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Exporting Contacts

Hamtrax lets you export your contacts to ADIF 3.1.4 or CSV format -- the industry standard for ham radio log interchange. Use exports to upload to LoTW, back up your log, submit to award programs, or share contacts with other operators.

Downloading a folder​

Every export starts from a folder. There is no separate export screen and no whole-logbook export button -- you pick the folder whose contacts you want and download it.

  1. Open the Logbook tab and select a folder.
  2. Click Download ADIF in the row beneath the folder's Contacts heading.
  3. Choose ADIF or CSV in the dialog.
  4. Hamtrax prepares a file containing only that folder's contacts. On iPhone, finish by choosing Save to Files in the system sheet.
  • ADIF (.adi) -- the standard format for amateur radio logs. Use this for importing into other logging programs (Log4OM, N1MM+) or uploading to LoTW, QRZ, and POTA.
  • CSV (.csv) -- a spreadsheet-friendly format. Use this for Excel, Google Sheets, or non-ham-radio tools.

Non-activation ADIF files and every CSV folder export use <folder-name>-YYYY-MM-DD. An activation ADIF instead uses its stored submission identity, such as KA8H@US-1515-20201127.adi; an existing custom display label does not change that filename.

tip

To export several folders, download them one at a time -- each file contains exactly that folder's contacts, which keeps an activation's submission file clean rather than mixed in with unrelated contacts.

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An empty folder has nothing to send or share, so Download ADIF, Upload to POTA, and Share map are all greyed out until it holds at least one contact. Hover over any of them and it reads No contacts in this folder — the same sentence the empty folder itself shows.

Uploading an activation to POTA​

  1. Connect POTA in Settings → Integrations — sign in with your POTA email and password, and Hamtrax keeps that session renewed for you.
  2. Open a completed POTA activation folder and choose Upload to POTA.
  3. Review the station callsign, park, operating location, contact count, and UTC dates, then confirm submission.

The upload includes the complete activation, including contacts outside the visible page. Hamtrax checks that the station is registered to the connected POTA account, the contacts match the activation, required fields are valid, and all contacts have reached the cloud. Practice activations cannot be uploaded. Fewer than ten contacts is allowed; POTA determines activation credit. This version supports up to 1,000 contacts and a 2 MiB ADIF file per upload and never silently truncates a log.

You can also enable Upload to POTA on Finish on the activation's Finish tab — a single toggle there; the submission review above belongs to this folder dialog. The choice starts off and is remembered for the connected POTA account. Offline requests are saved on your device and wait for contact sync and cloud acceptance of Finish. An upload problem does not undo a finished activation. If synced contacts differ from the log it queued, Hamtrax asks you to review the upload here rather than submitting changed data.

Understanding upload status​

The folder keeps the upload's status after a notification disappears or you leave the page:

  • POTA upload queued means submission is waiting to run. Reconnect POTA to upload means reconnect the same POTA account — signed-in connections and sessions copied with the Connect Hamtrax bookmark both renew themselves, so this normally appears only for a pasted bare session token, which lasts a day. POTA upload needs attention means resolve the displayed issue before submission.
  • Sending activation to POTA means Hamtrax is sending the log. Submitted to POTA — processing pending means POTA accepted the submission; it does not yet mean processing is complete.
  • POTA processed your activation means POTA's upload history confirms processing.
  • POTA upload outcome is uncertain — do not resend means the connection was interrupted after sending may have started. Hamtrax checks for the existing submission and does not send the same log again while the outcome remains uncertain.

Repeated taps, another signed-in device, or reconnecting do not create another Hamtrax submission. Hamtrax also checks POTA upload history before sending; a possible existing upload pauses submission for review. Temporary failures before sending can be retried automatically; once sending may have started, Hamtrax never automatically resends. Avoid uploading the same activation separately on POTA while Hamtrax has a pending or uncertain submission.

Corrections and additions are not automatically sent. Once submitted, this version blocks another upload of that activation, even if you edit it or add contacts later. Resolve replacements through POTA's own log-support process. Downloading ADIF remains available, but do not submit it as a duplicate while an earlier submission is pending or uncertain.

