The SOTA database takes ADIF too — why CSV?

It does, if every QSO has MY_SOTA_REF or SOTA_REF, a station callsign and a mode it knows. CSV V2 is what most SOTA tools, the database’s own downloads and its upload help use, and the page writes exactly what it checks. Either works; this gives you files sorted per summit and day.

Does the page upload the files?

No. Save them and upload at sotadata.org.uk → Upload; it takes several files at once. The page sends nothing anywhere.

I have a SOTA CSV already and want ADIF

Drop it here: it opens as a log, with MY_SOTA_REF and SOTA_REF filled in, and saves as ADIF for LoTW, QRZ or your logger.

plainfolder → Ham radio → SOTA CSV from ADIF

SOTA CSV files from your log

Drop the log from your logger or phone app. Your summit comes from MY_SOTA_REF (or MY_SIG = SOTA); type it if the log has none. The page writes the V2 lines the SOTA database takes and shows which activations have the four stations for points.

No server processing No account No daily limits

What a line looks like

V2, your callsign, your summit, the date as dd/mm/yyyy, the time as hhmm, the band, the mode, the other callsign, their summit and a note: V2,G0ABC/P,G/LD-001,01/11/2026,1004,14MHz,SSB,K1ABC,,. Bands are written as the SOTA database names them — 14MHz, 144MHz, 433MHz, 2.3GHz — and modes as SOTA counts them: CW, SSB, FM, AM, DV for digital voice (DMR, D-STAR, C4FM), DATA for FT8 and other data modes.

Activations, chases and summit to summit

A QSO with your summit is an activation; with only the other station’s summit (SOTA_REF), a chase; with both, summit to summit. Activations go into one file per summit, UTC day and callsign, sorted by time; chases into one file per callsign. The table shows how many different stations each activation has — points need four; the same operator with /P counts once.

What is left out, and why

QSOs with no summit on either side, a summit reference that is not one (it looks like G/LD-001), a date before 2000 or in the future, no band, mode or callsign. Each is listed with the reason; click it to open the QSO and fix it.

What is tested — and what is not

The format is the one the SOTA database’s own upload page checks (read from that page in November 2026): the V2 marker, at most ten fields, the date, a time without seconds, the summit pattern. Tested: every log in our collection of ADIF files from real programs and hundreds of generated ones, each file compared line by line with an independent check of those rules and of the SOTA band and mode lists. Not tested: an upload to the SOTA database itself — we do not send test logs to a real award database. Whether a summit was valid on that date, or a QSO was made through a repeater, is for the database to judge.

Questions

The SOTA database takes ADIF too — why CSV?: It does, if every QSO has MY_SOTA_REF or SOTA_REF, a station callsign and a mode it knows. CSV V2 is what most SOTA tools, the database’s own downloads and its upload help use, and the page writes exactly what it checks. Either works; this gives you files sorted per summit and day.
Does the page upload the files?: No. Save them and upload at sotadata.org.uk → Upload; it takes several files at once. The page sends nothing anywhere.
I have a SOTA CSV already and want ADIF: Drop it here: it opens as a log, with MY_SOTA_REF and SOTA_REF filled in, and saves as ADIF for LoTW, QRZ or your logger.