See History for previous build notes.
This new code kicks in when a contest engine definition exists as either a SkookumLogger shipped resource or a user-added file in $HOME/Library/Application Support/SkookumLogger/definitions.
For contests hardcoded into SkookumLogger, the engine just scores alongside SkookumLogger and logs a comparison at the end. Aside from the log message no other effects are intended from this integration.
For contests not known to SkookumLogger source code (i.e., definition-only) contests:
Change unknown mode to a warning.
Accommodate WA7BNM calendar mode of "Hell". International HELL-Contest (contest ID 147) from WA7BNM lists mode as "Hell". Loosening current "Field Hell" string match to just "Hell" facilitates matching.
Multiple delayed beacon CQs were being scheduled that could not be cannot cancelled.
The Info field pre-fill for the IARU HF Championship and for WRTC has been reworked. Both contests now guess the IARU society code or ITU zone from the call alone, and the guess is checked against what every station actually sent in WRTC 2026.
A society code guessed for a partial call no longer sticks to the finished call. Typing DL1HQ pre-fills DARC because the call looks like a headquarters station, and typing the final E now changes the field to 28 because DL1HQE is an ordinary station. Earlier versions kept DARC, and the judges count that as an exchange error.
IARU officials are recognized. Members of the Administrative Council and of the three regional executive committees are pre-filled with AC, R1, R2 or R3 from a list built into SkookumLogger, whatever their call looks like.
The society call history is now shared. The IARU HF Championship reads the same society call history file that WRTC has used, so society stations operating under ordinary calls are pre-filled in both contests. The file is read each time a log opens, so a list downloaded after launching SkookumLogger is in use when you open the log. Any entry in the file that disagrees with what the station sent in WRTC 2026 is ignored and reported in the Status Messages window, along with the date of the list.
File > Download Society Call History is a new command. It fetches the IARU HQ station list that Bob, N6TV, publishes before each IARU HF Championship, installs it, and reloads it. This replaces the manual download, rename and move described in earlier guides.
The IARU member society table is now generated from the IARU web site rather than typed by hand. The update corrected several entries: Finland's SRAL was missing from the prefix table, so OH2HQ was pre-filled with its zone; three pairs of societies that share a code (EARS, GARS, MARS) were counting as one multiplier each; the prefixes for ARAD, ARCOT, ARGUI, MARL and MARTS were wrong; and eight societies that joined or renamed since the table was last edited have been added. The Slovak society is now SARA, with the former SZR accepted as an alternate spelling, and China's code is CRAC, with CRSA accepted as an alternate.
NU1AW and W1AW are recognized when operating portable, so NU1AW/0 pre-fills IARU.
Pre-fill of ITU zones is now always two digits in both contests, matching what nearly all stations send.
Measured against the 5,742 zone stations and 77 society stations in the WRTC 2026 logs, the pre-fill is now right for every society station when the society call history is installed, and wrong for 47 zone stations, all of them stations operating outside the zone of their call sign or officials who chose to send a zone. Listen to the exchange and log what you hear.
The guide has a new section, Pre-fill for the IARU HF Championship and WRTC, under Data Entry Techniques.
Also known as the 9A DX Contest.The night bonus of 2 extra points per QSO now applies from 2300 UTC Saturday through 0459 UTC Sunday, matching the sponsor's rules. Previously the bonus window was two hours late. Croatian district names in the checksheet now use correct diacritics.
SkookumLogger does not currently support entrant inside Croatia.
The Text Decode/Encode window now filters decoded RTTY and PSK text before showing it. SkookumLogger assembles the incoming character stream into whole words, then judges each word. Call signs, common contest words such as CQ, TEST, DE and TU, and exchange values such as serial numbers, signal reports, zones and grid squares appear in the normal text color. Words that match none of these but could still be meaningful appear in a lighter gray. Words that are almost certainly garbage, such as single characters, long runs of consonants, very long letter strings, or random mixtures of letters and digits, appear in a fainter gray.
Punctuation now separates words instead of being removed from the stream. A call sign jammed against noise, such as K1GQ#$W1AW, still appears as two separate calls. Question marks and slashes at the ends of a word are ignored when the word is judged, so NR? is recognized as the word NR and /40/ is recognized as a number, while a call such as K1GQ/6 keeps its slash.
