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
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