[CQ-Contest] Paper QSL Sources

[Jim Brown]

On Tue,11/24/2015 5:49 AM, Timothy A. Holmes wrote:
> I am also planning to do electronic but cant use LOTW, so I need paper 
> to confirm for ARRL awards) 

As a ham trying to help you solve your problem, I'll ask WHY you can't 
use LOTW? It's nearly free. The only requirement is that you must 
somehow enter QSO data into electronic form. There are many good ways to 
do that -- IF you have accurate times, dates, and frequencies for the 
QSOs.  There's NO good way to do it if you don't have that information. :)

Here's my experience. Since getting back on the air in 2003 after a long 
absence, I've done all my logging to DXKeeper, a great general logger, 
or to N1MM Logger, a great contesting logger, or to WriteLog, another 
fine contest logger. After each contest, I export the log to DXKeeper. 
DXKeeper uploads everything to LOTW and eQSL. DXKeeper and N1MM are 
FREE! and are very well supported.

Several years ago, I dug out some very old logs ('50s-'70s) with the 
idea of entering them. The problem I ran into was "what TIME zone was I 
using?"  GMT? EST? CST?  If I switched, when did I switch? I MUST figure 
that out before plugging data into LOTW. I've had better things to do, 
and have never gotten around to going further with the project. BUT -- I 
strongly suspect that there are utilities that will shift the time of 
all QSOs in a log by the same amount (to correct for the time being off).

I don't know HOW accurate that the time must be, but I'd guess 15-30 
minutes. There may be an FAQ on the ARRL website.

It's worth spending some time to figure this out -- it costs a buck to 
send US mail both ways in the US, an average of $3.50 - $4 worldwide.

There are about 130,000 QSOs in my log since 2006, and about 57% are 
confirmed in LOTW.

I just looked at your qrz.com listing and I see why you can't use LOTW 
-- your license is expired. Easy fix -- renew your license!

73, Jim K9YC