ON3VZ/P Portable Manual

This is the full technical reference behind the ON3VZ/P build. Where the blog post tells the story, this document is the one to come back to when setting something up again, or explaining it to someone else.

1. The core principle: one master log, three kinds of files

It helps to keep three things distinct from the start:

The field log is disposable. It gets absorbed into the master log the moment you’re home. The WWFF submission is an export, not a separate logbook. There is exactly one database that matters long-term: the one in Log4OM.

2. Choosing the call: ON3VZ/P

ONFF requires a station to sign /p or /m to count toward the annual activator ranking. In the log, the station call is what was actually used on air (ON3VZ/P); the operator call is the same person without the suffix (ON3VZ). A suffix like /QRP is not a recognised designator and does not qualify for that ranking, QRP status is instead carried in the TX_PWR field, in spot comments, and in profile text, never in the call itself.

Consequence for every platform below: ON3VZ and ON3VZ/P are treated as two distinct identities that need to be linked back together. The relationship is different on every platform:

3. QRZ.com

Everything below happens inside the same QRZ account, one login, one XML subscription. Nothing here creates a second account.

1. Account → Secondary Callsigns → add ON3VZ/P. This is what gives the call its own bio page under the existing login.
2. Logbook → new logbook, tied to ON3VZ/P. This step matters regardless of step 1: QRZ ties every logbook to exactly one callsign, one location and one date range, and a slashed variant is a distinct callsign for that purpose, so it needs its own logbook even though it’s the same account and the same person behind both calls.
3. Set a non-overlapping Valid-From / Valid-To date range for the new logbook, and set DXCC, grid, etc.
4. Copy the logbook’s own API key into a password manager, never into a plain text file on a laptop that travels.
5. In Log4OM’s External Services → QRZ.COM tab, set Force Station Callsign to ON3VZ/P. QRZ silently discards QSOs whose station call doesn’t match the registered call for that logbook; this field is the safety net against anything slipping through with the wrong call.
6. Write the bio page as its own page, not a copy of the home page, distinct visual identity, 5W QRP stated up front, equipment list for the field station.

4. LoTW (via TQSL)

1. In TQSL: Callsign Certificate → Request New Callsign Certificate.
2. Callsign ON3VZ/P, DXCC Belgium, QSO begin date = today or first planned activation, end date left blank.
3. On the “What is this Callsign Certificate for?” screen, select None of these apply. (Not “replaces my existing callsign”. That would retire the original call. Not “former callsign” either.)
4. When asked whether to add this to an existing LoTW account, select the existing ON3VZ account rather than creating a new one. This keeps DXCC/WAS progress unified under one login.
5. Sign the request with the existing ON3VZ certificate. This routes it through automatic processing (no manual ID/licence upload needed); typically approved within days, arriving as a .tq6 attachment.
6. Load the .tq6 file on the same computer that generated the request (the private key lives there). Delete the file from Downloads afterwards.
7. Create a Station Location per operating location, named by place and grid rather than by call (e.g. “Roy vakantiehuis JO20qe”, “ONFF-0599 Alouette JO20xx”), DXCC Belgium, CQ 14, ITU 27, correct gridsquare.
8. Back up certificates and station locations (File → Backup) to somewhere off the laptop.

5. Club Log

Unlike QRZ, Club Log keeps one account, multiple calls:

1. Settings → Callsigns → add ON3VZ/P.
2. Settings → Linking → link ON3VZ/P to ON3VZ for combined DXCC credit in league tables (only possible within the same DXCC entity).
3. Logs stay separate per call automatically, never manually move QSOs between them.
4. No separate API key: Log4OM uses the same Club Log email/password for every call; the callsign in the active configuration determines which log receives the upload.

6. QRZCQ.com

1. Account → add ON3VZ/P as a secondary/alias callsign.
2. Switch to it via the callsign picker and confirm DXCC and profile details.
3. Put 5W QRP portable, WWFF/ONFF in the short comment/description field (this is what shows up in lookups); the fuller station and equipment description goes in Biography/Equipment.

7. Log4OM: two configurations, one database

Log4OM v2’s Configuration Manager lets you clone a full settings profile.

