Ed N1UR said: """"Its funny that this discussion is happening on the eve
before the buro becomes almost obsolete..."""""
I don't think LOTW will be any more effective than the present QSL system. I've
participated in the open beta test and the results are less than stellar. I
submitted DXCC CW & Phone on 4 bands and to date don't even have DXCC Mixed
confirmed on LOTW. The results are similar for WAS. I have several hundred QSO
matches but not enough for any award except WAC.
There have some informal studies about computer use in ham radio and they all
come out the same. Except for a small select group, 'contesters', there are
very few stations totally integrated with a computer. I looked at my local
community, because I think it's fairly representative of Amateur Radio in the
US. and here's what I found: there are @125 licensed hams, 2 are full-time
contest stations and fully integrated w/computers. There are 2 part-time
contesters and are not integrated w/computers. There are 2 integrated stations
who are not contesters. There are @10 who do any computer logging and of those
10, 5 would have cardiac arrest trying to figure out how to make a submission
to LOTW.
Then, of course, there is the confusion caused by eQSL. There is a small
faction, but a noisy one, who believe eQSL is the future of QSLing.
The bottom line is don't expect any better results from LOTW than the present
system until the overall ham community catches up to us in the contesting
community......
MAL N7MAL
BULLHEAD CITY, AZ
www.citlink.net/~suzyq/N7mal.htm
www.geocities.com/n7mal
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