[CQ-Contest] A little LoTW gotcha

[Bill]

I was reading this thread and was trying to figure out how I remembered to
renew my certificate back in December.  I looked back and realized that
there was a reminder on the "Logbook User's Home Page" that tipped me off.

"Dec 29, 2004: Make the Back-up of your LoTW Certificates a New Year's
Resolution -- Now that Logbook of the World is well over one year old, many
of us have renewed our certificates. This means that we also should make new
back-ups of these certificates--the .p12 files."

I have nothing but complements about LOTW.  I am no computer genius so I had
a couple of problems getting started. Fortunately the staff was very helpful
in getting me back on track. I wish a few more DX stations would use the
system but there are 63 million QSOs entered into the system, and 2.6
million matched QSLs. I got one of my last 7 countries (TO4WW) confirmed on
LoTW long before I got the card.

I have noticed a dramatic increase in LoTW QSLs since the CQWW CW and Phone
Contests this year. I spend a great deal of time and money QSLing. The
return rate for an SASE is still better than the return rate for LoTW but I
think things area really improving. There may be other factors but according
to my records, I have 10% more QSOs the last 12 months and a decrease of
approximately 30% in cards from the bureau.


73,
Bill, W5VX

All organizations are perfectly aligned for the results they get.



>-----Original Message-----
>From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:cq-contest-
>bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Bill Coleman
>Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 5:45 PM
>To: Bill Turner
>Cc: Contest reflector; RTTY reflector
>Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] A little LoTW gotcha
>
>
>On Feb 8, 2005, at 10:20 PM, Bill Turner wrote:
>
>> Did any of you know that your LoTW certificates have to be renewed
>> every
>> year?
>
>Actually, no they do NOT. They only need to be renewed if you plan to
>actively upload logs.
>
>I have several certificates: WN8WOY, WB8WOY, N8BHE, AA4LR and even KM9P
>(but just for the period of the 95 SS Phone). The only one I have to
>worry about renewing now is AA4LR, since all of my other QSOs with the
>other callsigns are already posted.
>
>> Normally, one can renew the certificate easily by selecting a menu
>> option, but once it has expired, that option no longer exists. You have
>> to apply for a new one. Too bad one does not get a warning of any kind
>> -
>> at least I didn't.
>>
>> So check your certs, guys, and don't get caught short like me.
>
>It's no big deal to renew, or even to ask for a new cert. I think the
>idea of the renewable cert is to allow for callsigns moving from person
>to person over time, which can happen with the vanity program, or
>various other ways in other countries.
>
>If you did a guest op and used another station's callsign, you can also
>obtain a certificate for the contest period (as I did with KM9P).
>
>It's actually a pretty well-thought-out system. Sorry it bit you.
>
>Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
>Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
>             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901
>
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