So, the primary determinant of a satellite log entry is that the Propagation Mode should be set to "SAT". This triggers most of the changes outlined here. If the Propagation Mode is not set to "SAT", then the QSO will generally be treated as a normal point-to-point QSO, and many of the features we describe here will not be available. So make sure your logger is capturing Propagation Mode and is supplying the ADIF tag "PROP_MODE", even if nothing else is changed in the ADIF upload.

It is important to note that simply putting the satellite name and/or mode into the Comments of your logs will NOT trigger any of the features we describe here, because it's impossible to automatically parse comment lines to find that information. However, we do occasionally look manually through comments to see if we can extract that information and put it into the correct fields. Just don't count on us doing that very often! With 10,000 new logs being uploaded every hour, we don't have the manpower to do that.

Most satellite operators are pretty certain about which satellite they are communication through, because the uplinks and downlinks vary, so specifying the Satellite Name (ADIF: SAT_NAME) in your logs is of value to the recipient of the card as well. There are unfortunately no standards for the Satellite Name, so the CAS-3B satellite might also be named "XW-2B", or someone may decide to use the NORAD number 40911 or some other colloquial name.

We encourage use of the naming provided on this page below under the heading of Our Official List of Amateur Satellites, which was taken generally from http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/satslist.htm as a starting point. When you use the "Common Name" for one of these satellites, we also store the NORAD ID for that eQSL in our database, for faster lookups. This will allow us to produce eAwards based on accumulating a certain number of QSOs on different satellites, without causing our eAward Managers a lot of grief trying to look up cross-references!

The Inbox and Outbox Selector screens already allow you to filter on Propagation Mode, and so you can already filter on satellite QSOs by clicking on the Propagation Mode SAT hyperlink or using the filter form.

We use the same entry form for modifying an existing Outbox record. Click on the EDIT button for any Outbox contact you want to update, and change the Propagation Mode to "Satellite", then SAVE the record and click the Edit button on the Outbox screen again and you can now edit the record on the proper satelite form.