POTA log files for pota.app
Drop the log from your logger or phone app. Type your park and callsign if the log does not have them, and the page makes the files pota.app takes — one per park, UTC day and callsign — and shows which days reach the 10 QSOs of an activation.
What goes into each file
Every QSO keeps its own fields. The park goes in as MY_SIG = POTA and MY_SIG_INFO = US-1234 (and MY_POTA_REF where the log already used it); the band is written with its unit, 20M; a QSO without a station callsign gets the one you type. A park-to-park QSO keeps the other park in SIG and SIG_INFO, and a QSO with an activator on a two-fer becomes one record per park, as the POTA rules ask.
Two-fers and several days
A log from a two-fer is split into one file per park, each with every QSO. A weekend in the same park gives a file per UTC day, so you can see which day is an activation. The file names are those POTA suggests for e-mail: N0CALL@US-1234-20261101.adi.
What is left out, and why
Duplicates on the same day — the same call, band and mode, and the same park on their side — which pota.app would reject. And what the pota.app uploader refuses: a mode that is not an ADIF mode (DATA, Voice, PHONE — pota.app then stops the whole upload, so these never go in), a QSO with your own callsign, a QSO through a repeater, a date in the future, no band, mode or callsign, a park reference that is not one (US-TX-0001, US1234). Each one is listed with the reason; click it to open the QSO and fix it.
What is tested — and what is not
The rules are POTA’s own (docs.pota.app: ADIF for POTA, Submitting logs, Rules, November 2026). Tested: every log in our collection of ADIF files from real programs and hundreds of generated activations, each file compared field by field with an independent check written from those rules. Not tested: an upload to pota.app itself — we do not send test logs to a real award database. Old US references (K-1234) are pointed out but not changed: most became US-1234, not all.
Questions
- Does the page upload the log to pota.app?
- No. You save the files and upload them yourself at pota.app → My Log Uploads, or send them to your park coordinator. The page sends nothing anywhere.
- My logger has no MY_SIG field — will it still work?
- Yes. Type the park in My park(s); it is used for every QSO that has no park of its own. To keep it in your log as well, press Write the park into the log: those QSOs get MY_SIG = POTA and MY_SIG_INFO = your park (QSOs logged for WWFF or another program keep theirs), and Save log as… gives the log back to your logger with the park in it.
- What about WWFF or SOTA?
- QSOs logged for WWFF are not taken as POTA parks. For SOTA there is a SOTA button on the same page: CSV files for the SOTA database.
- pota.app says my station callsign is not registered
- The uploader takes only callsigns registered to your pota.app account. If you activated as a club call or with a /P suffix, add that callsign to your account, or set STATION_CALLSIGN to a registered one with Edit fields. The page cannot check your account.