[SCCC] ARRL and CQ Mag get together on LOTW :)

[Art - W6KY]

NEWS RELEASE

For more information, contact:
Harold Kramer (WJ1B)
Chief Operating Officer
ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio
(860) 594-0200 / wj1b at arrl.org

Richard Ross (K2MGA)
President
CQ Communications, Inc.
(516) 681-2922 / k2mga at cq-amateur-radio.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 24, 2012


ARRL & CQ Sign Agreement to Provide
ARRL’s Logbook of The World Support for CQ’s Awards

(Hicksville, NY and Newington, CT - Jan. 24, 2012) – CQ Communications,
Inc. (CQ) and ARRL – the national association for Amateur Radio, have
signed an agreement to begin providing support for CQ-sponsored
operating awards by the ARRL's Logbook of the World (LoTW) electronic
confirmation system.. The agreement was announced jointly today by ARRL
Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B, and CQ Communications
President Richard Ross, K2MGA.

CQ's awards will be the first non-ARRL awards supported by LoTW and will
be phased in, beginning with the CQ WPX award. Additional CQ awards will
follow. The ARRL’s LoTW system, an interactive database recording
contacts between radio amateurs was created in 2003  and has been
adopted by 47,500 radio “hams” worldwide.  It already has records of 400
million contacts and grows weekly.  The target date for beginning LoTW
support for WPX is April 1, 2012. Amateurs will be able to use LoTW logs
to generate lists of confirmed contacts to be submitted for WPX credit.
Standard LoTW credit fees and CQ award fees will apply.

ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, observed that this step
gives radio amateurs throughout the world an inexpensive and convenient
means of gaining credits toward CQ’s popular operating awards. “LoTW has
significantly increased interest and participation in the ARRL’s DXCC,
Worked All States and VUCC awards programs. We anticipate a similarly
positive response to the addition of the CQ WPX award. Amateurs will be
able to spend more time operating and less time chasing QSL cards.”

CQ President Richard Ross, K2MGA, said he is very pleased to be able to
move forward with Logbook support for CQ awards. "We have had excellent
results with electronic confirmations for several years," he said, "and
I am glad that we are now able to begin expanding that convenience to
those participants in our award programs who use Logbook of the World.
We look forward to a smooth launch for WPX, and to the expansion of LoTW
support to include the rest of our award programs as well."

ARRL (www.arrl.org) is the national association for Amateur Radio in the
United States and publisher of its membership journal QST. CQ
Communications, Inc. (www.cqcomm.com) is publisher of CQ Amateur Radio
and several other magazines.  There are currently over 700,000 Amateur
Radio licensees in the USA and approximately 2.5 million worldwide.

To learn more go to  < www.arrl.org/logbook-of-the-world>.