Logging Overview
Your logbook is where all your contacts live. Hamtrax gives you a full-featured digital logbook that saves work locally, automatically syncs cloud-accepted changes, and supports the fields you need for everyday operating, contesting, and portable activations.
How contacts are stored
Hamtrax uses a local-first logging model. Every contact command is saved immediately to your device's local database (IndexedDB). When you have an internet connection, commands that pass the cloud filing guard sync automatically to cloud storage (Firestore), keeping accepted logbook data backed up and available across devices.
- No internet required to log. You can log contacts in the field with no cell signal. Each command is saved on that device and sent for cloud acceptance when you reconnect.
- Automatic sync. Accepted changes propagate to the cloud in the background -- you do not need to press a sync button.
- Safety pauses do not drop work. If heavy logging or importing reaches a resettable cloud safety budget, the exact command stays queued on that device and resumes after the server-provided reset. A non-resetting emergency account hold also retains the command, but waits for support review instead of retrying forever.
- Permanent rejections stay recoverable on that device — and announce themselves. A warning notification tells you the moment the cloud guard rejects saved work, and the command remains under Needs Filing with a plain outcome, reason, and next step, even across sign-out, but it is not cloud-backed or available on another device. Cards use the callsign and available date, band, user-facing mode, and activity references; internal ids and raw server messages are never shown as the explanation. A rejected new contact classified as folder hygiene offers Choose folder and requires an explicit destination; a contact-limit rejection offers View plans. Rejected edits, other deletes, and other new-contact errors are review-only and are never converted into creates, so they cannot duplicate a contact. A delete for an already-absent contact is complete and never enters Needs Filing; another failed delete says Contact not deleted and asks you to reload before trying again.
- A local retry is not the finish line. After you refile an eligible contact, its original Needs Filing item shows Saving corrected contact until the cloud accepts the replacement. A failed attempt leaves the original available for review; cloud acceptance is what removes it from the list.
- Last-write-wins. If the same contact is edited on multiple devices, the most recent write takes precedence.
What fields are tracked
Each contact (QSO) in Hamtrax can store a wide range of fields:
| Category | Fields |
|---|---|
| Core | Callsign, frequency, band, mode, submode, date, time on. Digital-voice contacts store the ADIF pair the standard defines — mode DIGITALVOICE plus the submode you picked (DMR, D-STAR, or C4FM) — while the app shows you the submode name |
| Signal reports | RST sent, RST received |
| Location | Grid square, QTH, name, state, county, country, continent, latitude/longitude |
| My station | My grid square, my city/state/country, my radio, my antenna, station callsign, operator callsign, TX power |
| Activity references | The activity program and its reference — a POTA park (K-0817), a DXCC entity number (269), or a repeater (W0ERH 442.100) — plus the activation ID, stored in the standard MY_SIG / MY_SIG_INFO and SIG / SIG_INFO pairs |
| Contest | Contest ID, serial sent, serial received |
| Propagation | Propagation mode, satellite name, satellite mode |
| DX | DXCC entity number, CQ zone, ITU zone |
| QSL tracking | QSL sent/received, eQSL sent/received, LoTW sent/received, QRZ logbook ID |
| Organization | Folder, notes |
| Round-trip fidelity | Unknown ADIF fields from cloud-accepted records are preserved in a bounded rawAdifFields map so re-exporting retains supported data from other programs |
tip
You do not need to fill in every field. Callsign and frequency are always required. A program-bound monthly form also requires its real target — a resolved Park for POTA or a valid Country / DXCC entity for DX — and rejects future contact times. Hamtrax auto-populates date, time, and your location when you open the QSO form. Separately, your account must have a callsign set before you can log any contact (add it in Settings → Account).
