Is ADIF Master worth playing with John?
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Andy,
I found it very useful for preparing ADIF files for POTA recently but I haven’t felt the need for it with any SOTA stuff. The reason I used it was I activated a small POTA location in Cornwall which was also within the larger POTA site of the Cornwall AONB. You are allowed to claim activation of both locations, they call them two-fers and there are also three-fers and so on. The problem is you can’t send in the same ADIF file for both, their system will see it as a duplicate and reject one of them. The trick is to have a column in each ADIF file which shows the specific park number, from memory it is called MY_SIG_INFO. So using ADIF Master I inserted a new column, changed its name and then just pasted in the park number then created a second file with the second park number. This gave me two ADIF files each with exactly the same QSOs but linked to different parks. My original ADIF file was created by SwissLog and it had numerous columns I didn’t need so I just deleted them in ADIF Master to produce a much simpler file with just the columns POTA needs. It is possible to edit the SwissLog file before exporting it I think but it doesn’t have an option for a column called MY_SIG_INFO so I still need ADIF Master for that.
John
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Not necessarily. You can mix 2 files with different fields if they both fulfill ADIF syntax. I do it usually.
The file must not even follow the time order, so you can f.i. mix a VK-Port-a-log VHF file with a FLE HF one, just erasing one of the 2 headers.
Best 73
Mikel
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Mikel,
Thank you, that makes sense as all the individual ADIF entries include the column headers.
John
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I use FLE to enter my SOTA logs. Unfortunately my Windows PC’s hard disk failed on Monday so I am using my work laptop but it runs Ubuntu Linux. I’ve just installed wine64 and managed to install and run FLE with no problems at all. So if you run Linux it’s worth giving FLE a go.
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I’ve also run FLE under Linux (and Mac) using wine and had good results. But there is an even better way!
This thing is awesome and runs on everything. I even use it on an ARM based Chromebook under Crostini and it works great!
-Josh WU7H
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IMO one of the best solutions for logging on-the-field.
You can use any O.S. text editor, write down band and mode changes.Later, just enter time, callsign and [sota_ref] in S2S Qs.
At home, just open the .txt file, add the necessary headers (my call, operator, mysota & date) and process it with FLE.
Upload the resulting ADIF file to SOTA, LoTW, e-qsl, etc. That’s all.
Better than being jumping thru fields, changing keyboards among chars, numbers, and signs.
Example of field txt file:
2M FM
0923 EC2AG EA2BI063 (at home I’ll add /'s and -'s)
20M CW
28 HB9AFI/P HB…
OK2PDT
30 EA2NN
SSB
EA2DNO/P EA2VI002
40M
35 EA7GV
EA3CV (time input is not always needed when in pile-up, FLE will interpolate it later)
F4LFN
37 EA4XX
…
Then, I save the file as
2022-06-26_EA2SS003_EA2CW.txt and if I have internet coverage, upload to the cloud for safety.
Just that simple. No edit or delete buttons, no menus. Easy to edit on the fly.
Only a bit worse than the pencil & notebook winning system!
73, Mikel
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Anyone knows if Fast Log Entry software (FLE) has an option App or Apk for tablets?
Claudio
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Ever thought about adding optional State and County ADIF fields? Sorely lacking from FLE. It has grid, but that’s not really useful when uploading to LOTW without State and County.
I have the latest version of FLE loaded but the problem I am having is getting it to recognise SOTA or FF references.
Most of the time I do SOTA only activations but when I do a SOTA/POTA/WWFF activation I am writing all the different references in the header:
Then I go to LOGGING, check SOTA Logging and save the ADIF-file:
I do the same with POTA and WWFF:
I then have three different ADIF-files on my computer and upload them to SOTA/POTA/WWFF.
Sometimes FLE needs a manual reload of the log grid:
73 Martin, OE5REO
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Thanks, Martin, turns out the log needed refreshing for it to show, or turn off and restart!
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Hi Paul,
your log could also look like this (in case you do not like to type too much) 
20m ssb
1008 ea2dt 44 6
10 sp1jqj
om5dp
28 iz3wuw 2 9
30 on3adr
iu5kzf 01 9
3 on3gz
4 dk2whs 6 9
oh2fdq
7 ea7knk 33 9
1100 ea3hys
oh6gaz 3 9
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I just realized that even though the POTA entry for a P2P is black, it still show up properly in a SOTA/POTA ADIF.
I generally run my log file through mParks to convert from POTA to WWFF. It handles all the park translations for SIG_INFO and MY_SIG_INFO from POTA to WWFF references. I can also convert POTA files in masse and it will not create a WWFF file for any POTA references that do not have a valid WWFF ID. That way I have a single file that will work for SOTA/POTA and then a new cross-referenced file for WWFF.
If anyone wants to write a JavaScript FLE parser I will happily incorporate it into SOTAData to allow direct uploading of FLE files. I doubt I will get time to do it myself
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I’m working on that, but not sure how long it will be yet…
Hi Martin,
In the past you could not upload WWFF files yourself, but had to send them to the local WWFF manager. It took ages to get processed. Can you upload now yourself? Has this changed?
73 Heinz
There is a CLI version (in GO) by @ON4KJM
GitHub - on4kjm/FLEcli: Multi-platform "Fast Log Entry"(FLE) processing tool
Not in JavaScript but maybe a starting point?
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Hello Heinz, it is still like that. Sometimes the local WWFF manager is quick, but it can take up to several weeks until the logfile is uploaded to the database. My last logfile of November 14th has not been uploaded so far. I guess I will have to send the file again as a reminder in a few weeks …
73 Martin, OE5REO
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Shout out to @ON4KJM for creating FLEcli. All you need is your favorite text editor and FLEcli. Works great on Linux, Mac, Windows, Chromebooks, etc. Love it! By far the most efficient way to capture paper SOTA logs.
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