1. Back up first, copy the whole Log4OM data folder somewhere safe before touching anything.
2. Clone the existing configuration, name the copy ON3VZ-P portable.
3. Station Information: Station Callsign ON3VZ/P, Operator Callsign ON3VZ, Owner Callsign ON3VZ, gridsquare of the day, CQ 14, ITU 27, DXCC 209 (Belgium).
4. Station configuration: add the QMX + Band Hopper IV as a distinct rig/antenna pair (separate from the shack’s IC-7300 + HyEndFed), with default TX power 5 W.
5. Confirmations tab: set the default confirmation type per service, LOTW and QRZCOM should be Sent = Requested (this must match the upload flag configured under External Services, or new QSOs won’t be picked up for automatic upload); QSL (paper) stays No unless you intend to send a card for every contact. Rcvd always stays No. It gets filled by the confirmation service itself, never set manually in advance. Click the save (floppy disk) icon for each type. This is a separate save from the top-level “Save config”.
6. External Services → QRZ.COM: paste the ON3VZ/P logbook’s API key, set Force Station Callsign to ON3VZ/P.
7. External Services → LOTW: point the Station ID dropdown at the correct TQSL Station Location for the current operating location. This field does not update itself per QSO, see §10 below for why that matters.
8. Leave MY_SIG / MY_SIG_INFO empty by default; fill them in (WWFF / ONFF-xxxx) only for an actual WWFF activation.
9. Enter one fictitious test QSO, inspect the resulting ADIF fields (STATION_CALLSIGN, OPERATOR, MY_GRIDSQUARE, TX_PWR, MY_SIG/MY_SIG_INFO), then delete it.

7a. Logging a live activation directly in Log4OM, without PoLo

FT8 QSOs (via WSJT-X’s UDP forwarding) land in Log4OM straight away, there’s no ADIF import step, which also means there’s no per-QSO opportunity to set anything. Every field that matters comes from whatever is sitting in the active configuration’s Station Information tab at the moment the QSO is logged, not from anything typed per contact. That changes the workflow compared to a PoLo session:

Before the session:

1. Load the ON3VZ-P portable configuration (check the title bar).
2. Station Information: update MyGridsquare to today’s location. This is easy to confuse with the plain Gridsquare field, which is the other station’s grid, not yours, Log4OM’s own bulk QSO editor has both fields side by side for exactly this reason.
3. If, and only if, this session is an actual WWFF activation: in Station Information / My References (Award Manager), set MY_SIG = WWFF and MY_SIG_INFO = ONFF-xxxx. Leave both blank for ordinary portable operating that isn’t a registered activation.
4. Confirm WSJT-X’s UDP forwarding still points at this configuration (§8.5), a fresh clone occasionally reverts the address/port.

After the session:

1. If MY_SIG / MY_SIG_INFO were filled in for the activation, clear them again once it’s over, the ON3VZ-P portable configuration is shared with ordinary (non-activation) portable operating, and the next QSO logged with those fields still set would be mistakenly tagged as a WWFF contact too.
2. Switch the LoTW Station ID dropdown to match today’s location before uploading (§7.7, §10), a separate fixed field from the grid in step 2, and the one that actually signs the QSOs.

8. WSJT-X: portable configuration

1. File → Settings → Configurations → Clone, rename to Portable.
2. General tab: My Call ON3VZ/P, My Grid = grid of the day (6 characters). Message generation for type-2 compound callsign holders should be set to include the full call in Tx3. This is what makes CQ ON3VZ/P carry the grid, since ON3VZ/P is a type-2 compound call, not a fully “nonstandard” one.
3. Radio tab: select the QMX and its COM port. This will differ from the shack radio’s COM port, check Device Manager when the QMX is plugged in, and don’t assume it reuses the same port.
4. Audio tab: select the QMX’s USB sound card for both input and output, one USB-C cable carries CAT and audio together.
5. Reporting tab: switch off “Contesting only” (this also needs checking on the home configuration, with it on, automatic logging only fires in contest mode); fill in Op Call = ON3VZ so the ADIF OPERATOR field is correct; confirm UDP forwarding to Log4OM is enabled on the same address/port the home configuration uses (typically 127.0.0.1:2237), with “Accept UDP requests” on.
6. There is no message slot for 5W QRP inside an FT8 exchange. The 77-bit message is already full with call and grid. QRP status travels via the spot comment instead, or occasionally via a Tx5 free-text macro (5W QRP TU) sent in place of 73, see §8.1 for the correct procedure, since this does not work as a simple set and forget macro.
7. Confirm the title bar reads ON3VZ/P and the grid before transmitting.

8.1 Auto Seq: keep it on

Auto Seq should stay enabled for normal operating. It is what drives the automatic message sequencing through a QSO and, combined with the setting in §8.2, what allows WSJT-X to keep calling CQ automatically between contacts without any manual intervention. Turning it off as a permanent setting is not the fix for anything covered here.

The one place Auto Seq gets in the way is the reference macro described in step 6 above. With Auto Seq on, WSJT-X regenerates the standard message on every received decode, which silently resets any custom free-text message typed into the Tx5 slot back to “(his call) (own call) 73”, often without warning that it was dropped. This is a long-standing, documented WSJT-X behaviour, not a bug specific to one setup.

