[CQ-Contest] Secure online QSLs?

Bill Turner dezrat at copper.net
Thu Dec 21 12:10:30 EST 2006


We're getting a bit off topic for a contest reflector, but on the
other hand, a lot of contesters do operate in order to get QSLs, so
maybe it's not too far off.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a secure way to send QSLs by email,
so that anyone who wanted one could print it out and those who only
want to look at it could have a .jpg image of it? Ideally, this could
be linked to LoTW, so that only a confirmed QSL could be printed. You
could scroll through your LoTW log and print any confirmed QSLs you
wanted. If anyone wanted to verify that a particular QSL was real, all
they'd have to do is look it up in LoTW. To the best of my knowledge,
LoTW is very secure - if a QSO is in there, it really happened and the
printed QSL would only be a paper record of the LoTW archive.

Each station could have a blank QSL image on file with LoTW and when
someone requests a printout, the data would be automatically filled in
and a .jpg image sent to the requesting station. That way we could
personalize our QSLs easily and cheaply.

Not everyone has a computer of course, but this function could be done
by their local club or even a third party at a modest cost. 

Maybe I'm behind the curve and this is already possible, but I haven't
heard it discussed. Please enlighten me if that's the case.

73, Bill W6WRT


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