Topband: Remotes

[Jim Brown]

On 2/6/2024 12:01 PM, Richard McLachlan wrote:
> I keep a list of countries that I have worked for my own satisfaction
> but I don’t bother with confirmations and don’t even know what LOTW is.

When I was a wee lad, 65 years ago, a QSL card, mailed at our own 
expense, was "the final courtesy of a QSO." Today, postal costs have 
gone through the roof, and the Bureau is so overloaded with JA cards (JA 
hams have an award for the sheer quantity of paper cards received) that 
it takes two years for me to receive JA cards, and another two years for 
my card to get back to them. Because of what I view as this abuse of the 
Bureau, I stopped sending JA cards about ten years ago.

For a decade or longer, LOTW, an on-line service provided by ARRL, has 
been that final courtesy. It's free to upload and download; users are 
charged only when credits are claimed for ARRL awards. To join, a user 
outside the US must mail photocopies verifying their identity and their 
license. In the US, ARRL is able to confirm identities and licenses by 
accessing a public area of the FCC website.

73, Jim K9YC