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ADIF Specification Reference

About ADIF

The Amateur Data Interchange Format (ADIF) is the standard for exchanging Amateur Radio contact logs between software applications. Maintained by the ADIF Developers Group, it defines field names, data types, enumerations, and record formats that logging programs use to import and export QSO data.

Current Version

adif-mcp targets ADIF 3.1.6 (released 2025-09-15).

  • Official specification: ADIF 3.1.6
  • Field definitions, data types, and enumerations are bundled as JSON resources within the adif-mcp package

Key Concepts

Record Formats

ADIF supports two record formats:

  • ADI -- tag-based text format (e.g., <CALL:5>KI7MT <BAND:3>20m <MODE:3>SSB)
  • ADX -- XML-based format for structured interchange

adif-mcp parses and validates both formats.

Fields

ADIF defines ~150 standard fields covering:

  • QSO basics: CALL, BAND, MODE, FREQ, QSO_DATE, TIME_ON, RST_SENT, RST_RCVD
  • Location: GRIDSQUARE, MY_GRIDSQUARE, DXCC, STATE, CNTY
  • Awards: QSL_RCVD, LOTW_QSL_RCVD, EQSL_QSL_RCVD, IOTA, SOTA_REF
  • Contest: CONTEST_ID, SRX, STX, SRX_STRING, STX_STRING

Enumerations

Many fields use controlled vocabularies (enumerations):

  • Band -- HF through microwave (e.g., 160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m)
  • Mode / Submode -- operating modes (SSB, CW, FT8, RTTY, etc.)
  • DXCC_Entity_Code -- country/entity codes
  • QSL_Rcvd / QSL_Sent -- confirmation status flags

Use the read_specification_resource and search_enumerations MCP tools to explore enumerations programmatically.

APP_ Fields

Applications can define custom fields using the APP_ prefix (e.g., APP_ADIF-MCP_OP). These are application-specific extensions that don't conflict with the standard. See the Program ID Policy for adif-mcp's registered Program IDs and APP_ field conventions.

Spec Coverage

adif-mcp bundles the complete ADIF 3.1.6 specification as structured JSON, including all fields, data types, and enumerations. The read_specification_resource and search_enumerations MCP tools provide full programmatic access.

ADIF is a trademark of the ADIF Developers Group. This project is an independent implementation.