# Make your own tools

It's convenient to download some package and all its dependencies for
some basic functionality. Rarely do you use or need many of the
features of the software and even less of the included libraries and
dependencies.

Since starting in amateur radio I initially avoided logging software
and had been keeping only a paper log. More recently I started
manually adding entries to a tab separated file so that I could see
if I had spoken to some call sign or other before and on what band
etc.

There are many packages and websites you can sign up to that provide
this functionality, but it's unlikely I would use half of it. I just
need to log my calls and a tsv file, which I can search with standard
text processing tools, is sufficient.

Only you can truly understand what you need from a piece of software
and once you understand what you need, often you realize it's
actually not that much.


## How it works

I have the following in my .kshrc file:
'''
  # Amateur Radio Log
  . /home/<user>/bin/logbook.sh
  alias LG='lb_log'
  alias LF='lb_find'
'''

> $ LF DL4ST
> 2025-06-07 19:18:11     DL4ST   10.120  30m     CW      579     4..

The above shows all contacts for DL4ST.

> $ LG G0GSY

The above will add the call to the logfile and open it with your
$EDITOR falling back to vi if it's not defined.

Defaults for band and mode are set using environment variables,
LB_BAND and LB_MODE in the logbook.sh[0] file, which also contains
the shell functions that make it work. I currently have the variables
set to 40m and CW respectively, but you can export them again to
dynamically change them.

> $ export LB_MODE=SSB

When you add a contact the frequency is pre-filled based on the band
of operation like so 7.### for 40m allowing you to do a simple search
and replace with the exact frequency.

It will probably evolve over time, but for now it covers the basics
of my needs.


[0](gopher://gopher.icu/0/files/logbook.sh)