Logbook of the World (LoTW)

Logbook of the World

Logbook of the World is the ARRL's confirmation service, and confirmation is the whole of it. Operators upload their logs, LoTW pairs the two sides of a contact, and a matched contact counts toward ARRL awards. It holds no directory, no names and no addresses.

LoTW itself is free. There is no charge for an account, for a Callsign Certificate, or for submitting records. A fee applies only when you submit confirmed contacts for award credit.

QSL Shack brings your LoTW contacts and confirmations into the matching logbook, and sends your contacts to LoTW. Connections are managed at Account Settings, then Integrations, then the LOTW tab.

What You Need Before You Start

An LoTW account, with the username and password you sign in to the LoTW site with. The username is usually your callsign, but not always.

A Callsign Certificate for each callsign you want to send from, and it must be the .p12 file. Both come from the ARRL, which explains how to get them on the LoTW site.

You can connect LoTW and bring contacts in with the account alone. A certificate is needed only to send.

A logbook here for each callsign you connect. Only callsigns that already have a logbook are offered.

How To Connect LoTW

1. Go to Account Settings, then Integrations, then the LOTW tab.
2. Press Add LoTW Connection.
3. Enter your LoTW username and LoTW website password. Press Show if you want to check what you typed.
4. Tick the callsigns to connect. Each one is joined to its own logbook here.
5. Save.

One LoTW account often covers several callsigns, so you sign in once rather than once per callsign. The tab then lists your account with a row for each callsign, and each callsign has its own page.

How To Store A Callsign Certificate

The file you need is the .p12, not the .tq6. The .tq6 is what the ARRL emails you and what TQSL installs, and it is the certificate on its own with no private key in it. The .p12 is what TQSL writes when you use Save a Callsign Certificate, and it is the only file that can sign anything.

1. Open the callsign's page from the LOTW tab.
2. In Callsign Certificate, choose the .p12 file.
3. Enter the passphrase you set in TQSL when it saved that file. This is not your LoTW website password.
4. Choose how the certificate is protected here. Create a strong one for me shows you a passphrase once and never stores it. I'll choose my own lets you set your own, which has to be strong enough to meet ARRL's rule for a stored certificate: about 58 characters mixing capitals with numbers or symbols, or 64 without. A sentence works well.
5. Press Store certificate.

The certificate is stored encrypted, and only the passphrase you chose can unlock it. QSL Shack does not keep that passphrase. If you lose it, store the certificate again.

The page then shows the range of dates the certificate covers and when it expires.

How To Bring Contacts And Confirmations In

1. Open the callsign's page.
2. Switch on Check LoTW for new contacts and confirmations automatically.

Every four hours QSL Shack asks LoTW for anything new since the last check and brings it into that logbook. The first check reads your whole LoTW history for that callsign, so expect it to bring in far more than later ones.

Pull from LoTW now checks immediately instead of waiting.

There is also a switch to bring this callsign's LoTW contacts in as private. Contacts arriving from LoTW are visible on your public logbook unless you switch it on, and it does not change contacts already in your log.

A contact LoTW sends that could not be written to your logbook is listed with its reason on your LOTW Exception Report, along with anything that matched more than one contact in your log.

How To Send Contacts To LoTW

1. Open the callsign's page and find Send to LoTW. It tells you how many of your contacts are eligible right now.
2. Type your QSL Shack passphrase for that callsign. The field is only offered when something can actually go.
3. Send.

Sending signs the contacts with that certificate and uploads them to LoTW. A send takes the oldest waiting contacts first, and any others are checked on the next send.

You type the passphrase every time. That is the ARRL's requirement for a service that stores certificates, not an inconvenience QSL Shack has added: the key that unlocks a certificate must be supplied by the operator for each log signed and must never be stored.

Contacts that cannot be sent are listed with the reason for each one on your LOTW Exception Report. The reasons come from the ARRL's own software, so they read as they would if you ran TQSL yourself.

Which Password Is Being Asked For

Three different secrets are involved, and every screen names which one it wants.

Your LoTW website password is the one you sign in to the LoTW site with. QSL Shack uses it to read your contacts and confirmations.

The passphrase you set in TQSL when it saved the .p12. It is needed once, when you store the certificate, and never again.

Your QSL Shack passphrase for that callsign. You set it when you store the certificate, and you type it each time you send contacts to LoTW.

Every one of those fields has a Show button, because a paste that silently failed looks exactly like a wrong password.

How To Remove A Certificate Or A Connection

Remove certificate, the amber button, deletes the certificate stored for that callsign. Its LoTW sign-in and its automatic checking stay exactly as they are, so contacts keep coming in and only sending stops.

Remove connection, the red button, deletes the LoTW sign-in and the certificate for that callsign. Contacts already brought in stay in your logbook, and your other LoTW callsigns stay connected.

What To Watch For

A contact dated outside your certificate's range cannot be signed. A certificate covers contacts from the date the ARRL issued it for that callsign, so older contacts need a certificate that covers them.

LoTW never edits or deletes a contact once it is uploaded. The ARRL's own instruction is to correct the contact in your log and upload a corrected copy, which becomes a new record while the old one stays. Nothing is lost by this, because LoTW only acts on matches. The Fix at LOTW control on your Exception Report walks you through both ways of doing it.

An LoTW confirmation is not a QSL Shack confirmation. A contact is confirmed here when both operators have logged it here. When LoTW confirms a contact that was already confirmed here, it is reported to you and nothing is changed. See How QSO Matching And Confirmation Work.

A contact with no band, no mode or no time cannot be sent, because the ARRL's software will not sign it. Those contacts are on your Exception Report with the reason, and the pencil there opens the contact for editing.