Set up HAM4LIFE with MiniBook
A complete walkthrough — from creating your account to a live, published page — for stations logging with MiniBook. MiniBook sends its radio status (and the last-worked callsign) over UDP; the Web Dashboard Feeder receives it and forwards it to HAM4LIFE.
Step 1 — Create an account
Register with your email and confirm via the activation link we send you, then sign in.
Step 2 — Register your callsign
On your dashboard, choose Register callsign and enter your call (for example
PA6Y). A portable suffix like /P becomes its own page
(/live/pa6y-p). Your public page will be at
https://dashboard.ham4life.com/live/pa6y.
You must be the rightful holder of the callsign you register. Callsigns are not verified — we trust you on this. Registering a callsign that is not yours is abuse and leads to your account being blocked and the callsign released. (If a callsign you hold is already taken by someone else, use the request takeover option instead.)
Step 3 — Generate your API key
Open your callsign and click Generate API key. One key per callsign — it is shared by every feeder (feed) of that callsign, and you paste it into the feeder's API key field.
Your API key is saved to your account. It is shown on screen, is emailed to you, and you can view it again anytime on your callsign's manage page. If you ever want to replace it, click Generate API key for a new one, then paste the new key into every feeder (the old key stops working immediately).
Step 4 — Add a feed
A feed is one feeder = one live card. Give it a unique feed ID
(e.g. pa6y-1) — that is all you set. There is no card-type setting: the
card type is detected automatically from the incoming data. Multiple feeders posting to the same
callsign each use a different feed ID but the same API key.
⚠ The Feed ID must match EXACTLY. Type the same Feed ID
here and in the feeder's ID field — character for character. It is
case-sensitive: PA6Y-1, pa6y-1 and Pa6y-1 are
three different feeds. Any mismatch — a capital letter, a dash, a space — and your data never
reaches this card.
Step 5 — Install & configure the Web Dashboard Feeder
Install the feeder on the PC running your logger. It has a tab per destination and can post to several at once; each tab has its own enable checkbox, ID, API key and update interval.
Download Web Dashboard Feeder v1.6.2
Open the H4L Dashboard tab (the HAM4LIFE destination), tick Enable posting to DASHBOARD (the server URL is fixed — you don't type it), then set:
- Dashboard ID: the feed ID you created in Step 4 (e.g.
pa6y-1) - API key: the callsign API key from Step 3
- Update interval: how often this destination is posted
Step 6 — Connect MiniBook
Two things to set: the feeder (which port it listens on) and MiniBook (where it sends).
6a — Feeder: enable the UDP receiver
In the feeder open the UDP Receiver tab and tick
Enable UDP receiver. Leave UDP IP at 0.0.0.0 (listens
on all interfaces — same-PC and network broadcasts) and set UDP Port to the
port you will use for MiniBook (a dedicated port such as 2242 is recommended — see the
note below).
0.0.0.0, and the UDP port you
will send MiniBook to.6b — MiniBook: add a UDP Radio Status destination
In MiniBook open Preferences → UDP Radio Status and tick Enable UDP Radio Status output. Under Destinations, click Add… and create an entry aimed at the feeder:
- Name — anything, e.g. "Web Feeder".
- IP address —
127.0.0.1(feeder on the same PC). - Port — the same port you set in the feeder.
You can keep several destinations and use the On tick to enable or disable each one without deleting it — so a "General" entry can keep feeding other apps while a dedicated entry feeds the Web Dashboard Feeder.
Tip: pick one dedicated UDP port and keep it
MiniBook and N1MM use UDP port 12060 by default, which other ham software often
uses too. Pick one dedicated port — for example 2242 — and use that
same port for the MiniBook destination and in the feeder's UDP Port field. Then
switching loggers later needs no change on the feeder, and nothing fights over the crowded
default.
Check the feeder's Live Status tab — it should show the incoming data once MiniBook is sending.
Step 7 — Build your event page
Open your callsign and fill in the event editor. Every field is optional except the status — set that to Published when you are ready to go public. Here is what each field does:
Title & intro
The Title is the heading of your public page; the Intro is a single catchy line shown just below it.
Website (optional)
A link to your own site. When filled in it appears as a button on the public event page.
Body
The full description. Use the toolbar for bold, italic, headings, lists, links and tables; the </> Code button toggles raw-HTML editing.
Event start & end
The dates of your activity. Click the field to pick a date from the calendar; the end date cannot be before the start.
Fields shown on the cards
Tick which rows appear on your live cards. Fields that don't apply to your logger are hidden automatically — so you only turn off what you want to hide on purpose.
Photos
Add photos of your station or event, each with an optional caption. They are arranged automatically on the page. The count and size limit shown above the uploader are the current maximums.
Status
Set to Published (public) to make the page live; keep it on Draft while you are still preparing it.
Danger zone
At the bottom of the page you can remove things. Delete event page clears only the page (your callsign, API key and feeds stay). Delete callsign removes everything — callsign, feeds, API key and event page. Both ask for confirmation.
Done
When your feeder is running and a QSO/frequency change occurs, your card turns ON AIR and updates live. Your page appears in the live feeds.