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DXCC, WAS and LotW – QRZ Nevada?

I’m not really an active DXCC hunter but I like to grab a new one when it comes along. I’ve written about the burden of QSLing when you make a lot of contacts like I do. So May 2006 I was happy to enroll in ARRL’s LotW program. That way I planned to reduce paper QSLing and work towards the awards electronically. It only counts for DXCC and WAS right now. Too bad since opening this system for other (non-ARRL) awards might boost the popularity.

LotW versus Paper QSL

   QSO’s made  = 80397      Confirmed on paper = 13667         Ratio = 16,99%

   QSO on LotW = 78420      Confirmed on LotW  = 14393         Ratio = 18,35%

So that’s about the same ratio. Even better on LotW. However I think less than 20% is a very low confirmation ratio. I started late 2000 so let’s count from 2001 to 2007, that is a 7 year span. That should be long enough for a "buro QSL" to get here. Of course I should get more accurate numbers if there would be a way to filter out unique contacts. I worked K1TTT and K3LR etc numerous times yet only sent / received QSL for the first band/mode slot. Most of the contacts are contest QSO’s. That might explain a bit since many calls return. But all this money and time spent for 20%? I must admit that when I started until 2005, I was eager to send and receive QSL cards. But that changed when I made over 15k QSO a year. And working USA or JA on 20m is a thrill at first but that changes when you work 500 of them in a weekend. OK, 1000 USA in a weekend and 50 JA  ;o)

WAS

ON5ZO_WAS Right now I have worked all 50 states in CW and have 50 paper QSL cards to show for it. According to my logging software that is, because it would take ages to find those 50 cards in over 10 000 cards. So I’d rather walk the LotW road to WAS. My LotW pages show I have confirmed 49 out of 50 states. The only missing state is Nevada. DX4WIN tells me I have 15 contacts with Nevada. Probably more since I only have the state info either from ARRL contests or for confirmed contacts.

Now out of these 15 Nevada contacts 10 are in CW. Of those 10 contacts I have 3 paper QSL cards. It took ages to get a paper QSL from Nebraska and both Dakotas. Via the "buro" because I don’t QSL direct. These states were easy to get in LotW. But no Nevada. As soon as a Nevada confirmation rolls in on LotW, I’ll apply for WAS CW. But I’m patient, it’ll come.

DXCC

Here are my current DXCC standings as calculated by DX4WIN. This is CW only and not taken LotW confirmations into account.
Take a closer look at my WARC band standings (12m, 17m and 30m).
DX4WIN shows 154 CFM DXCC while LotW counts 153. The ARRL DXCC staff didn’t count my valid VP5-card. Well, the ON Field Checker did his job well but that one didn’t make it from his paper list into the computer @ ARRL.

ON5ZO_DXCC

And here’s my LotW DXCC score. It’s quite obvious that LotW is mainly a contester’s business since I seem to have far less WARC-band confirmations.

I have a batch of paper QSL’ed New Ones that I should submit but I can’t get myself going to look through all those boxes with QSL cards.
Furthermore I should import my LotW confirmations into DX4WIN but I’ve come to hate that program and I REFUSE to buy a so called "upgrade".

Roundup: if you’re a Nevada ham and have a QSO with me, please enroll in the LotW program   ;o)

ON5ZO_DXCClotw

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