folders for supported formats, validation, and the messages Hamtrax shows on success and failure.