[Dx-qsl] Good News/Bad News

[Peter Dougherty (W2IRT)]

Good news is I finally got T2YL confirmed today for an all time new-one. 
Bad news is that it's only through LoTW. No card after 9 months (sent with 
an SASE plus donation last July).

In talking with an ARRL DXCC representative last weekend, it seems as if 
the whole LoTW program is turning into a complete Mongolian Charly-Foxtrot 
of almost Biblical proportions.

(wouldn't THAT be a good call for a crappily-run DX pedition - JT0CF - but 
I digress).

If my understanding is correct, full implementation of LoTW is still at 
least a year away for all major awards, including DSCC and WAS. DXCC will 
be implemented first since it's their money-maker, but WAS (for which I 
have all 50 ready to go, about 1/2 of which are LoTW only) is lower in 
priority and will have to wait.

 From what was explained, they need new DXCC software written essentially 
from scratch, and which must integrate with LoTW. Their present software 
for crediting Q's is DOS based, to give you an idea. The snag is, according 
to the rep I spoke with, that the vendor of the software is trying to screw 
the League for a LOT more money so everything's bogged down. I may be off 
in the details, but that's how it came across to me. In the mean time, 
they're attempting a kludge to allow DXCC submissions that have a few LoTW 
credits to get claimed, but even that's not ready for prime time.

In short, LoTW is scarcely better than eQSL at this point (though it will 
supposedly change - hopefully within my lifetime). I suppose if the mailbox 
remains empty of T2YL cards for another month or so it'll be time to get 
another card off to Juraj and hope he gets *this* one. Meanwhile, time to 
buy another roll of stamps and get the other 25 or so states confirmed by 
hard copy. Even Uncle Sam's finest turtles will seem as swift as eagles 
compared to LoTW.



73 de Peter (W2IRT)
w2irt@nac.net

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