Sharing as a contact map​

You can generate shareable PNG images of your contacts plotted on a world map with great-circle arcs from your station.

  1. Open the Logbook tab and select a folder.
  2. Click the Share map button — the gold button at the top right of the folder, above its name (just under Back on phones and tablets). A Contact Map dialog opens and prepares a preview of every contact in the folder; it may briefly show Preparing while station or activation details resolve.
  3. Download the image — on iPhone, finish by choosing Save Image or Save to Files in the system sheet — or Share directly to social media, email, or messaging apps on devices that support the Web Share API (otherwise a 1920×1080 PNG downloads).
  4. For hunting and custom folders, click Options in the footer and use Contact filters to narrow the map by a date range (it defaults to the folder's first and last contact and is limited to that span) plus radio and antenna filters (All by default, which keeps contacts logged with no equipment).

Tap the preview for a full-screen view. Use the zoom controls to read dates, summary, and equipment labels, and drag the enlarged image to move around it. Close the viewer to return to Contact Map. Zooming leaves the downloaded and shared PNG unchanged. Use Cancel at the bottom left to close the sharing window.

The last generated image stays above the filters on every screen size. The contact count updates as you edit; Generate applies the filters, while Back discards the draft. Generate is unavailable when no contacts match.

The same Contact Map dialog is also available from the Showcase page: open one of your own activation or hunting folders and use the Share map button at the top of the folder modal, just above the photos. It's one flow — everything below applies to both entry points.

Tapping the final Share button completes the getting-started checklist's contact-map task, even if you cancel the system share sheet. Downloading alone does not complete that task.

On an activation folder, Options remains visible but grayed out. Tapping it stays on the preview and shows Map options not available for activation folders. An activation map represents a single activation session, so it always includes every contact.

The image includes your callsign with First contact and Last contact blocks beneath it. Each block shows the QSO time in the local timezone of the operator or activation location used for that contact, followed by a long-form date such as July 20th, 2026; if that timezone cannot be resolved, Hamtrax labels the time in UTC. If none of the contacts has a usable date, the image says No contact dates logged. The footer leads with a large gold QSO total, then country, band, and mode counts, the most-used band and mode, and a short country list with a count of any remaining countries. The most-used radio and antenna appear in separate gold-edged circles at the right; a profile without a photo uses an equipment icon.

For a safely resolved activation folder, the identity block also shows its stored activity location, catalog name, or recorded reference beneath the contact date information. Unsupported or contradictory folder identity is left unlabeled instead of being guessed as POTA. The map centers the combined footprint of the places you operated from, fits the complete signal routes and station pins clear of the image's text, and wraps across the International Date Line so Pacific-spanning routes stay balanced. The first saved folder photo can feather into the lower-left background; it is not duplicated as an equipment circle.

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For hunting and custom folders, your station location must be set in Settings (GPS, manual coordinates, or callsign lookup) to generate a contact map. Activation folders don't need a personal location — the map radiates from the activation location resolved for that folder, so it works even if you haven't set your location. Contacts without valid coordinates or grid squares are excluded from the map.

Common use cases​

Use caseWhat to do
Upload to POTASign in to POTA in Settings → Integrations, then use Upload to POTA in the completed activation folder, or enable the upload option on Finish.
Upload to LoTWDownload the folder as ADIF, then upload the .adi file through the TQSL application.
Upload to QRZUse Sync now or enable automatic QRZ sync. An eligible contact goes only to the connected logbook whose callsign matches its station callsign. You can also download ADIF and upload the file on QRZ yourself.
BackupPeriodically download each folder to keep an offline copy of your log.
Share with othersDownload the activation folder from the Logbook and send the file.
Create a visual recordGenerate a contact map image to share on social media or keep as a souvenir of your activation or month of contacts.
Submit to award programsDownload the folder that holds the qualifying contacts -- an activation folder or a program's month.
Spreadsheet analysisDownload a folder as CSV and open it in Excel or Google Sheets.