One and two digit numbers are judged by context. They count as exchange values when they appear near a call sign, a signal report, NR or UR, or when they repeat the previous word. Otherwise they count as noise. Three and four digit numbers stand on their own.
When a garbage word contains a call sign that is in the Super Check Partial database, or the call of the station you are working, or a 599 or 5NN report, SkookumLogger pulls that piece out and shows it as a separate word. Call signs found this way are highlighted and remain clickable.
Exchange values are drawn in blue so the eye moves from a highlighted call directly to the number or grid that follows it. Text you transmit still appears in red.
The last word of a transmission is held for about a second after the stream pauses, then displayed.
A new Hide noise checkbox sits next to the Clear button above the decoded text. When it is checked, SkookumLogger removes garbage words instead of dimming them, and replaces each run of removed words with a single dot so you can see where something was dropped. The setting takes effect on the next character received and is remembered between sessions.
See the Text Decoding and Encoding chapter of the SkookumLogger Guide, under Received text filtering and What the colors mean, for details.
This new feature gathers the logs from several computers into one log. This is for a multi-operator entry whose stations ran SkookumLogger without SkookumNet. Each computer keeps its own log during the contest, and afterwards one log is needed for the Cabrillo file.
Open one of the logs, choose the menu item, and select the sl-sqlite files from the other computers. SkookumLogger checks that every file is for the same contest, the same start date and the same sent call, and that no QSO appears twice. It then shows a summary of what will be combined and asks where to save the combined log. The combined log is a new file. The open log's file and the chosen files are not changed.
The combined log holds every QSO from every log, with all details kept, and its operator list gains the operators from the other logs. Category settings come from the open log. Differences in category settings, repeated station names, and QTCs in the other logs are reported before anything is written. QTCs are not copied. After copying, SkookumLogger confirms that the QSO count equals the sum of the counts in the source logs before it saves.
The Guide describes the feature in After the Contest is Over, under Combining Logs From Several Stations.
Thanks KE6T.
The line above the entry fields no longer lists the exchange parts. It now reads "Hover over an entry field to see tooltip." Each entry field has a tooltip that names what belongs in it. The Info field's tooltip is the contest's own description of that part of the exchange, for example "State/Province/County/DX" for a QSO party.
Previously, the tooltips for the editor's field could show the field's own text instead of the actual tooltip.
The editor now follows the current log. Opening a different log without quitting SkookumLogger rebuilds the editor's fields and tooltips from the new log's contest rules. Previously the editor kept the layout from the first log opened.
Fixed a crash when opening another log while the Sent Exchange Editor was open. SkookumLogger started a save of the closing log from the editor window, the save finished after the log was closed, and a "document could not be saved" alert appeared before the crash.
New
Tuesday's Telegraph Test, found in the Other P-T submenu in the Contest Chooser. This event is the first to be supported by a new scheme for defining contest rules described in an external specification file, instead of adding contest-specific code to SkookumLogger.Changed
The feature for managing KPA1500 antenna tuner settings, described in the SkookumLogger Guide, is now available to everyone with the required amplifier firmware. Thanks GØDVJ.
Ongoing efforts to remove typos and grammatical errors in the SkookumLogger Guide, along with updating and clarifying the content. Feedback on things you find missing or confusing is welcome.
Fixed
An IARU society code entered in the Info field that names no society is now an error, rather than being replaced by the society of the station's country.
Dupes key on the whole call sign instead of the root call. For example, F/PA1M is not a dupe of PA1M.
Typo in IaruSocieties database: country code for CRAM was TX instead of TZ.
WRTC was using the CQ countries list instead of the DXCC countries list.
CWT was botching prefills for corner cases where country code matched a state code. Thanks K1IG.
Corrected ARRL section PAC to be titled Pacific to align with ARRL documentation.
Corrected handling of power multipliers for Stew Perry.
Importing a Cabrillo file was crashing.
Corrected minor Colorado QSO Party rules errors: No 70cm band; guess 'DX' instead of country code (inside);reportType RST, not Name (practice); QSOs are not per phone mode.
K4 TCP was always switching mode to CW when grabbing a not-a-spot frequency with panadapter click.
Fixed
The Radios window was missing in action. This build replaces the Release build posted earlier today. Thanks W6FB.