It looks like they screwed up big time on this one. They forgot to exclude non-members from LOTW, and non-members were also eligible for awards. Quite a few active NPOTA participants were non-members for one reason or another.
Honestly, I'm not trying to insult you. Just get you to see it from another point of view. There are people who are trying to exclusively use LoTW for awards, and if they need your state/county/grid/whatever, and it's the same thing to them as a rare DX not sending you a card. Both happen all the time, and you're hardly alone not using LoTW. I have paper "official" ARRL logbooks for when I operate without a computer. They all eventually get entered in to the computer and LoTW. As mentioned most of the NPOTA activations were logged on paper first and then put into LoTW. I don't understand what selling paper logbooks has to do with LoTW. You don't have to be an ARRL member to use LoTW. You didn't have to be an ARRL member to participate in NPOTA. You do have to be an ARRL member for DXCC and WAS if you are in the US. But that's no different than cards. So I don't see the correlation between ARRL membership and LoTW. As stated previously, I don't see the relationship between selling paper logs and LoTW. However, I also don't have any insight into how many they sell and what their margin is (although, I suspect it is high because it's nothing more than cheaply spiral bound photocopy pages). They certainly don't hold it up as a best seller, and it's only $8 and hold 1,300 QSOs. That's a little more than 1/2 a penny per QSO. They sell (and push) far more expensive books like the operating manual and antenna book that they *do* claim are best sellers. They might make 1/2 penny per QSO (*IF* you exclusively use official ARRL logs) - or they can save money and time that it would cost to process and check paper applications. Reducing administration costs and maximizing profit selling $20 Chaser and $20 Activator certificates makes a lot more sense to me. No disagreement here on any of that. My opinion doesn't differ. Just coming up with a silly example for a North Korea QSO.
Lotw is being used as a recruitment tool for membership-- which is fine with me, Its scaling usage is being used to justify initiatives for donations for new hardware. Again, also a good idea. Restricting OTA activities to lotw is not a good idea. 73 Chip W1YW
My point is that if the objective is to get people to JUST use LOTW, there is no point in selling paper logs And if you sell paper logs, the message is that it also is valid for awards, thru QSLing for example. The logbook is pure gravy for ARRL: $4 (roughly) wholesale price ; $1.50 (roughly) printing costs. No costs of 'production', 'compilation', or 'editing'. Many they sell themselves at full retail. They sell many,many thousands, either wholesale or direct. You never see the logbook on sale, for example. 73 Chip W1YW
Honestly, I suspect the printing costs could be well under $1. Surely a single copy of QST costs far more to print and bind. I REALLY wish they made a higher quality one, I would buy it. I'm sure they sell a bunch, but they have competition from not only electronic logging programs, but downloadable "print your own" log sheets, and a $1 spiral notebook. Even given the pure profit they make, I just don't think it falls into the equation for something like NPOTA. I think they saved a ton of time and money not having to process paper logs or even cabrillo files all the time, and everyone got realtime leader boards and statistics all year long. It was all "automatic". I was able to order a $20 Activator certificate the day after I did it (since I knew it would be my only one). Think about how many months after a contest it takes to get results when they accept paper logs. Frankly, I think the fact that it was LoTW only made it more enjoyable. 73, Tom
I had special QSLs made up for my activations of NP23/PK03, but otherwise used my normal cards for the Long Island activations. (I love getting cards and I'll usually send one even if I confirm on LOTW or QRZ) Paper log in the field, transfer to LOTW when I got home. I do most of my home logging on my phone, which just exports an ADIF for LOTW and QRZ.
