I do and its great to see more EQSLās flowing into my box from Sota activators.
BUT a little request here.
First of all get your AG status up and running.
Authenticity Guaranteed status.
Quite easy find the section on the web site if that no work as it did with me another way is to photo copy your licence into a Jpeg and send it to there AG teams E mail address. Trust me its easy that way am not very good with computers, even my printer hates me
Secondly could activators please when filling out the comment section just add the sota details such as " SOTA G/DC-003 ( YOUR REF SOTA OF COURSE) and any other short burst fro the contact.
You donāt need special cards every time unless you want too, I be happy with same card long it has the ref Sota info on it in the comment box as you fill in your E Qsl contact details.
Just had four cards from OK4KOP/p all same cards. BUT with the ref to the Sota worked that day on each card
Eqsl can work for us been getting some lovely cards of activators of late.
Just a last thought donāt send out to all, if they take time to send you an E qsl for the activation then just carry out the above details, saves time and effort writing that many QSOās give you an headache.
Sorry for dribbling on for those on LOTW can auto join the AG status due to your licence has already been Authenticity Guaranteed by LOTW
The problem I have with EQSL is not that the identity of the callsign is in doubt, itās that the details of the actual QSO are not protected in any way and so can easily be forged.
On LotW both the identity (callsign) and the QSO details are protected by encryption at all times.
But I donāt quite understand what someone means. How can they be forged? I enter my QSO and the other party enters their qso and if they matchā¦Bingo!
Itās the same with LoTW. I enter mine and when the other party enters theirs it comes up as a match/completed qso.
So if you can expound on why or how QSOās are easily forged on EQSL I would dearly appreciate it.
On EQSL itās possible to send a QSL to the system posing as someone else (some rare DX maybe) so that you can get an award you didnāt actually earn. This is because the encryption system used by the EQSL site is very weak.
In theory you could do the same thing on LotW but they use an encryption system that is millions of times more difficult to break/forge. This makes it more secure.
Various organisations have looked at the two systems and have concluded that EQSL is worthless (itās actually not quite that bad) while LotW is unbreakable (it isnāt but it would require several years of processing on a supercomputer). Iām not a cryptography expert but I am a cryptography user in my job so Iāve had to learn something about the various systems.
Question: who would spend any efforts trying to break/forge eQSL or LOTW just to have a fake confirmation of some DXCC entities just for getting an award which gives the owner nothing but a piece of paper saying that you achieved something 99,999% of the people in this world donāt care about and donāt give a cent for?
Given that someone would do so, Iād be sorry for him and his mental illness but nothing else. Who caresā¦ I donāt
Cheating on DXCC-like awards is irrelevant and boyish. Those doing it only cheat to themselves and it doesnāt matter for the rest of the world, not even the ham radio world.
Cheating in contests is a different thing because the winning cheater will take the honor to the real winner after heās done a big effort. But cheating to get 5BDXCC doesnāt prevent anybody from getting theirs.
Best 73 de Guru
Using LOTW - do you have to be an ARRL member? I think this was the case initially. I do know it was the last such system (i.e. after eQSL and others) and is complex to operate. I believe the ARRL make use of this (their) system mandatory for their awards, which I find unfair if indeed one has to be an ARRL member to use it. In any case I donāt and have no intention of using LOTW.
No, it is not complex to operate. It is more complicated to get set up, but you must expect that from what is a very secure encryption system. Once itās set up you simply click a few things in your logging program and type your pass-phrase when itās requested and the system does the rest.
Itās an absolute nightmare, Karl. I did register for LOTW about a year ago and managed to get it to work after a lot of hassle. However I soon decided itās just not worth all the effort ā¦ especially as you donāt even get any QSL cards to print off. All you get is an entry in a list saying your log entry tallies with somebody elseās. I donāt find that very exciting.
I now use eQSL (AG) only and I am very happy with it. I have given them a donation each year for the past 4 years.
After the initial setup for LOTW, it really is no more difficult to upload logs than the other services. That being said, if you are not chasing ARRL awards, then there is no real benefit. I do upload my logs to LOTW, but it is more of a courtesy to those who do chase those awards. I have received numerous positive comments after I started uploading my logs to these āalternateā services, so I know many people do appreciate it.
But I absolutely love the electronic QSL card function of eQSL and I donāt care one bit about their awards or lack of security. I really like being able to share a little bit of the other side of the QSO by way of a custom card for each activation. I started out in SOTA sending out custom cards for each activation and letās just say that got out of hand quite quickly. I want to thank several of you on the reflector, including Karl @M3FEH, for encouraging me to use this capability of eQSL.
73, pat - KI4SVM (who has forgotten the ancient art of writing and only logs digitally)
I sometimes eQSL, but it has somethings that I donāt like about the way it works - like assuming, unless you create separate IDās for each period or location you operate from, that you always operate from the same Locator Square (unless they have improved that since the last time I looked).
When I last looked at joining LOTW it was too complicated (as I recall you had to send a copy of your licence by SNAIL MAIL) and certainly when I last saw a proper demonstration of how to use it that was much to complex.
Errā¦ Iād be interested in some actual (and factual) figures to support that statement. Most of the SOTA activators Iāve talked with end up with a computer copy of their activation log. Either because they use a logging program or because they use a utility to upload to the SOTA site or in a few cases because they download a log from the SOTA site.