To actually send a custom reference message (for example ONFF-0123 73) instead of the standard 73:

1. Type the custom message into the free-text field only once the QSO has reached the point where Tx5/73 would normally go, not earlier, since Auto Seq will overwrite an earlier entry on the next decode.
2. Uncheck Auto Seq for that one transmission.
3. Let the custom message transmit.
4. Re-enable Auto Seq immediately afterwards, before the next call. Forgetting this step is the most common mistake: normal automatic sequencing then quietly stops working for the rest of the session.

8.2 Making WSJT-X call CQ again automatically after a QSO

If a QSO always ends and transmission simply stops with no automatic new CQ, the cause is almost always Settings → General → Behavior → “Disable Tx after sending 73.” When this is checked, WSJT-X disables Enable Tx the moment it sends the final 73, and every following CQ has to be started by hand.

Uncheck it to get continuous automatic operation: after 73, WSJT-X moves on to Tx6 (the CQ message) and keeps transmitting automatically, ready for the next station, with no manual click needed between contacts.

One related setting worth knowing about once CQ is running automatically and unattended: Tx Watchdog (also on the General tab, default 6 minutes) stops transmission on its own if there has been no operator interaction for that long. That is a safety feature against a runaway transmitter, not a fault. If CQ calling stops after several quiet minutes with no takers, this is very likely why, and it needs a manual click to resume rather than a configuration change.

8.3 Radio tab in detail: CAT, PTT and rig data

The Radio tab is where the portable configuration most obviously differs from the shack configuration. Worth writing the working values down rather than rediscovering them in a field.

Poll interval. The default of 10 seconds suits a fixed station that stays on one band all evening. Portable operating is the opposite: band hopping is the point, and with a 10 second poll, WSJT-X can be up to ten seconds behind the radio after a band change made on the QMX itself. That is exactly the window in which a transmission goes out on the wrong dial frequency. Two to three seconds closes it, and the extra USB traffic is irrelevant.

Mode and Split. Both defaults were designed around conventional SSB transceivers. The purpose of split operation in WSJT-X is to keep the transmit audio between 1500 and 2000 Hz so that audio harmonics cannot pass through the transmitter’s sideband filter. The QMX does not work that way: it measures the frequency of the incoming audio tone and synthesises the RF directly, so there is no sideband filter for harmonics to slip past. The settings above may work perfectly well, but they are worth confirming rather than assuming:

• If the QMX drops out of its digital mode on transmit, set Mode = None and select the mode on the radio itself.
• If VFO B behaves oddly on transmit, set Split Operation = Fake It.
• Use Test CAT and Test PTT to confirm both directions before trusting the configuration, with an antenna or dummy load connected.

Hamlib version. WSJT-X can update Hamlib from within the Radio tab and keeps a backup of the previous version. A version string ending in ~rc is a release candidate, which is pre-release software. It may fix something specific, but an activation is not the place to find out what else it changed. Before a field day or a WWFF activation, either revert to the last stable release or confirm the RC has been tested at home across every band you intend to use.

8.4 PSK Reporter: reach without a single QSO

On the Reporting tab, enable spotting to PSK Reporter. This is the cheapest reach measurement available to a QRP station and it needs no contacts at all.

Call CQ. Within a few minutes pskreporter.info shows every station that decoded the signal, with distance and signal report, whether or not anybody answered. For a new portable antenna that answers the real question directly: not “did someone come back to me”, but “where is this station actually being heard”. It also separates two problems that feel identical from the operating position, namely nobody hearing you and nobody replying.

It is passive: enabled once in the portable configuration, it needs no per-activation action. It is already listed as such in the spotting summary in §11.

9. PoLo (Ham2K Portable Logger), for SSB and CW sessions

1. Settings: Operator ON3VZ, Station Call ON3VZ/P. This is set per activation/operation, not as a single global field, since the station call can change between activations.
2. Default power = 5 W; optionally a fixed 5W QRP note.
3. Every session in PoLo is a new Operation, add one, then attach the specific activation(s) to it (WWFF/POTA/SOTA reference and gridsquare; a single outing can carry more than one, e.g. a WWFF reference that’s also a POTA park). For ordinary portable operating without any reference, create the Operation and leave the activation field blank.
4. Data Files: Settings → Data Settings → Data Files → refresh. These are the official WWFF/POTA/SOTA reference lists, maintained by those programmes, PoLo only downloads them; nothing here is user-authored. Do this at home over wifi, since most activation sites have no signal.
5. Callsign Notes (optional, unrelated to the above): a separate, user-editable text file of notes tied to specific callsigns, shown automatically when that call is logged again. PoLo ships with a built-in file (“Ham2K’s Hams of Note”). A custom file can be hosted anywhere that serves a direct plain-text link, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive/Docs, or a GitHub Gist’s raw URL all qualify, added via Settings → Data Settings → Callsign Notes → + Add a new file.
6. Lookups: enter QRZ XML credentials under account/lookup settings for full callsign lookups, without them PoLo falls back to HamDB, which only covers the US, Canada and Germany.
7. Spotting: log in to Spotline/POTA directly from PoLo using ON3VZ/P as the username; test this at home over wifi before relying on it in the field.
8. Multi-device sync (phone + iPad): Ham2K Log Filer (“LoFi”) provides genuine two-way sync of QSO data (free tier: 7-day history, slower; paid tier ~€2.99/month: unlimited history, faster, more reliable across devices), but it syncs QSO data only, never settings, and it’s young enough that a manual ADIF export/import remains the dependable fallback. Each device still needs Operator call, Station call, power default, and QRZ lookup credentials configured independently.
9. Test with one fictitious QSO, export as ADIF, verify the same fields as in §7 step 9, delete the test QSO.
10. Workflow: PoLo has no live link to Log4OM. Export ADIF after the session and import it by hand, see §10.