First, my sincere thanks to everyone who took the time and trouble to activate QTHs during this fun event. And for us chasers it was a wonderful way to get to know the USA better. Regarding QSLs, I did not know who had special ones, so asked for very few. Writing to everyone would have been time consuming and expensive. It would have been helpful if there was some way of knowing who had produced ones for NPOTA. Perhaps the ARRL could have a page showing some? In any case that's a pretty small issue. I have mixed feelings about the LOTW process. Once I got used to it this is an easy way to keep up with contacts, and it cost nothing. But it is so impersonal! Yesterday I worked a rare prefix and within a few hours the manager kindly put it into my LOTW list. So I recorded and printed out the report for my QSL box. Fast, but not the thrill of getting a real card in the mail. Oh well. For what it is worth, I worked 194 NPOTA stations and have LOTW confirmations from 151 (although the window is open until the end of the month). If that is typical than about a quarter of all stations didn't use the system. (Actually it is higher since many of my confirmed QSOs were with the same activators in different locations.) I don't know if as people many would have responded to paper QSLs with SASEs, but it is disappointing to see the number who apparently do not confirm contacts. What is the point of their even doing the activations?
"I don't understand why any ham would refuse to use it other than their own refusal to enter the 21st century." Probably because many hams like me have worked many hundreds of contacts long before LOTW ever existed. I tried it with my contacts and although I have 204 confirmed (with cards) countries on 10 meters with a DXCC and endorsement on 10, and with DXCC with endorsement for 227 Mixed confirmed combined. When I did LOTW, I ended up with a total confirmed of 36 countries. So, I take issue with you sarcastically deriding what turns out to be some of the older hams. Will wait for you apology.
That's a surprisingly high percentage that didn't confirm. The vast majority of the activators I worked did confirm. I don't have any easy way to look up the numbers, but it was well over 90%. You might want to try e-mailing some of them and ask them to check their log. With that high a percentage unconfirmed, I'm wondering if maybe some of your times or dates were off or something like that. I checked my log and didn't see your call. If you think you worked W0IS, please let me know, since it's quite possible that I busted your call. Probably about 1/4 of the chasers I worked never uploaded. That's not a particular problem. They just wanted to work me for whatever reason, and it doesn't really matter to the activator whether they confirmed, unless it was for a new state I needed or something. And since most of my activations were on 40 and 20, there's really nothing new I need on those bands.
I agree, that's a surprisingly high percentage that didn't confirm. There was one guy who did an activation in our club fairly early that didn't understand the LoTW requirement. He got e-mailed by Chasers asking him when he was going to confirm on LoTW, so he went to the Club and asked for help getting setup because he couldn't get it working on his Mac. A couple of guys helped him and he got setup. I would reach out to them on e-mail. Most of the activators are more than happy to fix busted calls or you may be able to help someone that didn't know they needed LoTW,
I am ambivalent about LOTW too. The complicated log data signing" batch process, one-way transfer and no interactive online edit possible. Compared to eQSL or ClubLog, why is the integrity of an ARRL electronic "QSL" to be perceived as so more valuable? Other then it possibly being a faster cheaper track to verification for various ARRL awards. FYI - I was just told a technical reason why a lot of NPOTA QSO's may not be appearing in the records. My NPOTA Chaser total reported on the official web page has actually been SHRINKING! At peak I had 322 and now its going backwards! WTF? So I emailed and asked for an explanation, and received a response from Radiosport Dept Manager Norm W3IZ. Apparently some NPOTA Activators are making errors and uploading overlapping duplicate QSO data that does not designate the park, which is a field and/or station selection in TQSL. The way LOTW works, that newer but incomplete data then supersedes the original QSO, and then apparently causing the NPOTA system to make deduction(s)! This could also happen on the first upload, IF the Activator did not put the park data into TQSL. That can be checked easily by just looking to see if some of your missing NPOTA QSO's show up with LOTW QSL's but are not credited for the park in the NPOTA system. Norm explained that this has been discussed extensively on the NPOTA Facebook pages. BUT as I told him, not everyone subscribes to FB! (like me ;-) Perhaps the ARRL could issue a real BULLETIN to prevent, stop, and recover this before the event conclusion .... 73 de John WØPV
