Topband: LBOW & WAS

[Rick Karlquist]

Ford Peterson wrote:
> I was going to support the Logbook of the World by requesting a 5BWAS
> certificate.  I know I have a WAS on every band many times over.  But I
> cannot yet submit my request.  It seems as though some states are quite
> missing in action.
>
> For example, I have Wyoming in my log about 22 times on Topband--and
> that's from 12 different calls.  Yet not ONE of them has taken the time to
> upload their logs, so my stats sit at 49 states.  How can this be?  I'm
> missing South Carolina on 4 bands!  Yet they are in my log under dozens
> and dozens of callsigns.  North Dakota is missing on 3 bands--same story.
> Get this, INDIANA missing on 15M?  There has to be thousands of IN
> stations in my log.

Coincidentally, I just took the plunge and joined LOTW.  I uploaded
11000 QSO's and got 2500 QSL's.  Wow, almost 1 in 4 matched.  But still
nothing from ND, RI, WY, or ME on 160 meters, even though I have
worked them many times.  I also noticed that in general, what I got
confirmed on LOTW was a bunch of ordinary stuff.  Almost nothing
from Europe on any band.  So it turns out that most of the 2500 QSLs
are redundant and I'm still missing stuff I worked 100 times.

Advice to stations in places like ND, WY, etc:  LOTW is easier to use
than the ARRL web site implies.  The instructions go into way too much
detail that you don't need to get started.  Ignore horror stories you
have read about people who can't get it to work.  I simply didn't have
any trouble with it at all.  Yes, the multiple passwords and the post
card thing are annoying, but no where near as difficult as working
DX on topband.  In any event, you do that only once, and then uploading
ADIF's is a piece of cake.  Only 1 extra step; you "sign" them.
Takes less than a minute to sign a log.
Other than that, same work as submitting your contest log.

If you still think LOTW is too hard, I will send you the Cliff's notes
version of the instructions which will fit on one page, if that will
help.

73

Rick N6RK