For those who weren’t there yesterday, Pat, NG1G, did a very fine presentation on the use of the Logbook of the World. When I first signed up for the program in April 2008, I thought it was quite a cumbersome effort to get started and get all of the right boxes checked, etc. I think that the Help files and instructions available now are much better than 3 years ago. I had never chased DX for an award before and decided to try for DXCC using only LotW and uploaded all my recent stuff that I had in the computer and see how close I could get. On December 7, 2008, I got my first DXCC certificate. Later certificates were for CW and 20 meters in April 2009 and 15 and 40 meters in February 2010. I just noticed that I have enough confirmed QSOs now for DXCC Phone. Haven’t decided yet whether to flip for the 45-50 bucks to buy the credits and then pay the award fee for DXCC award.
I just checked and it looks like I have a pretty good QSL rate in LotW… 20,302 QSOs and 9,357 QSLs… a l’il less than 50%. I also just noticed that my certificate expires in April of this year, so I must keep an eye out for the renewal notice from ARRL.
So, for those of you out there who are not utilizing the services of the Logbook of the World, I suggest that you reconsider and sign right up! I don’t think you will be sorry.
73,
Ken K3IU
