On Fri,8/7/2015 7:10 AM, George Harlem wrote:
This is a no-brainer.
As is the practice of not sending a card unless the other ham also puts his log
on LoTW. Huh?
Back in the day when you and I were first licensed, we mailed QSLs as
postcards with 2 cent stamps. I sent you a card, you sent me one. We
each paid for our own stamp. A QSL was considered "the final courtesy of
a QSO."
60 years later, almost no one sends a card unless requesting one for an
award, and the guy who "needs" the card pays for postage both ways.
That's just short of a buck for a card within the US, and an average of
$3.50 for a DX card.
And, 60 years later, LOTW and eQSL are today's "final courtesy of a
QSO." It costs almost nothing to get started, and we pay a small fee
when we use an LOTW confirmation for an award (a small fraction of the
cost of postage).
A German ham wrote privately to me that
argument against LotW is its requirement to send hardcopies of
realworld personal documents for foreign stations
That is NOT true. Here's a quote from the ARRL FAQ:
"Authentication for U.S. calls relies on a combination of the FCC
license database and postal mail addresses. "
"Authentication for non-U.S. calls relies on photocopies of a radio
license and an official identification document. The applicant initiates
registration through a computer log program, which creates the digital
signature keys that will be used for signing QSL records. Next, the
operator (or logging program) sends a registration request to the
Logbook Registration Server via the Internet, and the server generates a
certificate. The applicant then sends a photocopy of his or her radio
license, an official identification document, and a printout of certain
digital signature key information to ARRL HQ via postal mail. When the
documentation is received, an operator at ARRL HQ examines it and
activates the certificate. The certificate is then sent to the applicant
via the Internet."
That sounds pretty simple to me -- the DX station applies online, then
mails photocopies of his license and some official identification
document. Why don't US hams have to do that? Because the FCC database
is online, so ARRL can verify a US license by mailing a password to the
license address.
73, Jim K9YC
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