The Radio Games Matching Service is a radio contact matching service like LoTW, Club Log, and QRZ. In contrast to those services, RGMS is completely open source and community supported.
RGMS matches contacts when both parties upload their logs in ADIF format. The matching is deterministic: a contact either matches or it doesn't, there's no scoring or probability involved.
Upload your ADIF file via the upload page or the API. Each contact in your log is parsed and stored with the fields described below.
When a log is uploaded, each contact is checked against existing contacts in the database. For a match to occur, all three of the following must be true:
Both contacts must be on the same band: 20m and 40m don't match. If the band isn't specified in your ADIF file, it will be inferred from the frequency.
The two contacts must be within a 30-minute window of each other. Each contact can have a start time and an optional end time (TIME_OFF). If the time ranges overlap, the condition is satisfied. Contacts that cross midnight are handled correctly.
Modes are organized into groups. An exact mode match always works, but contacts in the same group also match:
To find more matches, RGMS infers missing fields from your ADIF data when possible:
FREQ or FREQ_RX if not specifiedSUBMODE if MODE is missing (e.g. USB → SSB, FT4 → MFSK)COUNTRY if not specifiedMY_LAT/MY_LON if MY_GRIDSQUARE is missingMY_SIG/MY_SIG_INFO as a fallbackDuplicate contacts (same stations, same date, same time) are deduplicated both within a single upload and across uploads. Re-uploading a log will update existing contacts rather than create duplicates.
LoTW, QRZ, Club Log, and eQSL all match contacts, and each works well for the operators it was built for. RGMS differs from them in two ways.
The code is open. None of the existing services publish their source code, so improvements can only come from inside. RGMS is fully open source and community supported.
The awards are open. Where the existing services offer awards, they are a single organization's own program: LoTW confirmations serve DXCC and the ARRL's other awards, and QRZ's matches feed QRZ's award program. RGMS confirmations are available to anyone: a club, group, or individual can work with us to define awards and have them evaluated automatically against every matched contact.
There's also room to serve operators outside the US better. LoTW's interface is English-only and its documentation is only partly translated, which limits its use elsewhere. RGMS is built for localization from the start.
If you're a programmer, the source for this website is on GitHub. It's written in Python and Django. The ADIF matcher is written in Go.
If you can help localize this website into another language, please reach out to translation@radio.games.