[amsat-bb] Re: [VHF] Re: Re: VUCC costs

[Tim Marek]

John and the rest of you LOTW doubters...

The costs to use LOTW for VUCC, DXCC, or WAS contact credits IS NOTHING 
compared to the time, effort and money needed to collect cards the old 
fashioned way!  At near a buck a card domestically (Over 2$ Internationally) 
for the stamps to send them and as well as a SASE for their return.... all 
the waiting.... Lost or stolen mail, People who NEVER reply, followed by 
dealing with the cards after their collected, the hand sorting and filling 
in paper forms... what a royal pain and more importantly... a very 
inneficient way to do things...

With the new LOTW system, you simply upload your logs, wait for them to 
cross confirm with other uploaded logs, spend less than 20 cents per QSO to 
INSTANTLY use those QSL credits for awards, with little muss or fuss...

I really dont see what the problems is.... Its faster, safer, cheaper, and 
your log data is backed up forever.... Talk about a lasting legacy of your 
efforts!

Compared to the OLD FASHIONED way of handling the laborious chore of QSLing, 
LOTW is a God send saving me much time, money, and alot of hand writing that 
I truly hate. (Try living in a rare state and you will understand)

As one who has personally activated 57 grids at one time or another (Alot of 
them RARE), there is now a incentive to sort out and upload all those logs 
from the past 20 years. Not only will it help others who need those rare 
grids (CM86, CM95, CM96, CN90, CN91, CN92, DN00, DN10, DN11, DN20, DM07, 
DM17, DM18, DM19, DM27, DM28, and DM29 just to name a few) but... I can now 
file for additional 6M VUCC's from several of those grids as they were June 
Contest efforts from tall mountains with large antennas and KW power where 
more than 100 Grids was easily accomplished...

Think about it... "Nothing Is Free"... the prices they ask are reasonable, 
and once uploaded who better to back up your logs than those whom you apply 
to for the awards!

Personally, I dont understant why everyone isn't getting setup right now to 
dump their logs online to (at the very least protect those rare and precious 
contacts from being lost forever) and collect those contact credits w/o 
lifting a pen to paper or licking a single stamp...

73s de Tim - K7XC - DM09nm.... sk

PS: I have been pushing LOTW for years to make this happen. Its not perfect, 
but compared to the old ways, its a VAST IMPROVEMENT!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Geiger" <aa5jg at fidmail.com>
To: <mlolmsted at fuse.net>; "Amsat-Bb at Amsat. Org" <amsat-bb at amsat.org>; "'VHF 
REFLECTOR'" <vhf at w6yx.stanford.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 2:07 PM
Subject: [VHF] Re: [amsat-bb] Re: VUCC costs


>I WAS going to get an endorsement for my satellite and six meter VUCCs, but 
>given that it would cost me around 35 dollars each to get an endorsement 
>for an extra 150 grids, I don't think so. Hope this new insane fee schedule 
>doesn't kill VUCC submissions.  I think AMSAT awards will be getting much 
>more popular. 73s John AA5JG
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <mlolmsted at fuse.net>
> To: <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
> Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 12:25 PM
> Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: VUCC costs
>> Nice explanation of the costs for VUCC in the Jeff Yanko blog. However, I 
>> did not see what happens with LOTW submisions.
>> If the cost of awards keep going up, maybe the ARRL should offer award 
>> insurance as well as equipment insurance.  Just a thought.  :>)
>> Merle, AA4QE