I purchased the AvMap Geosat5 Blu well over a year ago when they just released the road maps of the Isle of Man, on first look they were great, quite accurate in fact, but problems soon became apparent, the major issue with the Isle of Man map coverage by TeleAtlas was that it did not include the facility to look up Post Codes, even though when you were parked outside of a known address, the information displayed upon the screen would display the correct Post Code.

Foxglove Close being displayed as Foxglove Croft

There were (and still are) issues with road names either being incorrectly spelt or not even existing at all, details of these were passed on AvMap and even after over a year, TeleAtlas have not sorted out these issues, that aside, the AvMap is a superb device, not only enabling clear reading of the roads ahead, but with its built in APRS mapping, this is a real must for those RayNet people, as it clearly displays where other mobile stations are (providing they are also using APRS equipment) and also including such information as the call sign of the operator within the vehicle, where they are heading to, present speed and direction and any other information that you wish to transmit.

Where it really comes into its own, is that an operator can not only view where another APRS station is, but he can then ask the AvMap to plot a route for the other operation and then using the Kenwood Radio you could tell the operator where to turn and which way to go to reach their destination, thus help guiding them into a location that they do not know that well, and if they do not own a SatNav device such as the AvMap, as long as they have a radio that will transmit APRS then they can be guided to any location. It is also possible to plot a course to the other operator, and whilst driving to their location the display on the AvMap will display both your location and that of the other APRS contact that you are driving towards with a very high level of accuracy.

AvMap displaying the location of 2E0TGS

As of the 20th February 2010 AvMap finally got an up to date map information from TeleAtlas, this included the long awaited Post Code search facility that every other SatNav device takes for granted, and sure enough it was tested with as many known Post Codes that I knew, and although after a shaky start, and a few rushed updates, it works, most of the Isle of Man is supported to a full 6 digit Post Code, but for some reason a few addresses would not allow more than 5 digits’ to be entered, but even this would at least put you at the end of the relevant road or at least very close by.

I must admit that I had actually re-boxed the unit and was using a Garmin device instead for some time, mainly because there mapping included Post Code lookup as standard to the Isle of Man (and 6 digit lookup throughout the Island) and also the odd road name that was either miss-spelt, Croft instead of Close, or missing entirely, was not a problem on the Garmin device, and I still have to say that as far as the road names and the postcodes, the Garmin devices are much more accurate, but are a pain to get working with APRS equipment, with only a few of the more costly units achieving this, and because of this you are limited in regards to screen sizes and displays. The AvMap has something that the Garmin devices does not even come close to, and that is its display, it really does put the Garmin or Tom-Tom SatNav’s to shame. It’s display, and menu system is so faultless and very easy to master and customise. If you needed to choose between the two makes, the AvMap certainly have the edge as far as Big Screen with loads of features.

You can feed Video into the unit, such as a reversing Camera or a DVD Player for instance. It does come with Bluetooth as standard but to be honest this is a total waist of space, the unit does not come with the ability to plug in and external microphone, and when tested with the built in microphone, although the unit was very easy to use with your mobile, the reports of all they could hear was the engine noise and to get then to hear me over the background noise you would have to lean forward so that you were about 2″ from the unit, thus meaning it was verging on dangerous whilst driving. I think the unit could have least had an external socket for this and to be supplied with a good quality noise cancelling microphone would have really pushed this above any of it’s competitors, but it is only a small feature.

Another minor gripe with the unit is that somedays it will take around 5-10 minutes to lock into enough satellites’ to start plotting your course on the unit, and other days it is instant, There are no reasons for this as the unit is not moved around in the car, and the only thing that I can think is that the device does not like the bad weather that we have on the Isle of Man, as the days that it does play up, they are normally overcast, i.e. normal weather the Isle of Man… I am hoping that an External GPS Antenna from AvMap will sort this out, but about 1 month on my supplier is still waiting to get them in.

The only BIG issue with the unit is it’s battery life, this is totally pathetic, the unit will count down to 30 seconds when you switch off the engine, this is a normal power save feature and it is really useful, if you then remove the unit from the car and take it say into the house to show to someone, when you switch the unit on and start to use it, it will completely die on you after around 47 seconds (give or take 2 seconds either way), and this is after the unit has been in the car and connected to a 12V supply for over a hour. I have asked AvMap about this but it looks like they don’t have an answer for this as I have not yet had a response on this.

