Logbook of the World (LoTW)

What Is Logbook of the World?

Logbook of the World is the ARRL's free confirmation service. Operators upload their logs to it, LoTW matches the two sides of a contact, and a matched contact counts as a confirmation for ARRL awards.

QSLShack brings your LoTW contacts and confirmations into the matching logbook, and can send your QSOs to LoTW.

What Do I Need Before I Start?

An LoTW account, and a Callsign Certificate for each callsign you want to send from. Both come from the ARRL, and the ARRL explains how to get them on the LoTW site.

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

How Do I Connect It?

Go to Account, then Integrations, then the LOTW tab. Sign in to LoTW once, then choose which of your callsigns to connect. Each callsign is joined to one of your logbooks.

One LoTW account often covers several callsigns. You sign in once, not once per callsign.

What Is The Callsign Certificate, And How Is It Stored?

The Callsign Certificate is the file TQSL saved when the ARRL issued it, ending in .p12. It is what signs your contacts so LoTW knows they came from you.

QSLShack stores it encrypted. Only the passphrase you choose when you store it can unlock it, and QSLShack does not keep that passphrase. If you lose it, you store the certificate again.

Which Password Am I Being Asked For?

Three different secrets are involved, and the screens name which one they want each time.

Your LoTW website password is the one you sign in to lotw.arrl.org with. QSLShack uses it to read your contacts and confirmations.

The passphrase you set in TQSL when it saved the .p12 file. It is not your LoTW website password. It is needed once, when you store the certificate.

Your QSLShack passphrase for that callsign. You choose it when you store the certificate, and you type it each time you send QSOs to LoTW. You can let QSLShack create a strong one, shown once, or choose your own.

ARRL's rule for a stored certificate works out to about 58 characters mixing capitals with numbers or symbols, or 64 without. A sentence works well.

How Do Contacts Come In?

With automatic checking switched on, QSLShack asks LoTW every four hours 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 the first one to bring in more than later ones.

Pull from LoTW now checks immediately instead of waiting.

There is also a switch to bring a callsign's LoTW contacts in as private. It does not change QSOs already in your log.

How Do I Send Contacts To LoTW?

Open the callsign's page, store its certificate, and use the Send card. It tells you how many of your contacts are eligible to send right now.

Sending signs them with that certificate and uploads them to LoTW. You type your QSLShack passphrase for that callsign to do it.

Contacts that cannot be sent yet are listed, with the reason for each one, on your LOTW Exception Report.

What Happens If I Remove Things?

Removing the certificate deletes the certificate stored for that callsign. Its LoTW sign-in and the automatic check stay as they are.

Removing the connection deletes the LoTW sign-in and the certificate stored for that callsign. QSOs already brought in stay in your logbook, and your other LoTW callsigns stay connected.