What gets exported​

ADIF fields​

Hamtrax exports all standard ADIF 3.1.4 fields including:

  • Core fields: callsign, date, time on/off, band, mode, submode, frequency, RST sent/received. FREQ is always written in MHz, as ADIF defines it, so a contact whose frequency was stored in kHz by an older build still exports the right value. RST tags are written only when a contact actually has a report — a contact logged with Pre-fill perfect signal reports turned off, or in an FT8-family mode you never entered a report for, exports without them, which POTA and ADIF importers accept. An FT8-family contact's dB report travels in those same RST tags, spelled -15 or +05 the way WSJT-X writes it, so it round-trips through LoTW, QRZ, and back into Hamtrax
  • Digital voice exports as the pair ADIF defines: MODE:DIGITALVOICE with SUBMODE:DMR, D-STAR, or C4FM. Bring that file back into Hamtrax and the picker shows the submode name again, so a DMR contact makes the full round trip
  • Location fields: grid square (theirs and yours), QTH, state, county, country, continent, DXCC, CQ zone, ITU zone, coordinates
  • Activity references for every program, in the standard MY_SIG / MY_SIG_INFO and SIG / SIG_INFO pairs: SIG:POTA with a park reference, SIG:DX with a DXCC entity number, or SIG:REPEATER with the repeater's callsign and output frequency (W0ERH 442.100). That last pair is what lets a repeater contact re-import as a repeater contact, since no other logger writes it
  • Contest fields: contest ID, serial numbers (sent/received)
  • QSL fields: QSL sent/received, eQSL sent/received, LoTW sent/received
  • Station info: operator callsign, station callsign, power, propagation mode. A contact saved without a station callsign exports the callsign its activation was made under, or your account callsign outside an activation
  • Folder path: preserved as a custom APP_HAMRT_FOLDER field
info

For records that pass the import and cloud safety limits, Hamtrax preserves supported non-standard ADIF fields and includes them in later exports. Malformed or oversized records that are not cloud-accepted cannot make an unlimited payload round trip; the importer or retained pending-command review accounts for them instead.

CSV columns​

CSV exports include a fixed set of columns: callsign, date, timeOn, timeOff, frequency, band, mode, rstSent, rstReceived, name, qth, gridSquare, country, state, county, continent, power, myRadio, myAntenna, notes, mySig, mySigInfo, sig, sigInfo, stationCallsign, operatorCallsign, latitude, longitude, myLatitude, myLongitude, myGridSquare, qslSent, qslReceived, eqslSent, eqslReceived, lotwSent, lotwReceived. A contact without a signal report leaves its rstSent/rstReceived cells empty, and the frequency column is written in MHz to match the ADIF export. CSV has no submode column, so a digital-voice contact's mode cell reads DIGITALVOICE — use ADIF when you want the DMR / D-STAR / C4FM variant to travel with it.

Syncing to external services​

Connections and credentials are managed in Settings → Integrations. Folder downloads remain ordinary files; QRZ synchronization has its own workspace.

QRZ Logbook​

  1. Open Settings → Integrations → QRZ Logbook, select Add logbook, answer XML Logbook Data or higher, and enter a logbook's API key. You can connect up to five logbooks, one per callsign. Need the key, or don't have that QRZ plan? See Import from QRZ.
  2. Review Automatically sync with QRZ, which starts On for a new logbook, then select Connect logbook. Leave it On for continuing checks, or turn it Off before connecting to save the key without transferring contacts.
  3. On the connected logbook's page, choose Sync now for one check, or change that logbook's automatic-sync choice.

Both actions consider incoming QRZ records and eligible existing Hamtrax contacts, including file and POTA imports. Sync now works with automatic sync Off without enabling it. Opening the page alone transfers nothing. The first check reads that logbook's history; later checks catch up from saved progress, including every contact newly logged on QRZ. Once a day, a check rereads the whole logbook so a QRZ edit the shorter checks missed still turns up, without sending any contact again.

