A midnight match still needs a decision.
23:59:30 UTC on October 31 and 00:00:30 UTC on November 1 are 60 seconds apart. Matching across the date boundary is valid for this bench's selected window. It does not prove the records describe one contact.
These two logs are synthetic. Their callsigns, dates and locations do not document real activity. Save each complete snippet as a separate ASCII file, without adding a byte-order mark, then open them as Log A and Log B.
Log A: midnight-a.adi
Synthetic demonstration log A
<ADIF_VER:5>3.1.7<EOH>
<CALL:4>W1AW<QSO_DATE:8>20261031<TIME_ON:6>235930<BAND:3>20M<MODE:2>CW<STATION_CALLSIGN:6>VE7ABC<MY_GRIDSQUARE:4>CN89<EOR>
<CALL:6>VE7ABC<QSO_DATE:8>20261031<TIME_ON:6>150000<BAND:3>40M<MODE:3>SSB<EOR>Log B: midnight-b.adi
Synthetic demonstration log B
<ADIF_VER:5>3.1.7<EOH>
<CALL:4>W1AW<QSO_DATE:8>20261101<TIME_ON:6>000030<BAND:3>20M<MODE:2>CW<STATION_CALLSIGN:6>VE7ABC<MY_GRIDSQUARE:4>CN88<EOR>
<CALL:6>VE7ABC<QSO_DATE:8>20261031<TIME_ON:6>150000<BAND:3>40M<MODE:3>SSB<EOR>Compare at three windows
| Maximum difference | Candidates | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 30 seconds | 1 | Only the identical VE7ABC records qualify. |
| 60 seconds | 2 | The W1AW pair qualifies at the inclusive boundary. |
| 120 seconds | 2 | The larger window adds no other pair. |
Select 60 seconds before making decisions. Changing the window clears the review. Both W1AW records have matching CALL, BAND, MODE and an absent SUBMODE, but different QSO_DATE, TIME_ON and MY_GRIDSQUARE values.
Keep the uncertain station location
MY_GRIDSQUARE describes the operating station's location. CN89 and CN88 disagree. The matching key does not include that field, so the pair appears for review. Select Keep both contacts while you investigate the original station records. Choosing a value merely to enable merging would conceal the unresolved location.
For this exercise, explicitly merge only the identical VE7ABC pair. This demonstrates the controls, not a rule that every exact-looking contact is safe to combine.
Check the exported conservation
Before any decision, export preserves all 4 contacts. With only the exact pair merged, 4 input contacts become 3 output contacts and 1 merged pair. The manifest records 4 = 3 + 1.
| Output record | Source IDs in outputSources | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A:1 | First midnight record retained. |
| 2 | A:2, B:2 | The explicitly merged exact pair. |
| 3 | B:1 | Second midnight record retained. |
Source IDs refer to contact order inside each file, not physical text lines. Preserve both originals, the new ADI and the manifest. The exported ADI is reparsed locally; destination-logger acceptance is a separate check.
The timestamps follow the ADIF date/time definitions. Candidate windows and conservative retention are this application's policy. ARRL documents station callsigns and locations separately; this example does not sign, submit or certify a contact.
Compare the two files or read the destination-log review checklist.