Radio W4KAZ

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LOTW – DXCC and WAS

I’ve been running an experiment of sorts with Logbook of the World. I was curious to see where the tipping point might be for getting enough LOTW confirmations to qualify for either the DXCC or WAS awards from the ARRL. Right now, I have 17,829 QSO’s uploaded to LOTW. That is a mixture of both Phone and CW. The other item – they are all contest QSO’s.

Of those, I have 5,789 confirmations via LOTW, or just a hair shy of 33% confirmed. I expect most of the confirmations are from US QSO’s, because it is not very easy for DX stations to participate.

Nothing too shocking there. I think I actually expected more LOTW confirmations from contesters, since their logging programs make it easy.

Anyway, I hit WAS sometime last summer. I’ve been waiting to get WAS on both CW and SSB before getting the certified wallpaper. The last holdout for WAS Phone was NV.

I expected DXCC to take longer. My DX capabilities are poor with no amp, no tower, and no beams. But DXCC happened sometimes between ARRL 160m for 2008 and the NAQP CW. My DXCC total now sits at 102 confirmed in LOTW. The CW and SSB mode totals are 70 and 90. I will probably wait until I hit those to milestones before buying the wallpaper. 17,000+ Q’s is one season of contesting for a top ten station, but it was a few years of operating from the KazShack.

There is a big wiff of “so what” to all of it, but it has been fun rounding them up. I’m not really big into chasing awards for their own sake. I’ve always felt that the logbook itself was the award, and with the logging programs available, it is easy to see the progress. But some decorations are ultimately worth having.

Now I really need to send reply’s to all of those in that box of paper QSL’s. That backlog is unforgivable.

3 comments to LOTW – DXCC and WAS

  • Michael

    I’m pretty frustrated with the confirmation return I got via LOTW for the 2009 ARRL SSB International DX contest.
    Perhaps i just need to wait longer but the deadline for submission of contest logs has passed and you’d think that those who submitted logs would have also uploaded them to LOTW by now if they were going to.

    • Sorry for the delayed reply.

      I think there’s less participation from DX stations because it is more fo a burden on them to register. Perhaps as postage rates continue to make hard-copy QSLs more un-affordable, folks will gravitate into LOTW.

      Thanks for stopping by the virtual-QTH

  • Michael, W4HIJ

    I understand your point about it being harder for DX stations to sign up for LOTW but I do hope you’re right about postage rates pushing more folks towards it.
    Personally, I don’t send hard copy QSL cards anymore. It’s not just the cost issue with postage and printing the cards, it’s a convenience and time issue as well. It’s a lot easier for me to spend a few minutes uploading my logs to LOTW and eqsl than it is to fill out a bunch of QSL cards. I know I could automate that too and print labels for the cards from my log program but what’s the real point?
    Things would be so much simpler if all hams would move into the twenty first century and QSL via electronic means.
    I enjoy your site and will continue to stop by on occasion.
    73,
    Michael

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