I would venture to say that any ham that does logging with a computer, phone, or tablet, has at least some basic understanding of ADIF - it's the file type that most of our logs are stored in!
     But what is it really?  For those without much software knowledge, files like these can sometimes be a rather amorphous thing, but explaining ADIF can actually be done pretty quickly - it's a text file!  That's right, its just a file of plain text.  If you don't believe me, right click on one of your ADIF files (they end with .adi) on your computer, and choose "open with."  In the dialog box that pops up, choose "Notepad" (or your favorite text editor.)  Voila - you're looking at your log!

     Now, if you do the above, you might notice some things in the text like this: <STATION_CALLSIGN:5>.   All of the things inside the brackets just tell logging programs and QSO storage systems (like LOTW) which field the next bit of data came from, and how many characters are in it.  Pretty slick huh?  

     All of the field names that we use in our loggers should be pretty much standardized to make matching simpler.  With that in mind, it helps to know that ADIF is really more than a file type - it's the agreed upon standard for what gets put in that text file!  If you're curious about the full details, you can check out www.adif.org, for the full list of field types and how they are used.

     Okay - since you insist - 
One of the reason I wanted to touch on ADIF is because, like we joke about in our house "your doin' it wrong!" (spoken in the most naggy voice you can muster up.)

     Now, no one intentionally logs incorrectly, but especially for new-comers, some of the fields in loggers can be a bit confusing, so I really just wanted to touch on some of the most common fields / mistakes that I've seen in logs:

CALL - This is really just short for "callsign" which should be straight-forward, but for new folks, it can be unclear if this is your callsign, or the other person's - for anyone who wasn't sure, this is for the "other" person's callsign.

STATION_CALLSIGN - This also seems straight-forward, but sometimes there is confusion between this field and the next one I'll discuss.  To help clear it up, this is intended to be the callsign you use over the air - i.e. when I call "CQ - this is November Three Victor Echo Mike" I'm putting N3VEM in the "Station Callsign" field.

OPERATOR - This is probably the field that is used incorrectly most often! (heck, I was using it wrong myself for quite some time.)  It is not uncommon for me to see people put names, initials, etc. in this field, but that is not it's intent.  This field is meant to be another callsign!  Normally the "Station" and "Operator" are the same callsign (i.e. N3VEM is usually operating the station of N3VEM) but there are many cases where they will be different - like field day operations, contests, special events, etc. where the "Station" is a club, or the callsign being used over the air, and the "Operator" is someone else.  (i.e. during field day N3VEM may be an operator of the W3RRR station.)

SIG - At first pass, this might seem like a a shortened version of the word signal, and I have seen individuals put "59" etc. in this field, but signal reports actually go in the "RST" fields.  SIG is actually an abbreviation for "Special Interest Group" and it is where you log the "program" the person you are contacting is participating in.  This is the field where you would put "POTA", "WWFF", "MOTA" (Mota?) to indicate that you contacted someone participating in one of those programs.  If you are the one participating, you would use the companion field to this one - "MY_SIG" to indicate that you're activating one of these programs locations.

SIG_INFO - If you do contact someone who is participating in a special interest group, they will often give you a "reference number" of some sort.  SIG_INFO is where you put that number!  If you're the one in the park (or in the mine!) you would put the reference number for the location you are operating from in the companion "MY_SIG_INFO" field.  As a point of clarification, some groups are so big, they get their own fields in the ADIF format - IOTA and SOTA.

     In addition to fields that are commonly misused, there are also situations where people use generic fields when they wouldn't have to.  Just like we commonly say "there's an app for that" when thinking logging, just remember that "there's a field for that."  Some of the more obscure (to most folks) ones that jump out:

MS_SHOWER (the name of the meteor shower that you're making your meteor scatter contacts with)

K_INDEX, SFI - in case you like to log the solar conditions at the time of your contacts.

QSO_RANDOM - a true/false field used to indicate if this was a schedule contact or a random contact

Thanks for stopping by -  feel free to comment if you regularly use one of the many more obscure fields.  Also let me know if there are fields that you have misunderstood in the past - it helps us to share our own mistakes with the next generation of hams, so that they don't repeat our follies!

bye for now!

I  almost forgot what activating a park was like!  

     Like many of you, I am a busy person.  Thanks to my busy life, most of my ham radio time since about December has just been from the temporary home shack in the master bedroom closet, when I could sneak in a few contacts (come to think of it, I've been spending a lot of time in that closet....my shack/office is still under construction.)  This past Tuesday evening however, I found myself near Washington DC, for work, so I slipped over to the George Washington Memorial Parkway and did a quick activation - thanks to a forgotten connector I could only do 40 meters, but I still managed to get in about 30 contacts.

     The contacts included some of the folks with callsigns that I'm really starting to become familiar with, like K0ATZ, W8MSC, W4JL, W2RAN, and a few others - thanks for being on the other end!

    So what is it that keeps me so busy?  Well, my family and work are the most obvious time commitments I have.  I travel for 2-3 days every other week, so my home time is pretty important for me and my family.  In addition to that, some of you may recall that I'm an adult learner - I'm now 8 weeks away from finishing up my Information Systems degree, so I have just a little bit of time invested in that :-)

     Even though family, work, and school keeps me busy, I still find time for my ham radio projects (mostly after the kids are in bed). If you poke around my blog for a little bit you can find the list of all of my ongoing projects.  In addition to those projects, I've been working pretty closely with one of the folks whose call sign I mentioned above, on a project that we hope a lot of you out there will like.....but I've said to much already - more on that to come soon!