[Nodxa] LOTW

[Tedd Mirgliotta (KB8NW)]

From: yaesuzoomers at groups.io <yaesuzoomers at groups.io> On Behalf Of Carl 
Yaffey
Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2024 2:57 PM
To: elecraftzoomers at groups.io; yaesuzoomers at groups.io
Subject: [yaesuzoomers] LOTW

Contesting and DX'ing (Amateur - Ham - Radio)

Dave Bernstein  ·   ·

LoTW Will Be Back!

Jon Bloom (ex-KE3Z) was the original developer of LoTW; he certainly 
understands LoTW‘s internals.

Yesterday, he posted this on the ARRL-LoTW online forum:

"Despite ARRL's statements that LoTW and DXCC data are safe, it seems 
that some users are concerned that this may not be the case due to the 
time that it is taking to restore service.

Perhaps it will ease some minds if I tell you that I know for certain 
that these data are safe. I know this because I personally assisted ARRL 
staff to get these data backed up to locations and systems that are in 
no way connected to ARRL's HQ or cloud systems. The LoTW data, for 
example, exists in multiple physical locations and cloud backup 
services. Such is also the case for the LoTW source code. In addition, I 
imported the LoTW data backup into a separate, new test database system 
to verify it. This took several days since the database is about 3 
terabytes in size. (It's a LOT of data!)

Getting the systems themselves back on-line is another matter, and I 
have no information to share about that as I'm not involved in the 
ongoing process of restoring them. ARRL has apparently made the 
decision, wisely in my view, not to bring any affected systems back into 
service until all parts of them can be vetted and secured. But the data 
itself is safe, and LoTW will definitely be back at some point."

LoTW will re-awaken with the same terrible user interface it had when it 
first became publicly available in 2003. Perhaps ARRL leadership will 
learn from this “incident” that in the age of social media, its ongoing 
mismanagement of LoTW and associated award systems (DXCC, VUCC, WAS) 
damages the organization’s credibility with both existing members and 
prospective members. For an organization struggling to reverse its 
decline in membership, this is not a good thing!

de AA6YQ

Carl Yaffey  K8NU
614 268 6353, Columbus OH
http://www.carl-yaffey.com
http://www.bluesswing.com
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-- 
Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW - E-mail addresses:
<kb8nw at hotmail.com> and <kb8nw at arrl.net>
Editor of the Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin (OPDX - DXer's Tool of Excellence)
President of the "Northern Ohio DX Association" (NODXA)
DX Advisor for the "Northern Ohio Amateur Radio Society
Past ARRL Assistant Director of the Great Lakes Division (1996-2022)
Sysop of the "Basic Amateur Radio Frequency BBS" (BARF80.ORG)