[SFDXA] Logbook of the World - Current Problems - One man's opinion.

[Bill]

 From John W4JAM:
 From the Potomac Valley Radio Club Reflector...One man's opinion.


In October, 2003 issue of QST, the American Radio
Relay League (ARRL) announced the start of
Logbook of the World (LoTW) September 15, 2003.
Wayne Mills, N7NG outlined in the announcement
how LotW would work with a simple procedure under
a system to ensure the validity of QSOs.

In the past decade, LotW has grown to more than
53,000 users and nearly a half billion (456
million) QSOs on file. However, this 50k users
represent less than 3% of the licensed hams in
the world. In Mills original article he states
that use of LoTW will be paid for by usage in the
form of credits purchased by users seeking DXCC, WAS and WPX awards 
programs.

If would appear that the income from the users
has lagged far behind the cost of improvement and
maintenance of the computer system(s) – hardware
& software. Initial problems appeared after the
first major DX contest in 2011 then the LoTW
servers seemed to choke with the influx of logs
in October, 2011. Days would pass before uploaded
logs would be processed into the LoTW database.
The ARRL offered little in the way of explanation
other that a vague comment that it was the sheer
number of logs uploaded after the contest which created the slowdown.

In mid October of this year, once again LoTW
crashed. No public comment was made by the ARRL
until three days after LoTW stopped working and
that was a vaguely worded comment that the system
was undergoing maintenance. I received
Information from an ARRL staffer that the system,
‘ ran out of memory.’ Later in the week the ARRL
stated that they expected LoTW to resume
operation at the end of the week. Still no
official word has been forthcoming as to what
actually happened, nor what steps were being
taken to prevent another failure. The only thing
the ARRL emphasized was that no data was lost.

During the 2012 National Capitol DX Association
DX East convention, ARRL Membership and Volunteer
Programs Manager Dave Patton, NN1N, stated that
there was no intent by the ARRL to change the
method users become validated – LoTW system
emphasizes secure authentication using
cryptographic key distribution. The ARRL, unlike
most other secure online systems, still relies on
paper validation of users in the form of a
license copy and some form of official
identification document for non-US licensees to
be sent via mail to ARRL headquarters and the
return of the digital key being mailed back to
the requester before one can become a LoTW user.
Perhaps it is this antiquated method of adding
users to LoTW that the ARRL relied upon to
prevent usage that causes the system to crash.

In mid November, an ARRL staffer was reported as
blaiming extensive use of LoTW on contests but on
third party software programs – such as DXLab &
DX4WIN as the reason it is slow and crashes.

It is time for the users, and potential uses of
LoTW, contact the members of the ARRL board of
directors directly and demand that sufficient
resources be devoted to the LoTW system to ensure
its efficient and reliable operation for not only
today but in the future. A list of ARRL Directors
& vice Directors with their contact information may be found at this web 
page
If you are an ARRL member ask your Director to:

• Respond to you why LoTW is crashing and not operating efficiently,
• Respond to you as to what steps he/she is
taking to ensure sufficient resources are being devoted to the LoTW system
• Encourage a more modern and simple means
for non-US licensees can become authenticated as LoTW users
• Create an ARRL headquarters staff
position with the responsibility for LoTW &
online data based awards program operations.

If you are not a LoTW user, complete the steps to
become an authenticated user and use LoTW daily
to upload, maintain and back-up your logs.


Tom Gregory, N4NW