County-Line & Rover Logging Guide

Logging Software for County-Line & Rover Operation

Colorado QSO Party Rule 15 allows a station to claim two or more Colorado counties from a single qualifying location – within 500 feet of each county line, inside a 1,000-foot antenna circle. Doing this correctly depends on your logging software producing one Cabrillo QSO: line per county claimed, not a single line with a combined exchange like ELP/TEL. This guide covers how to set that up in the most common logging programs, and what to do if you work a station operating from a county line.

Whichever program you use, remember COQP does not use serial numbers – ignore or decline any “increment serial number” prompt.

N1MM Logger+ (best suited for county-line operation)

N1MM Logger+ is the most purpose-built of the available loggers for this: you tell it your counties once, and it generates the multiple log entries for every contact automatically.

N1MM+’s county-line mode isn’t a checkbox – it’s a command, and it’s only available once your station is set to a rover/mobile category:

  1. In the Contest Setup dialog, set your Station Category (or Operator Category) to Rover or Mobile. County-line mode is not available outside these categories.
  2. In the Entry window, type COUNTYLINE in the callsign field and press Enter.
  3. A pop-up asks for your county abbreviations, separated by commas – enter your COQP 3-letter codes, for example ELP,TEL.
  4. If asked about incrementing serial numbers, choose No.
  5. Your counties will now appear in the Entry-window title bar – check them there to confirm they’re right.
  6. In your F2 (exchange) message, use the {COUNTYLINE} macro in place of {EXCH}. It sends all your counties separated by slashes (for example, ELP/TEL).

From that point on, every station you log automatically produces one QSO per county in your log.

A few things to know:

  • You must type the full COQP abbreviations. If you forget one, Windows -> Multipliers -> Other shows the list.
  • County-line mode is not saved when you restart N1MM+. If you re-launch during the contest, re-enter COUNTYLINE before continuing.
  • Enter the compound exchange at the time you log the contact. Don’t log a single county and then edit the QSO afterward to add /TEL – that can corrupt the scoring. If you already logged one county and then realize the station was on a line, just add a separate new contact for the other county instead of editing the first.

DXLog

DXLog handles county lines through the exchange field itself, and has an up-to-date 2026 COQP definition – make sure you’re running it via File -> Update contest, which pulls the latest definition from DXLog’s server.

  • Set your station’s “sent exchange” to your counties separated by a slash (for example, ELP/TEL).
  • DXLog scores each county-line contact as multiple QSOs internally – one per county – and on export writes the matching multiple QSO: lines to your Cabrillo file. A two-county contact becomes two Cabrillo QSOs; a three-way corner contact becomes three.
  • If you operate as a plain fixed station in a single county, you’ll see the normal 2 points per QSO – the multiple-QSO scoring only activates for county-line exchanges, which is correct.
  • Note: while the county-line contact may display as only one (1) QSO inside DXLog’s own log window, the exported Cabrillo file does contain the full, correct number of QSO lines. Don’t be alarmed by the on-screen count.

N3FJP – Amateur Contact Log

N3FJP has a gentler learning curve and supports county-line operation through its Change County feature.

  1. In Settings -> Setup, enter one of your counties to start.
  2. Open the Change County menu, click the button to add multiple counties, and type each additional county’s full name (not the abbreviation), pressing Enter after each one until all your counties are listed. Click Done.
  3. From then on, every contact you log automatically creates the multiple QSO lines – one per county.  

Things to remember:

  • If you work another county-line station while you’re on a line yourself, you can’t use the + shortcut. Log them under one county, hit Recall, and re-enter them under the second county – N3FJP will create all the needed lines.
  • On CW, don’t use the “Tab Sends Message” feature while on a county line – the logger will send the exchange once for each QSO line it creates, not once per contact. Use F2/F3 to send instead.
  • See below instructions for working a county-line station from anywhere. In the case of N3FJP, the program’s separator is the “+” symbol. 

Ham2K Portable Logger (PoLo) – Does not provide full automation

PoLO does have a general-purpose tool when operating from different counties, which is the BREAK command, described in further detail below. The operator can change the county location from which they are operating, which is useful for mobile and portable operators that move to new counties. 

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Unlike some of the other referenced logging programs, PoLo CANNOT enter duplicate, simultaneous QSO’s for those operating on county lines. Thus, dedicated county line operators may wish to factor this current limitation into their operational decision making, including which logging program to utilize.

BREAK COMMAND INSTRUCTIONS: (https://polo.ham2k.com/docs/polo-features/rove-operations/). 

Please note that the break command instructions linked above differs slightly for QSO parties (versus POTA/SOTA) as it relates to the exportation of logs (ADIF, Cabrillo). 

  • In the “Their Call” field, type BREAK and hit enter on your keyboard. This inserts a break marker in your QSO log without logging a contact.
  • Return to the OPERATION tab, select “QSO Parties (Beta)”, enter the new county location abbreviation and save the operation. You will now see the new county “break” highlighted in blue on your log entry screen.
  • Keep logging as normal — PoLo tags each following QSO with the new county location.

Repeat the above BREAK command process for each new county in which you operate.

Working a county-line station (from anywhere)

If you work someone operating from a county line, enter all of their county abbreviations into your one log entry, and your program will split it into the correct number of QSOs on export – one per county, each a separate QSO and potentially a separate multiplier for you. The only thing that differs between programs is the separator character your logger expects.

Example – a station on the El Paso/Teller line. They send ELP/TEL on CW, or “El Paso and Teller, county line” on phone. Enter it and log the contact once – this produces two logged QSOs, one for ELP and one for TEL.

Example – a three-county corner. Same idea, just list all three using your program’s separator. Using the real Bent/Kiowa/Prowers corner (BEN/KIO/PRO), this yields three QSOs, and up to three multipliers.

Other logging software

A few other programs sometimes used for COQP don’t have built-in county-line automation to the same degree as the three above:

  • WriteLog has a genuine COQP contest module with real rover/county-line support built in.
  • POTACAT is not a contest logger itself – it forwards QSOs to another logger (Log4OM, DXKeeper, HRD, N3FJP, or Wavelog), so its county-line behavior depends on which of those you’re forwarding to.
  • World Radio League (WRL) – no confirmed rover/county-line automation as of this writing; if you’re planning to rove using WRL, test your Cabrillo export against a two-county sample contact well before the contest.

If you’re using one of these, or any other logger not listed here, the safest approach is the same regardless of software: confirm your exported Cabrillo file actually contains one full QSO: line per county claimed, with the correct county in each line’s exchange field, before submitting.