QRZ sync rules​

  • Each contact belongs to one logbook. A contact syncs only with the connected logbook whose callsign matches the contact's station callsign. Any other contact is not sent to QRZ and, apart from the exact match below, does not appear under Review issues. A new contact saves your account callsign as its station callsign, or the activation's callsign when you log it in an activation, so it syncs with the logbook for that callsign. An imported contact keeps the station callsign its file records, and gets yours when it records none.
  • A contact saved without a station callsign can still link. Contacts saved by earlier versions of Hamtrax, including older mobile apps, may have none. When a QRZ record matches such a contact exactly — callsign, UTC date and time, band, and mode — sync links the two and adds that logbook's callsign to the Hamtrax contact, which stays in its folder. A contact in an activation made under another callsign belongs to that callsign and never links this way. If their other details differ, beyond the ones QRZ adds on its own (below), the pair waits under Review issues as a conflict. If several Hamtrax contacts could match, nothing is linked and the record waits there instead.
  • One contact, one proven counterpart in this book. Matching uses precise contact facts and the operating callsign. An old QRZ ID or a broad same-day Hunt duplicate is not enough. Missing evidence or several candidates waits for review. A local record QRZ cannot represent separately stays local.
  • Folder rules still decide admission. New QRZ contacts use the same program routing and duplicate checks as other imports. A contact you made while activating for a program Hamtrax doesn't run itself — from a WWBOTA bunker, a SOTA summit, or a WWFF area — files itself into a custom folder for that logbook's callsign, reference and UTC day, named like G6UJJ@B-G-0109-20260720. It is the same folder the file importer suggests for that session, and later syncs reuse it. A contact with no park, program, other country, or detail such as a contest files into one custom folder per UTC month, such as October 2026 - No Program, which, like a monthly hunting folder, holds only that month's contacts. If you delete a folder sync created this way, or merge a No Program month into another custom folder, later contacts from that session or month wait for Choose folder instead of re-creating it; a deleted activation or monthly hunting folder is simply created again when a new contact needs it. Any other contact that needs a custom folder, such as a contest or satellite contact or a summit you chased, waits for Choose folder. A rule refusal cannot be overridden by putting the contact somewhere less strict.
  • An unreadable QRZ record waits alone. A QRZ record Hamtrax can't read — an invalid or missing callsign, date, or time, a field too long to import, or a field listed more than once — waits under Review issues while the rest of the logbook keeps syncing. Its review shows the callsign, date, and time as QRZ has them, so you can find the record there. Fix it on QRZ, then select Retry, or choose Don’t import to skip it permanently.
  • Creates can transfer automatically; edits need care. New eligible contacts can go in either direction. A changed QRZ contact waits under Review issues before changing Hamtrax. Different edits on both sides also wait, and each conflict appears there once. A change that leaves both sides matching, such as a QRZ record corrected to match Hamtrax, needs no review. Decide later changes neither contact and keeps the issue unresolved.
  • Details QRZ adds on its own aren't edits. When QRZ saves a contact, it fills in the home location from that logbook's QRZ profile, its own lookup of the other station — such as name, location, country, zones, and grid square — and an end time. One the Hamtrax contact leaves blank isn't a difference, and Use QRZ never fills it in, since a home grid or state would be wrong on a contact made portable or from a park. A value the Hamtrax contact holds that differs from QRZ's is still a conflict. Two spellings don't count as differences either, and Hamtrax keeps its own: a country name, such as United States and United States of America, and a phone contact one side keeps as plain SSB and the other as USB or LSB. USB on one side and LSB on the other is still a difference.
  • Your choice is queued, then checked. Use QRZ marks the issue Queued, with nothing left to choose, and the next sync applies it after re-checking the latest QRZ version, the Hamtrax values you reviewed, and the folder rules. The contact stays in its folder unless QRZ's values change where it belongs, such as a different date, park, or program; the usual folder rules then decide where it goes. If either version changed in the meantime, the contact returns to Review issues with the current values. Use QRZ for all conflicts, at the bottom of Review issues, queues the same choice for every current conflict, up to 500 at a time, once you confirm, and a notification says how many were queued. Local photos, equipment-profile links, and confirmations remain intact. An explicitly empty shared text field can clear its saved value when you accept QRZ; a field QRZ omitted leaves the local value alone.
  • Hamtrax does not rewrite existing QRZ records. Local edits that would change a QRZ counterpart remain visible for review. Use Hamtrax does not force an unsafe replacement: correct the record on QRZ directly, then sync again. Hamtrax never deletes and re-inserts a QRZ contact to apply an edit, protecting its confirmation.
  • Deleting locally leaves QRZ intact. Individual and folder deletions remove the Hamtrax contact. A known QRZ counterpart, or an unpaired record uniquely proved to match saved deletion evidence without a competing contact, stays excluded from incoming sync, even if automatic sync was Off at deletion. Hamtrax keeps that deletion evidence for your whole account, so every logbook honors it, including one you connect later. Excluded contacts → Restore into Hamtrax queues an explicit attempt to bring it back, which the next sync makes through the normal checks. A missing QRZ record never automatically deletes or recreates a Hamtrax contact.
  • Offline work waits for cloud acceptance. QRZ sync considers a contact logged offline only after it reaches Hamtrax's server. Resolve any local Needs Filing refusal first. Finishing an activation needs no additional QRZ submission.
  • Consent belongs to each logbook. Each logbook has its own Automatically sync with QRZ switch, and turning it On or Off changes only that logbook. The former auto-push setting does not enable expanded sync. Turning automatic sync Off stops new automatic work; Sync now remains available. Disconnecting a logbook removes only its key and stops its authenticated work; its remembered matches and exclusions remain, so reconnecting it resumes from saved progress. A request already sent may still finish.
  • An uncertain send is not blindly repeated. Use Retry after fixing a connection problem. Hamtrax reads back before considering another create; a lost response remains unresolved while it cannot prove what QRZ saved. Once a later check finds QRZ's copy, Hamtrax links the two, or lists the pair once under Review issues if their details differ. A contact QRZ refuses as a duplicate of one it already holds is linked the same way. Progress and Review issues distinguish a finished check from contacts still needing attention.

