Adventures in logging

Friday evening, when I headed down to the shack for the QRP- ARCI Spring QSO Party, I took a long my no-name, off brand Android tablet with me. I was determined to make a concerted effort at "computer logging". I have (or rather should say "had") an Android logging program called VLS Logger

I started off writing my first two contacts on paper, and during a lull, entered them onto the tablet. It seemed easy enough, and I made the decision to forego paper and pen for the rest of the night and log solely onto the tablet. That's when Murphy walked through the door.

For some reason known only to the Almighty, my tablet froze. I hit the power button and chose the "restart" button.When the tablet came back, I tried to re-open VLS Logger and when I did, I saw the words "Attempting to reload log from db" and the whirling little circle of death.So I figured, I'd try force stopping the app. I went into App settings, did that and restarted the program. Same result. I figured I'd give it some time and would see what happens. Five minutes later, the donut is still whirling away.

My next course of action was to un-install and re-install, as that has worked for me before with other apps.So I went to the Google Play store and guess what? VLS Logger is no longer offered!

I spent the rest of the night logging with paper and pen, and I guess that's the way it will always be for me. Log manually and then transfer to AC Log on my laptop later on. I know that's terribly Odd School, but that seems to work best for me.

BTW, here's where RBN's skimmers heard me Friday night:

And this is a map of the QSOs I made:

Just a slight bit of a difference!  The computers were hearing me better than human ears were able to, I guess! No contacts made with anyone as far out west as the skimmers heard me.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!