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Reviews For: ProLog Logging System (All versions)

Category: Ham Logging Software

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Review Summary For : ProLog Logging System (All versions)
Reviews: 68MSRP: 20. USD
Description:
Prolog is a full featured and awards tracking program running under Windows Vista-32/64, Win7-32/64, Win8-32/64 and Win10-32/64. Please visit our website for more detailed information and screen- shots"
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.prologsystem.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00684.8
W3ULS Rating: 2002-08-10
A Visual Success Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Ed Longhi, W5VP, the author of ProLog2K, clearly knows how to extract the maximum in visual information from a Windows environment. This application is by far the most attractive and intuitive logging program I have seen for Windows. It would be at home in a Mac environment, which is high praise indeed. Besides its visual richness, ProLog2K easily fulfills its purpose as a sophisticated DX/award tracking program. (In fact, the current manual that comes with the CD-ROM runs to over 200 pages as an MS Word document.) The program has all of the features avid DX-er's might wish for--and if a ham should find anything that is lacking, it's my guess he/she could cajole Ed into including whatever it is in a future update. (He is very responsive to customer suggestions.)

Since the program is such a pleasure to use, and is so well-rounded, I personally would like to see Ed include some contesting components as ProLog2K evolves. He may be hearing from me . . .
G3LAS Rating: 2002-08-05
One of the best logging programs around Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have tried most of the well-known logging programs and I find Prolog2K is by far the best for my style of operating - dxing on the hf bands.

It has an excellent logging form and superb award tracking for the major HF awards and, to a lesser degree, generic awards of your choosing.

The cluster and rig control interfaces work well and there is an optional QSL route database which is regularly updated by subscription.

Prolog has been developed over many years, since DOS days. The pace of development is a bit slow, but technical support is excellent.

It is not really very suitable for contest enthusiasts and there are still a few bugs, some of which may be platform-dependent. Data querying and reporting are good but not excellent. However, although the database is not compatible with the major DB programs, there are export and import routines which work well.

All in all, an excellent and improving program with a very good user interface. It's nearest competitor is perhaps the DXLab suite of programs.
W7IAN Rating: 2002-06-22
great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Have been using Prolog and now the 2k version with the qsl manager and iota databases. Does it all. No Complaints.
KD7T Rating: 2001-10-21
Nice, but... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've been using it after purchasing version 3.00.00 15 months with good results.

Easy to use, and provides all basic functionality.

The Upgrade Policy is quite usury, however. Datamatrix wants 50% of the original purchase price to upgrade to current version!
K3SUI Rating: 2000-12-13
Very Nice Application Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This is my first computer logging application ... and I still keep a paper log, too. (I like to glance over it and see what I have been doing !!)Anyhow, Prolog gives lots of operating information on the logging page. Type in the call and it tells you the country, zone (cq & ITU), if you need it for any award/band/mode, beam headdings (forward and reverse), distance in miles and Km, continent, QSL routing preferance, etc. It also works with CD rom call databases, packet cluster spots, controls your rig and prints both the send address label, qsl label and return address label. The program is stable, never having crashed on me. It's auto entry features are also very nice, saving some work.

There are a few items which could be improved, however. My biggest is the backup process, or lack thereof. A menu entry to backup all data files would be nice. Presently, you have to use explorer to drag the files to a floppy. Adding notes to a log entry is klugie ... and the first time I did it it took me quite awhile reading the manual to figure out how to get rid of notepad. I finally closed and reopened the application. Along with the plethora of things the application does for you comes a complexity which will have you browsing the manual for a few weeks. The basic operation of the program is fairly intuitive, however, many of the other features you have to dig for info in the extensive manual. Not necessary a big problem for a program which has so many features.
KC5CBI Rating: 2000-11-30
Good program, good support! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This was the first logging software I purchased. I've found it pretty easy to use with good features for tracking awards. I have not used the radio control feature or the DX packet features. I had one problem with using the Hamcall CD, which turned out to be caused by a change in the format used by Hamcall. Email to the Prolog people quickly got me an update patch sent via email. This was good fast service, something all to rare nowadays. I give them high marks for that!

My main suggestion for improvement would be a way to automatically generate output in Cabrillo format for contest log submission.
W1CBD Rating: 2000-06-22
With some tweaks could be great logger! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
On the plus side:


1. The awards tracking is fantastic! Great visual cues while working the bands that mean you
don't have to go look things up while logging. COlored buttons tell the whole story.
2. The log entry page is outstanding! Great info on where the call is, beam headings, distance
reverse headings, etc are all displayed based on the entry info. Everything is available and
is in a reasonable layout for easy entry.
3. The auto entry mode is excellent. Prolog2K fills in the date and time fields for you so you
don't have to look them up. Picks resonable times as well.
4. Very stable software! Has never crashed on me.
5. VERY comprehensive documentation.
6. QSL tracking is a piece of cake. Very easy to do with summary windows (page view) as
well as being able to index the views based on QSL status. It even prints the labels for
you.

On the negaive side:

1. No way to enter RST's with anything but numbers in them. So 59+10 cannot be entered.
2. In the page view (a summary view of all your contacts) rolling the mouse wheel makes the
window scrollbar grey out! (Must be a bug).
3. The auto time entry mode insists that the time be in GMT. Does not have a config item that
enters the time as local time.
4. In auto mode Prolog2K allows you to enter a time. It then overwrites what you entered with its
auto time entry. The fact that auto is in effect is called out right next to the field with a little "A",
but unless you know that means auto, you get a surprise when you go back and look at the
time. The field should be grayed out if the users input is not going to be used. Prevents
confusion.
6. In that page mode, the same contact shows up multiple times. I have not been able to reliably
reproduce this, but I have seen it many many times. Closing the page window and re-opening
it reduces the number of occurances to the actual number in the log.
7. Its not easy to backup your log file. Should be easier to backup just the data on multiple
floppies.
8. The entering of notes in the logging window is cheesy. Notepad is called up to make the
notes so you must go through a Notepad file open dialog to make the note. When down you
must manually save the file.. If you cancel an entry by saying no when Notepad comes up
you can confused Prolog2K into brining back notes for a different contact.
9. For experienced users of Windows, applications have a standard look and feel that one
gets used to. Some of this look and feel is not present in Prolog2K. Things like graying out
fields you actually can't change, etc.
10. One of my tests is can I install the software and operate it reasonably without having
to read the manual. I had a hard time doing that here.

Overall these are minor problems with an otherwise excellent product. This release is an
upgrade of the previous Prolog product, and when a release with fixes comes out I will be
buying it. It can be a bit frustrating at first, but once things begin to click it makes chasing
station around the band a joy. I won't be going to any other software any time soon!
W0MRD Rating: 2000-05-25
Very Good - but could get a touch better Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I've switched to Prolog from LogEQF, and am generally very happy. It is fast, clean, well-engineered. The chief geek even has a personality, and is fun to talk to on the phone. EQF is the king of the text-based world, and ProLOG could make it to the top of the GUI world with a few tweeks. Award tracking is great, qsl tracking is good, but I've had a few problems with labels, which could just be my own lack of understanding. Not quite as intuitive as it could be, but this might come over time. Big drawback for me is that is doesn't really have a customizable contest mode of any kind. This would be a big boost - but they don't advertise it as such, so I can't say they don't deliver. In fact, what they do deliver, works great! I'd recommend it to any amatuer who desires a solid logging program, and either doesn't contest, or uses one of the many logging programs that ProLOG will import from. Also has a great QSL route manager that comes along with it.
By the way, if you like it, and decide to buy it, mention my call. It's good for people to know who supports them!
Thanks, and good DX!!
73 from W0MRD