qsonaut

What I am looking for

The program is ready enough to log with, but not ready to be your only log. I want to know whether it makes sense: whether operating in it is faster than in what you use now, what gets in the way and what is missing.

The interface is in English and Polish. It follows the system language; you can change it under More → Settings → Language.

• Log a run of contacts, including band changes and a callsign change (e.g. /P).
• Import your existing log from ADIF and check that everything arrived.
• Try search, correcting an entry and ADIF export (all, search results or selected).
• If you have a second computer: pair it with a code and check sync both ways.
• If you have a QRZ subscription with the Logbook API: try QRZ confirmations.

Download

First start on macOS

The program is not yet signed with an Apple certificate, so the system stops it by default. That is normal for a test release and needs a one-time workaround.

1. Open the downloaded .dmg file and drag qsonaut into Applications.
2. In Applications, right-click qsonaut (or Ctrl-click) and choose Open.
3. In the warning, choose Open again. Later starts are ordinary.

If macOS says the application is “damaged”, remove the download flag with one command in Terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/qsonaut.app

On first start the system asks for access to the keychain — that is where your log's keys are kept. When pairing, it asks for access to the local network: choose Allow. On the first sync the firewall asks about incoming connections.

After each update both questions may come back, because without an Apple certificate the system treats the new version as a different program. For the keychain, enter your password and choose Always Allow — then it will not ask on every start.

First start on Windows

The installer does not have a publisher certificate yet, so Windows shows “Windows protected your PC”. Choose More info, then Run anyway. On the first sync Windows Firewall asks about network access — for the local network, allow it on private networks.

Linux

The AppImage runs on most distributions without installing: make it executable (chmod +x qsonaut_*.AppImage) and start it. The .deb (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint) and .rpm (Fedora, openSUSE) packages install with the system package manager. The program needs WebKitGTK 4.1.

Before you start

• Your data stays with you. There is no account, no qsonaut server and no telemetry. Passwords and API keys are kept in the system keychain.
• Sync over the Internet (when you turn it on) first tries to connect your computers directly. When the network does not allow that, traffic goes through a public relay server run by Number 0 (the makers of the iroh library). The relay carries encrypted data between your devices — it cannot see the log's content, but it sees IP addresses and connection times. You can set your own relay in Settings, under “Network and sync”.
• Checking for a new version. Once a day the program asks api.qsonaut.app whether there is a newer version, telling it only its own version number and system. It sends no callsign, no identifier and nothing from the log, and the server stores no IP addresses — it only counts how often it was asked. The counts are public. You can turn this off in Settings.
• If you use two computers, keep the same program version on both — sync between different versions may refuse to work.
• Other stations' callsigns are sent to QRZ.com or HamQTH only once you set up an account there in Settings.

Tell me what you think

The most useful feedback is concrete: what you did, what you expected and what happened. A screenshot helps a lot. You will find the version number under More → About qsonaut.