ARRL VHF Contest Log Analyzer

Scoring, grid maps and contest movies for the ARRL January, June and September VHF Contests – built for rovers

1 Your log

No log handy? Try the sample June rover log as or .

2 Contest and station

Detected from the log’s CONTEST: line or its dates; the results say which. Choose No contest for a home-station or grid-chasing log: maps and the movie, without a score.

Automatic reads the log header; a /R call sign means Classic Rover.

Required for CSV and Google Sheets logs. Cabrillo and ADIF logs carry their own.

3 What to generate

Maps

Path and grid maps make one picture per band and per rover stop – 40 or more for a ten-band rover – and can take a few minutes. The movie shows everything in one page.

Log formats

Cabrillo (.log) – what N1MM+ and other contest loggers write for ARRL. QSO lines look like QSO: 144 PH 2026-06-13 1802 K2UA/R FN12 W2AAA FN13; a rover’s own grid changes from stop to stop.

ADIF (.adi) – from N1MM+, WSJT-X, LoTW or any logger. It needs CALL, GRIDSQUARE, MY_GRIDSQUARE, BAND (or FREQ), QSO_DATE and TIME_ON. Confirmation fields are ignored – to map only confirmed contacts, filter the ADIF file in your logger before uploading it.

CSV (.csv), or a Google Sheet – one row per QSO with the columns date, band, sourcegrid, time, call, grid (bands as 50, 144, 222, 432, 902, 1.2G, 2.3G, …):

date,band,sourcegrid,time,call,grid
2026-06-13,144,FN12,1802,W2AAA,FN13
,432,,1805,W2AAA,FN13
,,FN13,2210,N2CCC,FN13

Leave date, band, sourcegrid and time blank when they haven’t changed since the previous row – they’re filled down automatically.

Contest detection

The contest comes from the log’s CONTEST: line (or ADIF CONTEST_ID), or else from its dates: the third or fourth full weekend of January (1900Z Saturday–0359Z Monday), and the second full weekend of June and of September (1800Z Saturday–0259Z Monday). ARRL 10 GHz and Up logs are scored too.

Scoring (ARRL Jan/Jun/Sep VHF rules)

QSO points: 50 and 144 MHz 1; 222 and 432 MHz 2; 902 MHz and 1.2 GHz 3 (4 in January); 2.3 GHz and up 4 (8 in January). Multipliers: grid squares worked on each band. Rovers add one multiplier for each grid they operate from, and every station counts once per band from each grid pair – so you can work a station again after either of you moves. Score = QSO points × multipliers. 3-Bands counts 50/144/432 MHz; FM-Only counts FM QSOs on 50 MHz–1.2 GHz; Limited Rover counts the four lowest bands. This is your claimed score – ARRL’s log checking can lower it.

Maps and the movie

Maps are drawn by K2UA’s open-source grid-mapper, one per band and per rover stop. The contest movie replays your log in time order: the map follows you from grid to grid, shading each grid you activate, while a line is drawn to every station you work, styled by band, and your score climbs. Use 0.5×, 1× or 2× speed, drag the timeline, switch between the Region, Area and Local zoom levels, tap a band to hide it, or open the table of rover stops. It opens in a new browser tab (phones too); the “Download everything” .zip keeps a copy that plays offline. Coastline and border data: Natural Earth; street underlay: © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Working the ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest? Its own site, 10ghz.microwavedx.com, adds weekend, comprehensive and directional analysis.