Pete
Don has hit the nail firmly on the head. imo most QSLers
fall into his category 1, and will always want pieces of
paper. Why is beyond my ken, but we have to acknowledge that
is the case.
You also highlighted why imo eqsl is superior to LoTW, and
that is because anyone who is in my log can print their own
paper QSL cards from the templet I uploaded.
You are right that it would be nice if one or more of these
electronic services were universally acceptable for awards
however. Somebody else highlighted why LoTW has a way to go
to achieve universal acceptance, and that is ARRL require us
to jump through hoops by sending copies of our licences to
them. Frankly I do not need to prove to ARRL who I am, and
since I am also an ARRL member that is even more galling.
Any chance that you could lobby for improvement in this area
;-)
73
Clive
GW3NJW
-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com]On Behalf Of Pete
Smith
Sent: 09 August 2007 16:26
To: Don Field; CQ-Contest MailList
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Pre-emptive QSLing -
was:Contesters and LOTW
Well, what I, at least, would like is to see LOTW evolve
into a
free-standing, international entity which would service
ARRL, CQ, RGSB,
DARC, etc., so as to support maybe 90 percent of the world
demand for
awards. I think the ARRL solution so far isn't bad, but I'd
like to see it
de-nationalized as a route to broader international
acceptance. Wouldn't
it be great if LOTW (or its evolved offspring) could be
interfaced to the
log-checking databases of the major international contests,
such that a
verified contest QSO would automatically be entered in the
database for use
toward any awards.
Another logical next step would be to enable a QSL-printing
facility like
that on EQsl, such that stations wishing to do so could
download a
printable QSL card for any QSOs they particularly wanted to
put up on the
wall. Carry it a step further, and any station could, for a
small fee,
upload a customized QSL that would be used when others
requested a
printable QSL from that station.
Paper mail is slowly going away - why shouldn't QSLing go
all-electronic?
73, Pete N4ZR
At 11:20 AM 8/9/2007, Don Field wrote:
>The question Pete is surely "universally accepted" for
what?
>
>Why do people want QSL cards?
>
>1. To decorate the shack wall and show to friends and
family.
>2. To apply for one of the thousands of awards that exist
(see K1BV web page
>for an idea of how many there are)
>3. Specifically to apply for DXCC or WAS (only awards
currently supported by
>LoTW)
>
>I would suggest, outside the US at least, that (3) is in
the minority! So
>"universal acceptance" of LoTW, whatever that means, is a
loooong way off.
>
>Don G3XTT
>
>On 09/08/07, Pete Smith <n4zr@contesting.com> wrote:
> >
> > What I've done for about 7 years is to pre-emptively QSL
from my own logs,
> > using a sorting routine that only generates QSLs for the
first QSO with a
> > station on a given band/mode combination. Then when
QSLs come in from the
> > bureau I just cull through them for the ones I need, and
figure that I
> > have
> > already covered the rest. DX4WIN does the sorting of
outgoing QSLs,
> > described above, very easily. Both cost and time (in
particular) are much
> > better than going through each card, and I find that
year by year I am
> > producing QSLs for a smaller percentage of total QSOs
made. I still QSL
> > direct for all cards received directly, though not
always right away.
> >
> > That being said, I would love to see LOTW become
universally accepted - I
> > have 96,000 QSOs on it now, so a lot of people could get
my QSL for DXCC
> > or
> > WAS a lot more easily than paper QSLing. But back when
LOTW started, I
> > asked the question whether I should rely exclusively on
LOTW, and the
> > consensus was that it was way too soon to stop paper
QSLing.
> >
> > 73, Pete N4ZR
> >
> >
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