[NLRS] LOTW

[Richard Clem]

I've been on vacation, so it looks like I missed out on the beginning of this
LOTW thread.

One thing to keep in mind about LOTW is that it isn't really a replacement for
QSL cards.  It's another way of QSL'ing.  And, in my experience, stations who
are on LOTW are **MORE LIKELY** to QSL than stations who are not signed up for
it.  If they are signed up for LOTW (or, to a lesser extent, eQSL), that means
that they understand that other stations want to confirm the QSO.  The guys
who don't care about confirmations aren't signed up for LOTW, but they don't
send out QSL cards either.

I've also been a lot better about QSL'ing since I signed up for LOTW.  A
couple of guys on this list got cards from me several years after the QSO
because they were sitting on that pile on my desk of things to do, and I
finally got around to having some cards printed after I signed up for LOTW.

The great thing about LOTW is that it makes it so easy to confirm the easy
ones.  For example, I'm working on 5BWAS right now.  I don't mind sending out
a card and an SASE to the North Dakota station I worked on 15 meters.  Of
course, if that guy had been signed up for LOTW, then there would be one less
card for him to have to answer.

But do I really want to go to the work to send a card to the Ohio station I
worked on 40 or the California station I worked on 20?  With LOTW, I don't
really need to worry about the easy ones.  If I see that Michigan is still
missing on 80 meters, then I just get on some contest, work every W8 that I
hear on 80, and I can be pretty sure that one of them will upload it to LOTW.

One thing that LOTW will do is create a lot of activity on 6 meters.  When the
Triple Play Award came out, there was a lot of interest in it, and when people
saw their state counts on various bands, that promoted more activity on those
bands as they filled in the missing ones.

When VUCC gets added to LOTW, I can guarantee that you will see a lot of guys
who discover that they are getting fairly close to VUCC on 6 meters, and that
will spur them on to finish it up.  

EN34 and EN35 are "easy ones" on 6 meters.  But it's possible to get VUCC with
only "easy ones".  If someone logs in to LOTW and sees that they are already
halfway to VUCC, I suspect that a lot of them are going to see it as a
challenge, and they will start hanging out on 6 to finish it up.

So even though the ARRL made it slightly more difficult than it really needs
to be, I encourage everyone to jump through the few hoops, get signed up for
LOTW, and then at least upload your contest logs.  It will create a lot of
interest in VHF.

73,
Rick W0IS