10. After a PoLo import: the sequence that matters

Log4OM does not route a QSO to the correct logbook based on what’s written in an imported ADIF file. It uploads based on which configuration is active at the moment of upload. The import itself is not the risky step; the upload afterwards is.

1. Before importing, confirm Log4OM is on the ON3VZ-P portable configuration (check the title bar).
2. Import the ADIF file (File → Import ADIF).
3. Spot-check two or three imported records for STATION_CALLSIGN = ON3VZ/P. For a WWFF session, check MY_SIG and MY_SIG_INFO on the same records too, PoLo’s export does include the WWFF fields, but Log4OM’s ADIF import doesn’t always carry Ham2K-formatted SIG data through cleanly on every version; other Log4OM/PoLo users have reported needing to fix these fields via QSO Manager after import, so it’s worth confirming rather than assuming.
4. The QRZ “Force Station Callsign” setting (§3.5) acts as a backstop even if something slipped through.
5. Upload to QRZ: select the imported QSOs, right-click, upload selection, don’t rely on “automatic upload on new QSO”, which is designed for live logging, not batch import.
6. Before uploading to LoTW, check the Station ID field in External Services → LOTW. It is a single fixed value per configuration, not read per-QSO from the grid field. If the last activation was at a different location than the one just imported, switch it manually to the correct Station Location before uploading, otherwise TQSL signs the new QSOs with the previous location’s grid. This is the single easiest mistake to make in the whole workflow, and the reason it now sits as a fixed step in the field checklist rather than something to remember on the fly.
7. Upload to Club Log and QRZCQ the same way, select and upload, don’t assume an automatic trigger fired on import.

11. Spotting

At 5 W, being found matters more than being loud. Self-spotting is not optional, it’s the core strategy.

• Where: Spotline (WWFF’s own spotting service, launched June 2025), log in with your callsign as username. The smartWWFF app (phone/tablet) offers the same, plus spot browsing. PoLo can spot directly to Spotline and POTA. For non-WWFF portable operating, the ordinary DX cluster via Log4OM works, though self-spotting is more broadly accepted on nature-activation clusters than on general DX clusters.
• What: call, frequency, mode, and a comment carrying the reference and 5W QRP. This is where QRP status becomes visible to hunters, since it can’t fit inside an FT8 exchange.
• How: from a phone, not the laptop, Spotline and smartWWFF are built for that.
• When: register the activation on the WWFF agenda ahead of time (spots auto-populate during the scheduled window); post the first spot at the first QSO; re-spot after every band change. Once operating CW, the Reverse Beacon Network spots automatically when it hears the call during an active agenda window, no manual step needed.
• Duplicate rule: a spot counts as duplicate at the same frequency (±1 kHz), same call and reference, within 10 minutes of the previous one. Re-posting out of impatience does nothing.

12. WWFF submission

1. Confirm activation validity: minimum 60 minutes on air from the first logged QSO; 44 QSOs normally required, with a QRP exception (confirm the exact reduced threshold directly with the ONFF coordinator, onfflogapproval@gmail.com), QSOs below 44 can also be accumulated across multiple activations of the same reference.
2. Export an ADIF containing only the QSOs from this activation.
3. Filename exactly: on3vz_p@ONFF-xxxx YYYYMMDD.adi, this filename is used as the duplicate check, so don’t deviate from it.
4. Attach at least two relevant photos (max 600 px) or one photo carrying GPS metadata, logs without proof are rejected.
5. Email to onfflogapproval@gmail.com, mentioning 5W QRP explicitly if claiming the QRP exception.
6. If the reference also has a POTA number, upload to POTA separately.
7. Verify position against the official ONFF KMZ file (available via the BOS group on groups.io) before and during the activation. This is the file ONFF verifies activator position against, not a general map.

13. The most common mistakes

14. Reference: what belongs where