Logbook of the World to Add Support for CQ WAZ Award

12/14/2017
Participants in CQ magazine’s Worked All Zones (WAZ) award program will soon be able to use the Logbook of the World (LoTW) system of ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio, to apply for the WAZ award and its endorsements, both ARRL and CQ announced on December 14.

Announcing: The ARRL International Grid Chase!

 

A new and exciting operating event will kick off on January 1, 2018, at 0000 UTC (New Year’s Eve in US time zones), when the ARRL International Grid Chase gets under way.

LOTW Now Accepting FT8

LOTW has issued a new ADIF file and included in it is the new FT8 mode along with a few others. I used TQSL yesterday and uploaded all my FT8 contacts with success. Your good to go if you have been saving them for LOTW to get up to speed. eQSL and QRZ.com have been accepting for awhile now.

Gord – VE7FKY

Gee Whiz … somebody finally agrees with me.

When I was more involved in the club scene a few years ago and we were doing courses the question seemed to always come up “How do we get more younger people involved in this great hobby.”

New Rookie Roundup Rules Go into Effect for SSB Event on April 16

You might be a rookie and not even know it! The definition of a rookie has been changed for the Rookie Roundup, making it possible for more radio amateurs to qualify for the “Rookie” category.

Club Log is Now a Logbook of The World Trusted Partner

04/03/2017
Club Log has become the first logging service to achieve Trusted Partner™ status for Logbook of the World® (LoTW), ARRL and Club Log have announced. Radio amateurs holding LoTW “callsign certificates” who have uploaded logs to Club Log now can readily cross-post them to the highly secure LoTW —world’s largest repository for confirming Amateur Radio contacts.

LoTW Password Checking Change Causes Problems for Some Users

09/29/2016
An upgrade to the password-checking mechanism that authenticates Logbook of The World (LoTW) users has caused log-in problems for some clients. Under the system in place prior to approximately 2300 UTC on September 19, the LoTW log-in system ignored the case of any characters in a password when checking for a match, storing them all as lower-case. The new system is case sensitive, however. While passwords once were randomly generated, the ARRL IT staff recently implemented a new LoTW password mechanism that lets users choose their own passwords. Under this new system, when users first log in, their passwords are encrypted.

Some users with mixed-case passwords attempting to log in were rejected, however, because the system had stored their passwords as all lower case. A subsequent modification allows the system to accept a user’s mixed-case password and changes the stored password to the user’s mixed-case specification. The issue also can present problems for applications, such as logging programs, that employ a user’s credentials to access a LoTW account.

Users who encounter trouble logging in to LoTW are being asked to enter their passwords in all lower case. If that doesn’t work, contact the LoTW Help Desk or explore other methods available for LoTW.

Any LoTW users who logged in before this modification was made — at around 2300 UTC on September 19 — had their passwords stored in lower case, no matter which case they used in entering them. These passwords now must be entered as lower case. Users who changed to a password that includes mixed-case letters must continue to enter that password in mixed-case letters.

ARRL apologizes for underestimating the extent to which the lack of password case sensitivity in the previous LoTW authentication mechanism was going to cause problems for so many users.

Logbook of The World to No Longer Accept Contacts Signed by TQSL Versions Earlier Than 2.0

09/19/2016
As of 1400 UTC on January 16, 2017, ARRL Logbook of The World (LoTW) no longer will accept contacts that have been digitally signed by versions of TQSL earlier than version 2.0.

Special Event W1Q Is Now On The Air

Special Event station W1Q is now on the air until December 15, to celebrate QST’s 100th anniversary. The first QST was published in December 1915. W1Q will be active in the ARRL 160 Meter Contest, December 4-6, with Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, as the operator.

ARRL COO Harold Kramer, WJ1B, and volunteer operators will be on the air on various bands and modes throughout the month. This is not an official ARRL operation, and Kramer will handle all details, QSL cards, and LoTW entries. He will post additional information on his QRZ.com page under WJ1B. — Thanks to Harold Kramer, WJ1B

ARRL Complains to FCC About The Home Depot’s Marketing of RF Lighting Devices

Here’s something you don’t see every day.  I wonder if these are being sold in Canada?
[UPDATED 2015-07-20-1825 UTC] The ARRL has filed a formal complaint with the FCC, alleging that The Home Depot home improvement chain has been illegally marketing certain RF-ballast lighting devices in violation of FCC Part 18 rules. Accompanying the League’s July 14 letter to FCC Enforcement Bureau Spectrum Enforcement Division Chief Bruce Jacobs and Office of Engineering and Technology Laboratory Division Chief Rashmi Doshi was a 20-page report prepared by the ARRL Laboratory’s Mike Gruber, W1MG. His report outlines four instances in which ARRL investigated The Home Depot’s marketing and sale to consumers of non-consumer-rated RF lighting devices.