What you can do
- Log contacts manually -- outside Bulk Edit, Add Contact stays just below Import Contacts throughout the Logbook, even before a folder exists. Its full form previews the exact automatic destination or asks for a custom folder inline. The same routing priority and guardrails as Import apply: MY activity identity owns the row; only when it is absent may a worked Hunt target or foreign entity claim a month, and invalid known-program references are rejected rather than allowed to fall through. A missing automatic folder is created at Save. Each activation, monthly, or custom folder also keeps its folder-specific Add Contact quick card. Custom/activation cards keep their exact destination; a monthly leaf keeps its program while the contact's UTC date chooses that program's month. See full contact form carries the draft and any resolved target/location; unfinished target text remains unstamped until selected there. A POTA month asks for a park, while a DX month asks for a country/entity; compact and full forms save through the same program-qualified path. See Manual Logging.
- Import contacts -- bring in a whole logbook from an
ADIForCSVfile, or pull contacts from a connected QRZ Logbook. Hamtrax sends every source through the same review step, auto-sorts contacts into the right folders (activations, monthly hunting, or a custom folder), and skips duplicates. The Activate tab's Import a past activation shortcut opens this same importer. See Importing Contacts. - Export contacts -- download any folder as an
ADIForCSVfile, or turn on auto-push so each new contact lands in your QRZ logbook as you log it, with edits and deletes following along. See Exporting Contacts. - Organize with folders -- program-qualified Hunt contacts are automatically sorted into POTA, DX, or Repeaters monthly folders, and your POTA contacts from a park into activation folders. Ordinary, domestic, or otherwise unclaimed contacts require a custom folder you select or create. You can also drag-and-drop custom folders and pin favorites. See Folders.
- Edit or delete individual contacts -- in the contact list view, each contact row has Share Contact, edit, and delete actions (Share Contact generates the contact's shareable card — see Manual Logging). Tap edit to open the QSO form with that contact's data pre-filled, or tap delete to remove it (a contact pushed to QRZ is removed from QRZ too while auto-push is on). To keep folders organized, the edit form locks the park, date, and your operating location for contacts in an activation folder, and the date for contacts in a monthly folder, with a banner explaining why (see Manual Logging); the park moves for a whole activation at once, not per contact. Contacts belonging to a POTA activation also show a warning before edits. When catalog data is available, a safely recognized activity contact shows that program's location name and region inline; POTA keeps its familiar park state and name.
- Fix an activation's park -- logged a whole session under the wrong reference? Open the activation folder in the Logbook and click Wrong park? under the folder name, or use the same button under the park line in a live activation header. Pick the right park, confirm, and the folder and every contact in it are corrected together — then re-upload the log if you'd already sent it to POTA. See Manual Logging.
- Review rejected work -- a rejected save notifies you and points here: open Needs Filing in the Logbook to see a plain outcome, reason, and next step. Only a folder-hygiene rejection on a new contact offers Choose folder; contact-limit failures offer View plans, while rejected edits, other deletes, and other creates remain review-only. See Logbook Hygiene Rules.
- View contacts on a map -- toggle between list view, map view, and DX view for any folder. Selecting a mapped contact keeps that contact, its resolved You origin, their arc, and the complete popup together in the tightest safe frame; closing the popup restores the folder's opening overview. All three views resolve activity presentation per contact, so same-looking references from different programs never share names, pin styling, or geography. Unknown or contradictory references remain visible without borrowed POTA enrichment or an invented origin. The DX view lists the countries and US states in the folder with their flags, counting a contact by its callsign's prefix when it carries no country of its own. See QSO Arcs and Folders.
- Review and bulk-edit equipment -- each folder summarizes the radio and antenna used by the most contacts. Choose Bulk Edit, select individual contacts or Select all, then use Set equipment to update only those contacts. See Folders.
- Manage photos -- each content folder shows its photos in three places: the Logbook's Images column, which lays out all four slots as a 2×2 grid with placeholders for the empty ones, plus your own Showcase folder modal and the Showcase tab of a live activation, which both show a single row. The + button opens a multi-select picker, so you can add several photos in one browse instead of one at a time. Add up to 4 JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, or HEIF photos per folder, up to 10 MB each. The + button hides at the cap; selecting more than the folder has room for adds what fits and says the limit was reached. Every strip confirms what was added, and validation, upload, or deletion failures explain what went wrong.
- Download per folder -- the one way to get a file out: select a folder and download its contacts as ADIF or CSV without leaving the logbook.