Update July 1, 2024. LoTW is back up! It is running slow, but it is available. Thank goodness.

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When I wrote the article back in May, I hardly thought that LoTW would be down a month later.

Sadly, the outage continues. 

My suspicions were correct, however, that this was something more than a simple networking problem. The ARRL has since admitted their network was viciously and uniquely hacked. I can certainly understand their caution to make sure that every system linked to LoTW is given a clean bill of health before turning the system back on.

Earlier this week, on Tuesday there was apparently a brief period of time when LoTW was accessible. A couple of my ham buddies managed to upload some contacts. They'll have to wait for confirmations when the rest of us can get in.

I do hope it is soon. I'm really missing this service.

FT4GL Automation. So how can it be this automated FT8 operation from Glorioso (FT4GL) has been approved for DXCC?

FT8 has been a revolution. The technology has made DXing really easy. Or has it? I continue to be amazed at how much difficulty people have working DXpeditions on FT8. 

Last year, there were DXpeditions to Bouvet (3Y0J), Crozet (FT8WW) and Sable Islands (CY0S). The most recent DXpedition to Glorioso Islands (FT4GL) has brought it all back to me.

Let's start off with a few observations on people trying to work these DXpeditions:

• Wrong Cycle - It's amazing the number of folks trying to work DX that are calling on the wrong cycle. FT8 has even and odd cycles. Even cycles start at 00 or 30 seconds, and odd cycles start on 15 and 45 seconds. You always call on the cycle the DX station is NOT transmitting. Indeed, if you double-click on a decode of the DX station, WSJT-X will set up the correct cycle. So how are people getting it wrong?

May 16th, there was an issue with Logbook of The World (LoTW). I could not load the main page at all -- receiving an error indicating the server wasn't responding.

That's pretty normal stuff, actually. There are dozens of problems that can result in this kind of error, so I wasn't surprised. I figured the ARRL staff would address it quickly. But, after much of the day, I was still getting the error. 

So, I sent a message to lotw-help@arrl.org, informing them that the web site wasn't responding, kindly asking when they expected it to be back up. I mentioned I was surprised there was no notice of the outage on the ARRL.org web site.

Later that day, the ARRL put up a notice that there was a service disruption involving access to the network, and that it affected LoTW and the ARRL Learning Center. They even updated it the next day, addressing concerns users had over information privacy.

But then, nothing happened. Not until May 22nd, when they updated the notice without really adding any information. 

Now, part of this delay may be due to the fact that much of the ARRL staff were all out at the Xenia Hamvention. But, that was a week ago.

What gives? Sure, networking problems. Honestly, though, as a computer professional, networking problems generally don't take more than a week to solve. I'm beginning to suspect there's something more than the ARRL hasn't told us, but I can't be sure.

I'm really missing access to LoTW. In the last 20 years, it has really become central in my enjoyment of the hobby. I do hope I'm wrong, and that ARRL manages to fix this problem soon.

FT4GL Glorioso On The Air! Well, "Kinda". That's funny. I just pulled the Club Log stats. Don't even need to explain (.0007). Those that know, know! hahahaha!

As always the CQWW Contests are a great source of entertainment and also a great chance to increase your DXCC totals…. This one was no different

This year I operated in a S & P (search and pounce) mode for approximately 8 hours in total. The rig I used was my Yaesu FT991a and the antenna of choice was my “Modified” Coastal-20 vertical antenna

I made 42 contacts in 22 DXCC entities covering 4 continents (NA/SA/AF/EU) using 10m-15m and 20m

I was able to contact stations in:

Alaska, Argentina, Aruba, Bonaire, Brazil, Canada, Canary Islands, England, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Slovenia, St Lucia, Turkey (Turkiye), United States of America

Now if everyone confirms I believe that there will be one new DXCC for my DXCC totals, but also there should be a couple of new ones for my 5 Band DXCC which I am hoping to complete sooner or later but most likely later

More on this once the confirmations come in via either LoTW, QRZ.com or EQSL.

For now its back to Playing POTA…

73b0b

DXer vs. TXTer. They are not the same. Dom, T32TT calling N0UN on "Phone" from East Kiribati: (video). Guess this picture says it all: Lazy is, as lazy does.

A friendly reminder for all you Lazy, Mindless, Automated Computer Scripted Text Messengers out there - you want to RR73 the virtues of FT8 from the rooftops

When I saw the spot from W3LPL's DX Cluster skimmer for XV9Q, I thought there's absolutely ZERO chance I'd hear Viet Nam on 30 Meters CW at 9:00 AM our local time. But what do I know?

It’s been a while since I posted any updates here, not because I’ve got nothing to say but because I’ve been busy working on the station and playing radio. My new aerial is up but I’m not going to say anything about that now, that’s for a future update. I’ve had a good year so […]

Twenty years ago, when I first started uploading my logs to Logbook of the World, I began to pursue the DXCC Challenge award. I created lists of confirmations that I had, and began to try to fill in the band / countries I was missing. This has continued for years. 

In April of 2016, I gathered sufficient confirmations to earn the DXCC Challenge award. Since then, I've continued to pursue new band / countries practically every time I am on the air.

This month, I passed another milestone. Currently, there are 340 entities on the DXCC list. And the DXCC Challenge counts on ten bands, from 160m through 6m. That makes 3400 total items for DXCC Challenge. 

I recently collected confirmations over 1700 items on the DXCC Challenge. That's the half-way point. It's only going to get harder after this.

7O8AE & 7O8AD Yemen DXpedition. A two man low power DXpedition from a rare DXCC Entity with an emphasis on CW & Phone with the CW Op running FT8 on the side.

DXpeditioners have figured out they can turn on their automated FT8 computer scripts and make more money than actually operating their Ham Radios on Phone or CW

FT8 - THIS is the "new" Ham Radio DXer. No skill required. Set your computer, go to dinner, come back after dessert and claim your DXCC "Participation Trophy".

N0UN DXCC Bandfill Chart. This is an Excel sheet I made years ago to help me quickly mark band/mode Q's for several DXpeditions I'm chasing at a glance.

3D2UN Approved For DXCC. My 3D2UN (Fiji) operation for 2023/2024 has been approved for DXCC. I have also uploaded the initial 3D2UN log to LoTW and Club Log.

Some years ago, the ARRL decided to stop issuing a DXCC certificate for just RTTY and merged the various digital modes all together for a single ‘digital’ certificate. I obtained the ‘digital’ certificate back in 2012 with just RTTY QSOs and was always a little sad that my certificate said ‘digital’. Last year, I heard […]

The massive Bouvet pile-ups have begun! 3Y0J trimmed their camp back to two stations, 100 watts with wire antennas, but they made it on the air around 1600Z!

3Y0J Bouvet - They Have arrived! From their Facebook Page today: 3Y0J Bouvet Island 2023 Update: "3Y0J Team Co-Leader Ken LA7GIA reports, “We are at Bouvet"