HF, VHF, UHF and AvMap

My conclusion is that after well over a year, the AvMap GeoSat5 Blu now is what I term as a very useable SatNav unit, the ability to seamlessly link this to a Kenwood TM-D710E and use to plot other APRS stations, including information on them really is a great feature, easy to configure and great to use. It does still have issues, but most of these are because of TeleAtlas regarding wrong names, and missing road names, even when they exist. It is so worth the cost though, for RayNet it is invaluable, and I would go so far to say that they could not really be serious without it, at least for the mobile units, APRS offers so many features for use by RayNet and even other organisations, I have seen it used to log runners on a marathon at a checkpoint and transmit not only that the runner has travelled through a checkpoint but also the time that the passed the checkpoint. There are endless uses for APRS, and Civil Defence, Support for Coast Guard and Police Searches of large areas of coastlines, and as seen in other countries where Disasters can very real indeed, APRS communications and Mapping comes into it’s own, and Kenwood and AvMap are certainly a very gifted combination.

The Radios hidden underneath a false floor.

Main Screen Layout for UcxLog

UcxLog was introduced to me by a visiting German DXCC group that used the Isle of Man for a base during a contest in the summer, on first looks the software seems to be nothing special, in fact it is very basic which is one of it’s selling points.

The software is very easy to learn and master, and even though up until now the only logbooks that I were fond of and would recommend were either Ham Radio Deluxe or StarLog (of course!), I have since moved all my logs over to this software, and hopefully I will explain why as I go on.

First Looks

The software itself is so easy to install, the software is only around 6Mb in size and is installed within a few seconds, as for the setup, there is no much to be done, the transceiver interface is basic, and although not as selective as the one that you get with Ham Radio Deluxe it does the job. I had a few problems getting the software to work with some Yaesu radio’s, namely the FT-950 and the FT-897D, I still am not sure what was going wrong, but it took me a few attempts to get the software going, and dropping the baud rate to it’s lowest value helped get these going, which was totally the oppersite for the Kenwood TS-2000, which would not connect to the software until the baud rate was set to 19200bps.

Once the software is installed you get a variety of windows, the basics are above, the main software window (top window), the QSO Working window (middle window) and a basic logbook view (bottom window). These are all resizable and obviously movable to fit all tastes, and positions are saved upon exiting the software to make sure your not having to relay everything out each time. Other windows can be switched on,  such as the ever useful DX Cluster and  the greyzone map (displayed below).

GreyZone Map and DX Cluster

One very nice touch is that you can change the colours within the DX Cluster to suite your own needs, for instance if you want to keep an eye out for special callsigns you can say make the appear in Red as I have above, or if you need certain countries or IOTA contacts  you can colour them in different colour, very useful indeed, especially if you loose track of which squares, countries, or islands you have contacted, all of which comes to a totally new meaning when you start working contests.

Normal Logging and Contests

As an everyday log book, the software does what you need, it does not have all the bells and wistles of the HRD Logbook, but it does the trick. As a contesting logbook it is about the best you could find.

A brief example of the Contest Work Window

Scores and multipliers are updated automatically, all the information that you need is to hand, I would go so far to say that I find it easier to use and just as powerful as N1MM.

Minor Issues

The software is basically perfect except for some very annoying little features, or more importantly the lack of some very minor features that make the softweare basically annoying to use, that said it is still worth putting up with it in the hope the programmer will sort it out one day (soon, one hopes).

It is rerally annoying as the softwares interface is fantastic, very easy to use, and everything is in it’s place, for speed of entry I think the software is nearly as good as N1MM, I would even go so far as to say that the interface for UcxLog is so much better than N1MM, and as a non-contest logbook it is 100% better, but still it is very lacking in some major areas, and the very annoying thing here is that most of the features that I (and others that I have shown the software too) wish this software would have in it, are in nearly all other logbook applications out their.

The software seems to be written for just the German market, I say this becasue of some of the missing features, and also what seems to be the lack of interest when it comes to suggestions from anyone not in Germany! pretty typical really, after all when you see a BMW on the roads over here the drivers automatically feel that using the indicators is beneath them or that they have the right to carve up whoever they feel even if there isnt a space for them, Yep I hate BMW’s.

Anyway here is the list that myself and others have thought would turn this software into the most perfect software on the planet!

