[amsat-bb] Re: Satellites and the LoTW

[sco@sco-inc.com]

There is an excellent substitute for LOTW. It is called "eQSL.cc".
It even will print and mail you a real card plus you can download or 
upload the image of the real card.
It is very easy to use and i prefer it over LOTW.

Les W4SCO
www.logwindow.com
www.myweblinks.cc


At 12:25 AM 1/25/2007, you wrote:
>One of the other nuisances of LoTW is that is definitely NOT rover-friendly.
>For example, each location i operate from has to be submitted as a separate
>file.  As a rover, until recently, i had more locations that i have operated
>from than confirmed grid squares!  Yet it's the rovers who provide the rare
>grid squares and make life more interesting for the rest of us.  Roving can
>be alot of work, and contact made as rovers don't even count towards most
>awards.
>
>I'm not sure LoTW handles grid square boundaries properly and it seems even
>less likely it handles grid square corners at all...  I ended up writing my
>own software for preparing QSL cards and LoTW is one of my biggest headaches.
>
>On the other hand, if God[dess] Forbid, i drop dead tomorrow [and have not
>designated a QSL manager in my will], people will still have a way of their
>confirming QSOs with me.. And perhaps someday all of this won't have to be
>done by mail.  But alas, at this point, my confirmation rate via LoTW is
>about 1.5% (and that is quite an improvement over a year ago). It's a step
>in the right direction, but it's got a long ways to go.
>
>So it would be nice if LoTW became more friendly to VHF-and-above operators
>(as i don't think satellite operators are the only ones suffering) and they
>come up with an automated way of designating satellites (such as utilizing
>the current KEPS [plus an 'alias' file so they can match commonly used names
>which differ from the NORAD names]).  A lot have gone up recently, albeit so
>far, most are telemetry-only birds.
>
>Finally, one of the nice things about the paper cards that is lacking on
>LoTW is the personal touch in the comments on a card.  This is included in
>LoTW submissions as the 'QSLMSG' field, but one does not get that field
>back in the "ARRL Logbook of the World Status Report" which one has a
>matching contact, alas.  So i'll keep sending out the paper ones in the
>foreseeable future, there does not seem to be an adequate substitute...
>
>                          -- KD6PAG  (Networking Old-Timer, Satellite QRPer)
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