[Dxbase] Results of LOTW Debacle - N4JQQ

Sun Mar 14 08:57:56 EDT 2010

I know everyone is tired of this but I thought I would let you know what 
caused my LOTW not to work in the event the same thing happens to 
someone else. I know it has because after I noted what I discovered, I 
got several emails from users who did the same thing.
When you apply for your certificate (this is my second one), they ask 
for start and end date of your QSOs. The start date would be the issue 
date for your license that you are obtaining the certificate for. The 
end date should be left BLANK unless the license/callsign you are 
obtaining the certificate for isn't going to be used after a particular 
date, i.e., expires and/or you are getting a new callsign. Somehow, 
when I requested my certificate, I put my license expiration date which 
was 12/15/2009. Based on this date in the certificate, I couldn't 
upload anything after that date. That was my problem.
When you open up your certificate, you see two sets of dates. The first 
are the issue and expiration date of the CERTIFICATE. The second are 
the start and end dates of your QSOs. Leave the second date blank 
unless you aren't going to use the license/call after a particular 
date. At least one of my friends checked his certificate and he found 
an "end QSO" date that was earlier than his certificate expiration 
date. He would have run into the same problem I did.
I know that 99.9 % of you are scratching your heads saying "what a dumb 
%^$!!!! I wouldn't disagree with you. However, for that .1%, I hope 
this saves you the exercise in futility I put myself through.
Good DX!!!!
Steve, N4JQQ