Rig control/logging program

On Monday I'll be driving from North Carolina to Cleveland. These long trips often give me a chance to think about things related to ham radio and how I might improve certain aspects of my station or my operating habits.

One thing that is up at the top of my list is finding (and settling on) a good choice for a rig control/logging program. For the small bit of contesting that I do - which is usually only the major contests and a few state QSO parties, N1MM Logger fills the bill nicely. I've been extremely happy with it. I haven't tried any of the others, but given how well it has performed for the contests that I've participated in, I'm quite content.

But for general logging, I'm still actively looking for a program that will make me feel the same level of contentment and satisfaction as N1MM does for contesting. I started out with Ham Radio Deluxe. I really liked this program once I was able to get the QRZ function working. At the time, that required using a beta version rather than the stable version. I don't think that's the case any longer. I like the options that it gives me for rig control too. Almost all of the important functions and settings are available for my FT-1000MP and my K2. In fact, it had even more available for the FT-857D, which was great. The spotting function is nicely integrated too, although I wish it would select the proper mode whenever I select a station in the voice section or the cw section. Maybe there's a way to do this and I'm not aware of it? The logging section of HRD is ok. Again, I like being able to fill in locations and so forth quickly by hitting the QRZ button. And since I don't typically put a wealth of extra information in myself - outside of QSL managers, it covers all the necessary bases. If the callsign is odd, however, it often has trouble recognizing it, especially if a slash is involved. Another drawback is that it doesn't automatically interface with LOTW, although it isn't the end of the world to have to export it in the proper format and do that manually. It does interface with eQSL, however.

Since I don't use digital modes I can't really speak for those aspects, although I've read that it is quite capable.

Somewhere along the way, though, I switched over to DXLabs Suite. I think it was mostly due to the QRZ function not working again in HRD, which seemed to happen from time to time as new versions were released. DXLab was a little overwhelming at first to get used to...figuring out which program did what and filtering through the oodles of settings that need to be tweaked. But after spending a good amount of time with it, I finally started getting the hang of it. Reading the documentation is a must for DXLab, whereas with HRD, most folks can probably get it up and running without as much as looking at the help file.

There are some things that I really love about DXLab, and some things that I don't care for. The rig control is very minimal, but since both of my rigs are right by my side, reaching over and making whatever adjustments are necessary isn't a big deal. But it's certainly not as convenient as HRD. More on being able to control the rig via HRD while using DXLab later.

The logging program of DXLab, DXKeeper, is far more involved than that offered in HRD. And it's a little scary too. I've learned to regularly backup my log because on more than one occasion I've had the logger fail to open and corrupt my current log. That's not good. Not good at all. And that alone would almost be a killer if it wasn't for all the other features that I've found to be indispensible. Being able to synchronize with LOTW is really, really nice (and eQSL too). I can spit out a report of my progress for DXCC, WAS, and a host of other awards. DXKeeper seems to handle unusual callsigns better than HRD too. The spotting functions of DXLab are fabulous. Being able to have 4 separate web-based DX spotting networks simultaneously display onscreen is top-notch. And clicking on any station will correctly set the mode of whatever rig I'm using, something HRD won't do (at least I never could figure out how).

One last negative about DXLabs is that I feel that I HAVE to use two monitors, there's simply too many windows to try and keep up with things, it gets really busy. HRD uses tabs to keep the different aspects open, ie, rig control, logger. With DXLabs, sometimes my taskbar looks like I've opened every program on my computer. Ok, not that bad, but you get the picture.

But, if it wasn't for the snafus with the logger, DXKeeper, I think I'd be perfectly content with the DXLabs Suite. But given the couple of times that it's blown up, I went looking for something else. Next up was TRX Manager. I should mention that TRX Manager costs about $80, whereas HRD and DXLab are free. I like TRX Manager, although it doesn't allow me to spread the program across two monitor screens. Interestingly some components can be moved out of the main screen, but not the ones that seem most important, like the logger. That's ok, though, I can keep DX Summit open in a webpage on the other monitor, or anything else for that matter, and jump back and forth. But I encountered one really annoying bug in TRX Manager. Everytime I click on a station that's been spotted, it changes the frequency and mode just fine, but it places the filter in narrow mode, both on the FT-1000 and the K2. It does this on CW and SSB. For the life of me I can't figure out how to make this stop. Does anyone know? It's infuriating. The logging portion seems pretty well done, but I can't say that I find it any better than HRD or DXKeeper, and maybe even a little less capable than DXKeeper? All in all, though, it's a nice program but I'm not sure that it's $80 better. I should mention that I tried the demo version. Perhaps once I registered it there might be updates available that correct the filtering glitch?

I also tried the sister logging program of TRX Manager, Logic 8. While this program probably has the best set of features devoted to logging, the rig control is even less than DXLab offers. I also didn't care for how the program flowed, some functions were just not intuitive, I felt. Lastly, I was turned off by the high cost, $129. I'm willing to pay for whatever solution I end up with, but I've got to really love it to shell out that kind of dough.

Finally, I tried the evaluation version of CommCat. I had problems with this program interfacing with my K2 and I also felt that it didn't offer comparable features that the others did. Admittedly, due to the problems connecting to the K2, I probably dismissed this program rather quickly. I don't remember if I even tried the FT-1000MP afterwards.

I should also mention that I've used HRD Bridge, which allows me to use HRD for rig control and the spotting and logging programs from DXLabs. This is a really nice hack and is a very intriguing possibility. For anyone that's used either program and wished that you could have the best of both worlds, I urge you to give it a try.

At this point I'm probably leaning towards staying with DXLabs, but I would sure like to hear thoughts from the rest of you. I'd love to find something that offers basic rig control, a versatile logging feature that interfaces with LOTW, and is relatively stable. I know there's some others listed on eHam, but several don't appear to have been updated in years. Also, I'd rather not use a java-based program, I'd prefer something standalone.

I welcome everyone's suggestions.