Issue # 2 week 25, 2024

A note from the founders

Dear Readers,

Thank you for the fantastic response to our first newsletter!

We apologize for the difficulties we encountered in sending it. As it was our first, we hope these issues are now resolved. We’ve enjoyed sharing our journey with you and are excited to continue bringing you valuable insights and updates. Your enthusiasm and support inspire us every day.

Warm regards

Piero & Franco Pirrone

co-founder of EasyLog

Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.

— Vinton Cerf,

One of the fathers of the Internet

Data is a precious thing, and we need to look after it.

- Tim Berners-Lee,

Inventor of the World Wide Web

Data is even more precious for radio hams

The following presents a comprehensive overview of file backup and synchronization methods, emphasizing their distinct purposes and implementations.

Backup

Backup involves creating copies of selected files to protect against data loss due to corruption, deletion, or emergencies. Key backup techniques include:

Full Backup: Copies all selected files, ensuring robust protection but requiring more storage and time.

Incremental Backup: Copies files modified since the last backup, optimizing storage and time efficiency.

Differential Backup: Copies modified files since the last full backup, balancing space efficiency with quicker restores.

Backups allow data recovery to specific points in time, which is critical for mitigating hardware failures, human errors, or cyber-attacks. Retaining backups over time ensures long-term data protection and historical recovery capability.

Data synchronization

File synchronization ensures consistency across multiple devices or locations, maintaining updated files accessible anytime, anywhere.

Techniques included:

Current developments

Many of you have reacted positively to our first newsletter. Thank you all for your participation.

We are encouraged to create our second weekly newsletter, which allows us to stay in touch with all of you. Let's stay interactive! Tell us about your achievements and continue to send us your photos.

Next week, we will start publishing on the topics you suggested. In this issue, we have created a new section to present radio amateurs and their history.

We are proud to announce a new feature in EasyLog Cloud Backup. With the next version, you will not only be able to save your logs, but also take a snapshot of the current installation with all configurations. This will make the transfer between computers and obtaining an exact clone of the installation of EasyLog child's play. And the best part? All our EasyLog Cloud Backup subscribers will receive this update free of charge.

We continue to work on fully automatic support for eQSL and on the QSL Courtesy module to add support to yahoo.com emails.

We were delighted with the response we received to our first newsletter. Thank you all for your participation.

One-way: Propagates changes from one main location to other destinations, useful for mirroring.

Bidirectional: Updates files across all synchronized locations bidirectionally.

Risks of Data Loss with Cloud Synchronization

With automatic synchronization, the frequency of copying can be real-time, scheduled, or on-demand.

Data synchronization with cloud solutions such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft One Drive does not include historical retrieval of a specific previous version. This feature is not available in the free versions, and the paid plans that include it are significantly more expensive.

Deleting or modifying a file (even accidentally or due to hardware failure) quickly propagates to all backups, making it impossible to restore a version before the failure, resulting in data loss.

This significant limitation of the cloud data synchronization model makes using these services as a reliable backup system dangerous.

EasyLog Backup solutions

EasyLog pays close attention to data security and backup by offering two primary backup methods:

Backup to Flash Drive or External Disk: This feature enables straightforward data backup to external storage, suitable for simple, data security with version restore capabilities.

Remote Storage Service (EasyLog Cloud Backup): Backs data to remote cloud storage, ensuring higher security and accessibility, albeit without historical restoration for changes.

The recent introduction of EasyLog Cloud Backup service enhances data security with remote, identifiable backups, supporting easy access and reliable data restoration as needed. This solution is ideal for quickly putting your data in safety and easily restoring or synchronizing it to other computers of your station or to your weekend or holiday QTH.

Activate the trial now.

More information...

Tip & Tricks

Setting up the Gmail account to be used in EasyLog for sending the courtesy QSL

Overview

Following some reports of users who could not locate the link for the generation of the Password App, we found that depending on the configuration of some parameters, the pages can appear different.

To address this issue, we have developed a new, crucial procedure, described in detail below. It will allow those who have encountered this problem to solve the inconvenience in a few steps.

Note: To view the images attached to the procedure in detail, click the thumbnail of the image, which will then be expanded to full size.

2. Generating the App Password

From the same browser used to access the email, type

The following address in the address bar (see Fig. 5) and press Enter.

https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords

the following page will appear

fig.5

At this point, choose a name for your App, for example, EasyLog (See fig. 6) and click the Create button

fig.6

The followinf screen will appear (see fig. 7)

fig.7

What is the App Password

Gmail allows external applications to use an email provided App Password is created with a 16-character alphanumeric code to be used in the external App instead of the normal password.

Follow the process below to enable your email in less than two minutes.

1. Enable two-step verification

You must first enable the two-step verification. Two-step verification is a procedure for more secure access that requires you to type your own phone number to be able to receive a numeric code required to complete the email login process.

Please refer to Figures 1,2,3, and 4 to enable two-step verification and follow the instructions on the screen.

fig.1

fig.2

fig.3

fig.4

3. Email configuration on EasyLog

fig.8

Select and copy the 16-character code (see fig.7) and paste it into the setup window of QSL Courtesy (see Fig. 8)

Click the Save button and try sending your first emails!

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How to add and a new DX-Cluster node to EasyLog

Discover how to add a new DX-Cluster node and set the autologin in simple steps. Click on the photos below to enlarge them.

Open the DX-Cluster setup

Click on the Nodes tab and then click the And button.

Type the node url and its Port, then click Ok.

Click the dropdown list and click on the new added node to select it.

Open the setup window again and click the Auto-login tab. Type your callsign and your password (if required) and fill the other fields as in the Picture below. Don't forget to check the checkboxes.

Latest news about the LoTW service outage

Jon Bloom (ex-KE3Z) was the original developer of LoTW. Yesterday, he posted this on the ARRL LoTW Discussion Group:

Despite ARRL's statements that LoTW and DXCC data are safe, some users are concerned that this may not be the case due to the time it takes to restore service.

Perhaps it will ease some minds if I tell you that I know for certain that these data are safe. I know this because I personally assisted ARRL staff in getting these data backed up to locations and systems that are in no way connected to ARRL's HQ or cloud systems. The LoTW data, for example, exists in multiple physical locations and cloud backup services. Such is also the case for the LoTW source code. In addition, I imported the LoTW data backup into a separate, new test database system to verify it. This took several days since the database is about 3 terabytes in size. (It's a LOT of data!)

Getting the systems themselves back online is another matter, and I have no information to share about that as I'm not involved in the ongoing process of restoring them. ARRL has apparently made the decision, wisely in my view, not to bring any affected systems back into service until all parts of them can be vetted and secured. But the data itself is safe, and LoTW will definitely be back at some point.

Everything is ready. Just click on the Connection button, and the DX-Cluster will be connected, and the login will be automatically performed.

Behind each callsign is a story that whispers through the magic of the airwaves, travelling distances, and bonding cultures. These global conversations transcend borders and time, uniting us and creating friendships out of frequency.

- Line Rainville,

Copywriter for EasyLog

We are proud to present pictures from the members of our large community. Please keep sending them to us at:

support@easylog.com

Have a great week!!

CONTRIBUTE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Dear Radio Amateurs,

Thank you for the wonderful pictures, stories, and anecdotes you shared. Your contributions are the heart of our newsletter, and we’re excited to publish them.

Please keep sending in your fantastic content. We love hearing from you and sharing your experiences with the EasyLog community.

Warm regards,
EasyLog Team

Thanks to Remigio, IK3ASM, a long-time passionate EasyLog user, for the picture of his shack, which is beautifully designed and all in good order. Remarkable work!