Questions worth answering up front.

ElmerShack is an AI-powered ham radio operator dashboard. It bundles live solar & band conditions, a full QSO log with ADIF and QRZ sync, a QSO world map and live signal map, an equipment inventory, and a built-in reference library — and on top of all of that sits Elmer, an AI mentor who can answer questions using your station's actual data.

In ham radio, an Elmer is the experienced operator who takes a newer ham under their wing — patient, knowledgeable, and generous with their time. Our AI advisor carries the name because that's exactly the role he plays.

You can create an account without a callsign, but ElmerShack is built for licensed operators. Many features (QSO log, awards tracking, license-aware Elmer advice) only make sense once you've added your callsign and license class in Settings.

Listening (receive) doesn't require a license, but transmitting does. Elmer will never recommend transmitting on a band or segment your license class doesn't cover — that's a hard rule baked into how he answers.

Today the license-aware logic targets the US license classes (Technician, General, Amateur Extra). Broader international license support is on the roadmap. If you operate under another country's licensing system, you can still use the dashboard, log, maps, equipment, and reference tools normally — the only caveat is that Elmer's privilege checks assume FCC Part 97 rules.

About five minutes for the basics. Add your callsign, grid square (or let the browser detect it), and license class in Settings. Add at least one radio and one antenna in Equipment so Elmer has something to reason about. After that you can log QSOs, import an ADIF, or just start chatting with Elmer.

On every chat message, ElmerShack assembles a fresh context and sends it as the system prompt. That context includes your callsign, grid square, license class, local time, every radio you've added (with paired antenna), every antenna (with calculated resonant bands), accessories, current solar & band conditions, the physics-backed propagation forecast for your location, recent PSK Reporter activity by band, your QSO log profile (totals, top bands, top modes), and your most recent contacts.

If a piece of context is missing — for example you haven't added equipment — Elmer will say so and suggest filling it in.

Elmer runs server-side. Your context is built on the ElmerShack backend from your account data, then sent with your message to Anthropic's Claude API for a response. Your QRZ and HamQTH credentials are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. Account login uses JWT with optional email-based MFA.

Your data isn't sold or shared with third parties. The only outbound destinations Elmer touches per request are Anthropic (for the model response) and NOAA SWPC (for live solar/space-weather data). TODO confirm If you'd like the full data-flow diagram, the in-app Privacy page is the source of truth.

Yes. Open the Elmer chat panel and clear the conversation — this removes the stored history for your account from the database. New conversations start with a clean slate (Elmer always rebuilds your station context fresh each turn anyway).

No — and this is enforced in his prompt, not just hoped for. Before recommending any band for transmit, Elmer re-reads your license class section. If the best-rated band is out of your privileges, he recommends the highest-rated band you can use and notes that you can still listen on the privileged band. Listening has no restriction.

Elmer is also told never to invent ionospheric explanations or band openings. If the live propagation data is unavailable, he refuses to recommend bands rather than guessing.

You can simply not open the Elmer panel — the rest of the dashboard works without him. Elmer only fetches context and contacts the model when you send a chat message.

Anthropic's Claude (Sonnet 4 today). The choice is intentional: Claude follows the strict operating rules in Elmer's system prompt closely, and the latency is low enough for back-and-forth conversation.

You enter your QRZ logbook API key in Settings (it's encrypted at rest). ElmerShack can then push contacts you log to your QRZ logbook, and pull existing QSOs from QRZ down to ElmerShack with paging. A QRZ XML subscription is needed for callsign lookups; the logbook API key is separate.

You can register more than one QRZ logbook key with tag-based routing — for example, a tag of pota can route those QSOs to your POTA logbook automatically.

Export an ADIF file from WSJT-X (File → Export Logged QSOs as ADIF), then on the QSO Log page click Import and pick the file. Tags, radio, and antenna selected at import time are applied to every QSO in the file. Re-imports are deduplicated.

Real-time UDP capture from WSJT-X — auto-logging every decode without exporting — is on the roadmap, not in the beta yet.

Yes. ADIF (.adi / .adif) is the universal interchange format and ElmerShack's importer handles ADIF from WSJT-X, JS8Call, fldigi, and any other logging software that can produce ADIF.

Yes. The QSO log has a one-click ADIF export. You can also export only QSOs matching a specific tag, which is useful for uploading a subset to QRZ, LoTW, or another service.

Tags are simple labels you attach to a QSO (anything you want — contest, fieldday, portable, winter-fd). One log holds everything; tags let you slice it up. You can filter the log by tag, export a tag-filtered ADIF, route tagged QSOs to a specific QRZ logbook, and tag in bulk by selecting multiple rows.

Most operators don't actually need multiple logbooks once they have tags — that's the design intent.

Yes. The Add QSO modal lets you select a radio and antenna from your equipment profile. ADIF imports can apply a default radio and antenna to every QSO in the file. Elmer sees your equipment per QSO when he analyzes your log.

The basics — log entries with date, time, band, mode, RST, callsign, exchange in notes, and tags like contest — work today. A dedicated contest logger mode (serial numbers, dupe check, exchange fields, rate counter) is on the roadmap, not yet built.

Yes. The whole app is mobile-responsive — there's a bottom tab bar (Home / Log / Map / Equipment / Elmer), a slide-out menu for the rest, and the dashboard reflows for small screens. Most operators use it on a phone in the field and a laptop at the rig.

You can add ElmerShack to your home screen in any modern mobile browser for a quick-launch experience that opens like an app. A proper PWA install prompt and native iOS/Android apps in the app stores are planned for after the beta.

The dashboard, maps, and Elmer need a network connection — most of what they show is live (NOAA, PSK Reporter, QRZ, the model). General offline mode for the full app is not in scope yet. Treat ElmerShack as an online tool for now.

ElmerShack is free during the beta. All features unlocked, no credit card, no commitment.

The core features — dashboard, log, maps, equipment, Elmer, reference — are stable and used daily. New features are landing regularly, sometimes with rough edges. If something breaks or feels wrong, the in-app feedback widget is the fastest way to flag it.

The big in-progress item is a full POTA/SOTA workflow (very early stages today, not yet usable). After that: real-time WSJT-X UDP import, DX alerts and watchlists, native mobile apps, and a contest logger mode. The roadmap on the home page is honest about what's in flight.

Yes. Your account, equipment, QSO log, settings, and Elmer history persist across the beta and beyond.

TODO confirm The in-app process is the source of truth — log in and request account deletion from Settings, or contact support via the in-app feedback widget if you can't find the option.

Log in and use the in-app feedback widget — there's a Feedback button on every page. Bug reports, feature requests, "this doesn't make sense" notes, and general thoughts all go to the same place and they all get read.

Tell another ham. Mention it on the air. Post to your local club's mailing list or repeater Facebook group. The home page has share buttons for X, Facebook, and email — pick whichever fits how you usually share.

Yes — explicitly. ElmerShack was built with new hams in mind. Elmer explains the why behind every recommendation, the reference section has Q codes / phonetics / band plan / RST guide, and the CW practice tool starts at 5 WPM. Experienced ops get plenty too (physics-backed propagation, multi-logbook QRZ sync, equipment-aware advice). Both audiences fit.