An ADIF file is plain text, so you can check it yourself before you pack up, while a missing detail can still be fixed from memory or your notes. This works with any logger that exports ADIF:

  1. Export a copy now, not tonight. You are looking for a file that usually ends in .adi.
  2. Open it in a text editor. In the ADIF spec, an ADI file is a text file, and each contact is one record ending in <EOR>.
  3. Read the first and last record. The callsign, date and time, band or frequency, and mode should all be there.
  4. Look for the reference. MY_POTA_REF is your own park and MY_SOTA_REF is your own summit. The same fields without MY_ (POTA_REF, SOTA_REF) are the other station’s, which is where a hunter’s contacts would carry the activator’s park or summit.
  5. Count the <EOR> tags and compare with your tally. You should have one per contact.
  6. Keep a second copy somewhere other than the device you logged on, for example an email to yourself.

Field names and what an upload site reads can differ between loggers and sites, so if a field looks empty, check which fields the site you are sending the file to expects.

What do you check before you leave the site?

Disclosure: we make Hamtrax, a logging app. Nothing above depends on it.

Reference: ADIF 3.1.7 specification