Frequency Display:

The frequency is displayed in KHz, and although this is OK, it is so much eazsier to read the frequency in MHz, also there is a lack of acurracy as well, personally when using most other software most of the operators I know like to keep an accurate log, for instance if I log a QSO on say 14.004.015 MHz I will log the entire frequency used, UcxLog will log 14004 kHz, personally we feel that logging what is displayed on the radio itself is a much better way work, What happenes whan you work on 10 GHz, would you rather log 10.226.100 GHz or 10226100000 kHz, which one is easier to read?  either way, this would be a fairly easy thing to implement, and could even be switchable, so that if you are German you can have the original version, if you live anywhere else in the world you could log accuratly.
No Support for the Smaller UK Contests:

This year (2010) we desided to test the software on a few of the smaller contests run by the RSGB, these were the the likes of the RSGB 80m Club Championship and a few other smaller contests, it looks like we afre left out of these as well, I have noted that the German small contests of the same ilk are covered but alas not the similar ones run over the UK, for this I am afraid you will need to run N1MM or any of the other contest logging software.

Modes:

This is only a minor issue, but the software logs just ‘SSB’, and it seems to be a preference that most operators prefere to log ‘USB’ and ‘LSB’, respectivly.

UTC Offset:

Again a minor issue, but the software logs in UTC and so it should, but most other contesting and logging software allows you to log using a UTC offset time, after all, if logging in a remote island and it is a glorious 10am morning, do you relly want to log 4am instead? although minor, this was the reason the software was dropped by a very well known team of ARRL DX loggers working on one of their well sort after DXpeditions.

Worked Locators:

The software has a very neat feature, like most of the good logbooks out there it gives you a chance to view the locators that you have worked in a pictorial form (see below).

Worked Squares

As you can see I have marked a good feature within this dialogue box, and that is to zoom in on the map.

Worked Squares Zoomed in

Now for the annoying bit, it only zooms in on your location?! I feel that this is a really missed oppertunity, especially as this could be screen captured for websites, especially for contests or DXpeditions, but you cannot move the map up, down or left and right. most of the othger software out there that has this feature not only allows you to zoom in on set locations but you can also change the amount of zoom to give you an even greater zoomed in area if need be. Well hopefully this will be in a future release (but I doubt it!).

Missing Bands:

There are a few issues with the bands within the software, such as say 6 metres, in Germany the band stops at 51MHz, but here in the UK it stops at 52MHz, the software is ‘ONLY’ writtern for German operators and thus there is no support for this within the Band Plan, which is slightly annoying, but more annoying that that is the lack of support for 60 metres (5 MHz) and 4 metres (70 MHz), and even after asking about this he feels that there is no need for this as the bands are not supported in Germany.

Locator and IOTA Information often Missing:

I have noticed that when entering a Callsign into the ‘Work’ window the Locator and/or the IOTA Number is not automatically entered, even though the information is pulled up with the ‘Callbook’ Window, it often displays the Locator information which is refered to as the ‘Grid Square’ but this information is not placed within the Locator section of the ‘QSO Work’ window, and as for the IOTA Numbers, surely this can be linked to the Callsign Prefixes or Special Callsigns information, it is a little annoying when it does not display the IOTA Numbers for well known Islands such as Crete, Cyprus, I have often needed to add these on the fly, again just a minor inconveinance, but a shame it is missing.

QRZ Website Callsign Display:

I have had to use a couple of other applications of late, and something that I found very useful was the ability to automatically load the QRZ.com website on say a second monitor, not understanding me? well in Logger32 and a few other application that I have used, you have the ability to load the normal QRZ.com website in your default browser (Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox) on a second monitor, the logging software still pulls up the information from QRZ or HamCall for the logbook itself, i.e. the Callsign information, Notes, Locator, Operators name, etc, but as well as this it automatically displays the users QRZ.com webpage within a default browser which can be displayed anywhere, either on the same screen or moved across onto a second monitor which a lot of users now use as the norm. Although not vital, it would prove very useful.

Conclusions

The software is great, it could be ever so easily perfect, but then what software is? the software is updated practically every day, making it constally evolving, it is very stable, and so very fast to use, for contesting, it is near perfect, for general logging, it is in need, but still 95% there. I would still recommend the software to one and all even if the software is written for just the German operators, the ARRL operators that I met just recently were very interested in the software, but were not happy with 2 of the above issues that for them made the software so unlikeable that they stuck with StarLog and other well known software.

Lets hope things change one day for the better, after all, the software is free, and well supported by the programmer, check out http://www.ucxlog.com