TQSL(1)

✨ TQSL 💖 (section 1 of the General Commands Manual, bestie)

okay so. TQSL is the little command that digitally signs amateur radio contact logs and honestly? it's giving main character energy in the ham radio world. sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's go.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

tqsl -i [certificate-file]...
tqsl -s [stationlocation]...

tqsl [OPTIONS] [log-file]...

like, three whole ways to summon it. pick your vibe. 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

TrustedQSL is a file format and a whole set of procedures, and what it does is send digitally signed QSL information — that's logs of contacts between amateur radio operators, iykyk. one service that famously rides on TrustedQSL is ARRL's Logbook of the World. iconic, no cap.

The tqsl program is the one that digitally signs contact log files using a digital certificate. it's ALSO the one that generates requests for digital certificates and stores the resulting received digital certificates. (fun fact bestie: certificates used to be handled by a whole separate program called tqslcert, but all functions are now handled by tqsl — it absorbed them, ate, left no crumbs 👑).

This manual page briefly documents tqsl. the full tea is also available here:

tqsl: file:///usr/share/TrustedQSL/help/tqslapp/main.htm

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

tqsl accepts these command line options, and we are going through every single one because nobody gets left behind:

• -a, --action= action [abort, all, compliant, or ask] — sets the default dialog action for when non-compliant QSOs get detected (that's stuff like invalid callsigns, or QSOs that were already uploaded, just to give you examples 👀). the values mean: abort makes TQSL bail out of signing the moment an invalid QSO gets processed. all signs everything, ignoring errors entirely — bold. compliant means invalid QSOs get skipped. and ask literally asks the user how to proceed, like a polite little program.
• -b, --begindate= begin_date and -e, --enddate= end_date — hand over a start date and an end date for which QSOs get signed. if you give them, any QSO before the begin date is ignored and any QSO after the end date is ignored. if you leave begin or end out, then that corresponding limit just gets ignored (no limit, sky's the limit 💫). > heads up bestie: you should specify -d alongside this option to suppress the normal date range dialog, because these options will override the user-specified dates if given. fr fr.
• -c, --callsign= callsign — sets the default callsign for log signing.
• -d, --nodate — suppresses the date-range dialog. if it's present, the QSO date-range dialog will not be shown for the files that follow this option on the command line. quiet luxury 💅
• -f, --verify=option [ignore, reportl, or update] — sets the QSO verification action for QTH details, i.e. it controls how location information inside an ADIF file gets handled. ignore means TQSL should ignore the location data entirely. report causes TQSL to report any discrepancies between the currently selected Station Location and the ADIF location information. updaate causes the new location details from the ADIF file to be used, overriding the Station Location details. (yep, reportl and updaate are spelled exactly like that in the page — not me, I'm just the messenger 🫶)
• -h, --help — displays the command line usage summary. your little map 🗺️
• -i, --import= filename — imports a certificate. it's either a signed response (.tq6) or a certificate stored with a private key in PKCS#12 format (.p12).
• -l, --location= location_name — selects an existing station location, and that location gets used for the commands that follow. > if the station location doesn't exist, tqsl will just exit. no drama, it simply leaves. 💀
• -n, --updates — checks for updates to TQSL, to the configuration file, and for certificate expiration. self-care check-in ✨
• -o, --outut= output_file — writes the resulting signed log file to output_file instead of using a default name based on the input log-file name. (yes, --outut. that's the spelling. we respect it. 🎀)
• -p, --password= password — specifies the pasphrase for the callsign certificate being used to sign a log. (again — pasphrase, exactly as written, keeping it 100 💯)
• -s, --editlocation location-name — add or edit a station location. if there's a preceding -l option, the specified location will be edited. if there is no preceding -l option, then a brand new station location is being added. new era 🌱
• -t, --diagnose= filename — opens a diagnostic trace file at startup. this file logs internal TQSL function calls, purely for debugging purposes. detective mode 🔍
• -u, --upload — uploads the log file. with this argument, the input files get signed and then automatically uploaded to the Logbook of the World web site for processing. no middleman, straight to the source 🚀
• -v, --version — displays the version number of tqsl and exits. quick lil flex.
• -w, --wipe — deletes the contact upload database. > bestie listen. this should be used only in cases where that database has become corrupted, typically due to Oracle BerkeleyDB misbehavior. it's a nuke, not a toy ☢️
• -x, --batch (or) -q, --quiet — exits tqsl. if you use this argument it should be the last one on the command line. if this argument is not present, tqsl will begin normal operation after successfully processing all the command-line arguments.
• log-files — any command-line parameter that isn't an option or an option's argument gets treated as the name of a log file (ADIF or Cabrillo) to be signed. the resulting signed file (.tq8) will be placed in the same directory as the log file, overwriting any existing .tq8 file of the same name. > (Note: if this option is not preceded by a -l option that selects the station location to be used for signing, the Select Station Location for Signing dialog will be presented.) file names that contain spaces or other shell-special characters should be quoted in a manner suitable for the operating system and shell that's being used. and if -u is used, the signed log is not saved to disk but is instead uploaded and submitted to Logbook of the World.

N.B.: if the private key needed to sign a log is protected by a password, the user will be prompted to supply that password for each file being signed. so like, every single one. keep that password ready bestie 😭

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

trustedqsl was written by "American Radio Relay League, Inc." and the TrustedQSL authors. please see the AUTHORS.txt file in the source distribution for a list of contributors — they're the real ones 🫶

This manual page was originally prepared by Kamal Mostafa <kamal@whence.com>, for the Debian project (and may be used by others). legends only.

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was TQSL(1), from the General Commands Manual, dated February 3, 2025 — go sign some logs, slay, periodt 🌈⭐