I have recently uploaded the logs for the last 15 years of W2SZ/1
operations for June, August, and September VHF/UHF contests. From
the over 77,000 QSOs submitted, there are about 2100 QSLs. Compared
to my personal (mostly HF) LoTW statistics, the hit rate is low. I
attribute that to several things. I think very few VHF operators and
contesters load their logs to LoTW. The only awards currently
available via LoTW are WAS and DXCC. (Curiously, we do have 45
states and 5 countries confirmed via LoTW.) VUCC is not supported at
this time through LoTW.
Another area of concern that I have is the nature of computer QSO
matching. LoTW must have an exact match of many variables in order
to issue a QSL for a QSO. Callsign and mode are two of those
variables that I have issues with. With respect to callsign, I
perceive some issues. Unfortunately, we don't always log a rover as
/R in the log. Sometimes it is our fault, we are lazy or just our
rate is high and we don't log it. Sometimes the station doesn't
identify themselves as a rover and we don't realize it until maybe
the next time we have a QSO or maybe never at all. Maybe the other
station doesn't submit their log as callsign/R and we do have /R in
the log. In any of these cases, an exact match will not take place
and LoTW will not create a QSL. Our log is also submitted as W2SZ
and not as W2SZ/1. If you have /1 in your logs, there won't be an
exact match. That is something I can take care of and will
shortly. I will create another entry for us as W2SZ/1 and submit the
entire log a second time in order to avoid that inconvenience on
everyone else's part. The other thing that will come up will be
mode. Our logs sometimes show a voice contact as PHone and doesn't
always distinguish between SSB and FM. At times we have mixed mode
contacts, one log may show CW while the other log shows
phone. Again, LoTW will not show those as matches. I really don't
know what to do in those situations and other pure log entry error
situations, other than to submit all the logs multiple times with
different modes for all QSOs. If anyone who has submitted their logs
to LoTW, expects a QSL and hasn't received one, feel free to email me
direct. If there are other suggestions as to how to make this
process a little smoother or deal with the above situations, feel
free to discuss it here.
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