It’s ironic as part of the genesis of the International Grid Square chase was feedback from some global hams that they felt disadvantaged in participating in ARRL NPOTA.
1 Like
Had a chance to use Fast Log Entry this morning and all I can say is ‘wow’ - it is exactly what I was looking for.
Many, many thanks for the recommendation Brian (af7md)
Regards, Mark. M0NOM
I find the USGS maps to be the best for finding counties. Other maps, and particularly Google Maps, either don’t have the county lines/names or don’t make it very clear what the county names are.
The LoTW server allows files to be processed that have multiple station locations. The TQSL application does not do this. The published API for creating files to be submitted to LoTW does not have any high level routines for doing this. Many years ago I managed to work out how to make this happen with the lower level routines.
I have written my own logging program that has my station location as well as the other stations information. It can automatically generate files for submital to LoTW that have multiple station locations. I have been submitting such files to LoTW for years and they are processed just fine. The most different station locations I have submitted in one file is seven, if I remember correctly.
You still have to go through the effort of figuring out the county, grid, and zones of course and entering them in your logging program.
Encourage whoever is writing your logging software to add more and better functionality.
Doug, N7NGO
Hi Kent, I have one location labeled SOTA that I edit in TQSL with the correct 6 character grid prior to each upload to LoTW. This gives the correct grid square for all of my LoTW contacts.
73, Malcolm VE2DDZ
2 Likes
Kent,
The page below has a demo for a “block api” that will return the county given lat/long coordinates. I tried it a couple of times by copying the SOTA summit page coordinates to the form then hitting the “Try It Out” button and it seemed to work OK.
https://geo.fcc.gov/api/census/#!/block/get_block_find
73,
Mike - ke5akl
1 Like
I’ve been logging contacts made from my home QTH station on LoTW for six years now. The QSL rate is only 58.7% for almost 14,000 QSOs logged to date…not too impressive. These are contacts made on CW, phone and digital modes. Logging at my home station is fairly automatic as my rig is connected to a computer running Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) – which also uploads to LoTW with one click of my mouse. So simple even a caveman like me can do it ;-).
Unfortunately, I haven’t spent the time to upload my activation contacts to LoTW. I seem to run out of energy after entering all my activation data and S2S contacts in the SOTA database. Now I’m in the hole to the tune of 3140 activation contacts. If would take a lot of work at this point to figure out the appropriate grid info, deal with TQSL, etc. and backfill that data.
I understand why some hams eventually stop logging contacts altogether! It becomes a task they aren’t interested in doing anymore. I guess I’m starting to become my father 
.
73, Brad
WA6MM
I have stopped upload /P contacts to EQSL because it is just too difficult to mange.
I am new to LoTW and have yet to decide how I’m going to deal with uploading /P contacts for SOTA and Contests etc.
I was contemplating just having a Station Location for IO81, IO82 etc and putting all /P contacts for all relevant contacts into each of those.
Any thoughts on this approach ?
I think you will need two LoTW certificates (but I might be wrong) one for G0LGS and a separate one for G0LGS/P.
Paul
You are right Paul - a /P call requires a separate TQ? certificate for this otherwise a cross check for QSLs in LoTW with a station signing /P does not work. Not sure about the locator situation Stuart as I don’t bother collecting them unless on 6m and up. The FT8 situation of handing out locators and the awards for working them on HF has queered the pitch…
73 Phil
Mike
That work fairly well!
Thanks for the activation today!
73
Kent
N6WT
I have LoTW certificates for G0LGS, G0LGS/P and GW0LGS/P and my previous call (so far) - but at present have only upload contacts for G0LGS, partly because I’m still thinking about how to handle the /P locations.