Logging

Two programs, one ADIF language. Polo in the grass. N3FJP AC Log in the truck or the shack. This site is neither of them.

  Polo (phone)                     AC Log (laptop)
  +-- POTA export -----> pota.app
  +-- SOTA export -----> sotadata
  +-- WWFF export -----> national manager
  +-- Full ADIF  -------> Doctor / AC Log / Recap / TQSL
                              |
                              +-- ADIF (with Other tags) --> LoTW / QRZ / POTA

Polo’s POTA file is privacy-stripped (no grids). AC Log will not invent MY_SIG_INFO unless you name Other fields with the ADIF tag. Both facts are in the pages above. Read them before the first 10-QSO scramble.

Paper backup: notebook in the kit. Photograph each page before teardown. Digital close-out still goes through ADIF Doctor — merge WSJT, explode 2-fers, then Recap from Full.

Digital sitting: WSJT-X (and FLdigi) write their own ADIF. That file is not a POTA upload. Merge it with the phone/SSB log in ADIF Doctor, explode 2-fers, then export the POTA pack and a Full file. Recap wants Full — Recap after Doctor, not the privacy-stripped POTA export. How: WSJT-X.

HAMRS is out of scope here. If you still use it, export ADIF and treat the rest of this chapter as the destination. Club / 1×1 sittings: STATION_CALLSIGN vs OPERATOR on N3FJP. Club or group weekend: Support Your Parks ops card. Park grid sanity check: Grid helper.

Other loggers people use

This guide's examples use Polo and N3FJP, but any logger that exports clean ADIF works. Every route ends at the same ADIF Doctor and POTA upload steps.

Whatever you use, check before a park that it writes MY_SIG_INFO / SIG_INFO (or lets you add them) and logs in UTC. ADIF fields explains the tags.

One sitting, two clocks, three files

The award site sees UTC. Polo and AC Log will happily stamp Eastern if you let them. Set the logger to Zulu before CQ — Planning.

Paper is not nostalgia. Phones die, WSJT-X writes a second ADIF, and a 2-fer sitting produces two POTA files plus a Full file. Photograph the notebook. Merge digital + phone in ADIF Doctor. Recap from Full. Upload the privacy-stripped POTA pack to pota.app My Log Uploads — hunters never upload.

P2P is SIG_INFO on that row (their park). Yours is MY_SIG_INFO on every activator row. Comma 2-fers explode into one line per park — Doctor does that; a text editor is how you invent dupes. Matching windows are tight (~15 minutes on POTA P2P — confirm on docs.pota.app).

LoTW is a different destination. TQSL Station Location (or override from MY_GRIDSQUARE in the log) must be this picnic grid, not the basement. POTA does not read LoTW; LoTW does not read parks. Run both — Awards.