Older mobile versions that still write directly to the cloud can record deletion evidence only after the delete event arrives. Hamtrax starts saving deletion evidence once your account connects QRZ; a historical deletion with no saved matching evidence cannot be recovered retroactively.

Automatic checks run on Hamtrax's server, so the app need not remain open. They are periodic, not an instant mirror of every edit made on QRZ. If a check can't finish, the logbook's page says so and, where it can, names the cause, such as Could not reach QRZ. With automatic sync On, Hamtrax retries on its own, 15 minutes after a failure and less often while failures continue, up to once a day, or you can select Sync now to try again at once. With it Off, select Sync now to try again.

Import Contacts → Import from connection → Open QRZ sync opens this same workspace. For an incoming-only file import, export an ADIF from QRZ and use the ordinary file importer.

LoTW (Logbook of the World)​

LoTW requires the TQSL desktop application for uploads -- there is no direct upload API. To submit contacts to LoTW:

  1. Download the folder you want to submit as an ADIF file, using the steps above.
  2. Open the .adi file in TQSL and sign/upload it.

Pulling LoTW confirmation status back into Hamtrax is supported. Open Settings → Integrations, select Logbook of The World, enter your username and password, and select Connect LoTW. Hamtrax validates the login before storing it encrypted on its server. The connection works from any device signed in to the same Hamtrax account. Select Sync Confirmations to fetch confirmations and mark matching local contacts as lotwReceived; connecting does not start a sync, and there is no automatic sync. See LoTW Confirmation Sync for connection management and the one-time reconnection from the old vault.

A confirmation is applied only when callsign, UTC date and minute, band, mode/submode, and any supplied station callsign match one local contact. Unmatched confirmations stay on that device for later retries while the LoTW cursor advances, so importing a missing contact later can still recover the match without repeatedly downloading the same report window.

HamQTH​

Hamtrax no longer pushes contacts to HamQTH. To get contacts into a HamQTH logbook, download the folder as ADIF and upload that file to HamQTH yourself.