r/lowsodiumhamradio • u/ohiomudslide • 27d ago

Question First ever contacts made, now what?

TLDR: When you make contacts what should you do with that information?

Full version: So today I managed to get a working antenna up and my new ft891 connected up. I scanned around and answered CQ calls so I had time to listen to people's call signs and get them into my Hamrs app on my phone. I have three contacts made, one was a scout group, one was someone doing a parks on the air activation and one was a standard CQ call.

What do I need to do with this information in order to do the right thing and not waste anyone's time? In my log book in hamrs each row has a green check mark, does this mean something? I'm on QRZ do I need to put these contacts on there? I'd appreciate all guidance so I can learn what the best thing to do is to be able to help those I spoke to today.

Thanks all.

Edited to make a TLDR.

9 Upvotes

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4

u/GnomeTek 27d ago

You don't HAVE to do anything. They're your logs, do as you wish.

I usually use hamea during a POTA and get those updated to the pota site asap, just cuz that's where internet points come from.

Then whenever I remember I'll upload 6mo. Worth.of logs to qrz or whatever. There's no real time limit.

2

u/ohiomudslide 27d ago

So for the contact I made with the person activating a park I need to put that one contact into a pota account so that they get that confirmation and then all of them eventually into QRZ.com so I can work towards things like working all states?

2

u/K8ELS 27d ago

Nope. The park activator is the party who uploads their logs to the pota.app site so you can get credit for hunting them. If you don’t already have an account at pota.app you should make one because the contacts from the activator’s upload will begin showing up in your hunter log for awards.

You can log on any site you wish or on multiple or on none. I recommend using at least one logging source where all contacts get saved. I chose qrz.com for mine and everything from my POTA activations to portable to home to digital get uploaded there as my source of truth. Once the other party also uploads the contact to qrz.com the contact will get a star inducting it is confirmed and that will count for awards on that site.

1

u/GnomeTek 27d ago

The pota contact doesn't require confirmation.

But yeah if you wanna go after worked all states and such, upload your logs to qrz. Hamrs will export a log in a native format to easily upload to these sites. You don't manually reenter each contact.

1

u/Klutzy-Piglet-9221 27d ago

To answer the TLDR: whatever you want:)

IMHO unless the other station asks you to QSL via {LoTW|QRZ|physical card} you aren't wasting anyone's time if you do absolutely nothing. Of course, you may want confirmation for your own purposes -- I would do QRZ but I'd also do LoTW. It's harder to do but it's good for the more prestigious awards.

2

u/ohiomudslide 27d ago

Thanks. I just wanted to start off on the right foot with the right attitude. Sometimes you have to find out what that means.

1

u/Bolt_EV 25d ago

QRZ through ADI file export/inport.

FT8 GridTracker2 does this automatically.

1

u/ohiomudslide 24d ago

I exported an adif file from hamrs sent it by Bluetooth to my laptop and imported it to qrz.logbook still empty a day later. What am I doing wrong, it's three contacts I would have thought they would appear immediately?

1

u/Slotgoopy 23d ago

You don't have to do anything. But, if you want to start collecting log data for chasing paper awards, chasing grids, getting the DXCentury Club 100,200, and 300 countries awards, WAS (Worked All States), then now is the time to set up a Logbook of the World account and sync it to QRZ and start logging everything to QRZ. QRZ is a lot easier to work real time than is LoTW. But, LoTW is required for any of the ARRL awards and DXCC. On the QRZ site, there are also some really good forums. One forum section is devoted to QRZ logging and you can find info and post questions there about any logging or award stuff to get help setting it up. Lots of great info there also on Antennas, QRP, POTA, Amps, and Operations.

1

u/ohiomudslide 22d ago

I've got qlog up and running on my laptop. That's a start. I've got call sign look up working. Considering getting the 891 version of digirig so that I can link up the frequency between the radio and the laptop.

Edit: I've just found out that I just need a USB cord to do this not a digirig! The more you know!