My station is aboard my sailboat. QTHes can change daily, or may be stationery for several weeks or even months. What is the etiquette for QSLs from a moving vessel, or one mored at a location for a period of time?

Thanks,

Tim

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KK4FQB Timothy S. Bastian

The way things are structured here at the moment, with QTH information coming from what is stored in the user profile, it is almost impossible to handle what you describe.

We have the ability to create multiple accounts using the same callsign in different QTHes, but they must each have their own date range and the date range cannot overlap. So that works well for users that have a summer QTH and a winter QTH, every six months they create a new, attached account. It would work for you if you are stationary for a few weeks or months,but wouldn't scale up for changing daily because you would need to create a new account for each QTH on a daily basis.

Same deal with mobile stations in general, which is why we don't have a county award and our Grid awards have not been expanded.

Dave, N5UP, has been working on a scheme to handle this sort of thing but it is a huge amount of work because it changes the entire way user accounts are setup. Maybe next year he can make it happen.

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73, Dave - VA3KAB

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the reply. I was hoping for a better answer, however I do understand the complexity that this sort of thing entails. In the mean time is it acceptable to use the QTH of my home port but update the grid square for each contact based on the position of the boat each day? Something like QTH: Aboard the sailing vessel Ketos, home port Bridgeton, NC current location: FM15lc.

Thanks again, 73

Tim

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KK4FQB Timothy S. Bastian

Problem is at the moment you can't specify a grid for a specific QSO, that is one of the things that Dave is working towards. Grid is part of the user profile, and changing anything there affects QTH information on all the eQSLs you have previously sent.

One thing we can do, assuming all the other QTH information stays the same, is zero out the grid on your profile. That way it will not show up in the eGrid awards.

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73, Dave - VA3KAB

Just wanted to "second" the desire to be able to handle this sort of situation, because that, too, is how I live.
Right now I am setting up a new QTH when ever I move, which will become quickly a major pain in the neck once my life gets back to "normal" (for me) and I start moving around on a weekly (or more often) basis.

Look forward to the update to handle mobile better!

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KJ4IFO John A. Kremski, Jr.

I'm about to have winter and summer QTH's. I'll give up using eQSL altogether rather than setting up a new account every six months. You gotta make things easy or we'll just abandon you for the next new new thing.

Bruce KT8TD

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KT8TD Bruce Graham

If you use the "My Accounts" screen to setup the new account it is not that difficult, just a few mouse clicks and a couple of minutes time every six months.

The other option of course is to setup your winter QTH with a portable type callsign, KT8TD/P or KT8TD/4 (if your winter QTH is Florida, etc.) That way you just need to do it once. You would just need to make sure to sign your QSOs using that portable callsign.

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73, Dave - VA3KAB

I do a lot of mobile activity (as part of the Worked All Britain Awards)

My philosophy is to retain a single account for mobile, but include my EXACT position (my WAB square) in the comment field.

I accept that this is not as per the Rules, but since there are no awards relating to WAB or Maidenhead locators on HF, this is not a problem.

For portable (even a few hours stationary) I create a separate eQSL account (usually with its own image of the location) which means I have loads of eQSL accounts linked!

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M0YMA/P Andrew Banks
Edited by M0YMA/P Andrew Banks on Aug 27, 2014 at 02:42 PM

At present, I place my operating location information in the "Comments" to aid the station I contacted, but I believe neither of us can use it towards an eQSL award.

"Highly mobile" operations are not well supported by eQSL. I typically operate mobile from over 30 temporary locations each year. LoTW allows specifying the actual operating location during the process of signing and uploading contacts, under one certificate. Multiple certificates (identities) are not necessary, so long as operations are within the same DXCC entity as in the certificate.

Could a similar capability be added to eQSL?


Thanks--
M.R.Kane
KB1JTB/m

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KB1JTB M R Kane

I don't use LoTW here, can you tell me how you do that within LoTW? I.E. you are using a logger of some sort to upload your QSOs, how do you specify on a per QSO basis that the QSO is in a different grid than the previous one?

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73, Dave - VA3KAB

Many logging programs allow direct uploading to LoTW, in addition to uploading to eQSL.

However, I haven't found a logging program which allows easy recording of my temporary qth. Therefore, I export an ADIF file from my logging program, one file from each temporary location. Then I run TQSL to sign and upload each file to LoTW.

TQSL is the engine for inputting information into LoTW, while operations within LoTW are limited to sorting QSOs and QSLs already existing in the database.

The process is 1) run TQSL, 2) choose the adif file, 3) select a station location for signing, 4) confirm signing, 5) specify dates, 6) enter password and upload.

During step 3, a previous location can be used, or a new one defined. Creating a new location involves selecting a callsign from your certificate, then giving grid square, ITU and CQ zones, IOTA ID, State and County. (Pop-up windows step one through the process.)

This is simpler than it sounds. The result is that every contact has my correct qth, so that WAS-seekers, as well as grid square or county hunters receive proper credit for our contact. Similarly, I can qualify for WAS awards honoring the 50-mile locus restriction.

M.R.Kane
KB1JTB/m

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KB1JTB M R Kane
Edited by KB1JTB M R Kane on Aug 28, 2014 at 10:25 PM

Interesting! I need to get an LoTW account one of these days so I can understand better what they are doing.

So basically they are doing it on a per QSO basis instead of on a per profile basis.

I wonder how many LoTW users bother with doing this, and instead just load direct from their logging program? No way of knowing I suppose

Can you go and modify QTH info for a record, or a group of records, after you have uploaded them? i.e. if you loaded all your contacts to LoTW from your logging program, could you then log into LoTW, select a group of records, and change the grid on them, etc.?

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73, Dave - VA3KAB

No. Once loaded into the LoTW database, only search or report-generation is supported. For example, 'show latest QSOs' or user-defined queries 'show all QSLs made from my QTH-X' are possible.

In effect to change an existing LoTW entry, one must upload a corrected ADIF file. Most simple errors--band, time of contact, grid--will 'overwrite' the previous entry. Changes in callsign or date will cause a new entry to be generated. This may cause the number of QSOs reported to be larger than actual. However, QSLs will only arise from matched pairs of contacts entered, so no 'extras' will occur.

In my experience, most /m LoTW users do enter the appropriate location. Also, I have verified that stations receive QTH credit for my actual location as entered in the contact--not my mailing address as shown in the FCC database or my LoTW certificate.

Note I'm only a user, not coder, so my descriptions will necessarily be simplistic (or naive.)

eQSL supports making QSL cards from electronically-entered contact data. In effect, if the other station gets my callsign, a contact can be constructed.

Unless the two entries match closely enough, in LoTW I will never know whether the other station has tried to upload the contact. LoTW allows more complete reporting, but has no provision for generating QSL cards.

Thanks--
M.R.Kane
KB1JTB/m

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KB1JTB M R Kane

Not simplistic, very informative IMHO.

Very different method than what N5UP is planning, and I'm not sure it is doable with the current database design, but a good way to do it in my opinion (QTH info being QSO based instead of user account based).

I'll pass it along, thanks!

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73, Dave - VA3KAB

Any news on the planned solution for this multiple QTH issue?
I am also facing it as I move a lot around my QTH-es, I have for location listed in my licence from 3 different grid squares, and move between them on daily basis, even multiple times a day. Beside this I also enjoy a lot of working portable from mountains and pretty much everywhere out of the city (like SOTA and that sort of stuff) with multiple locations a day, so creating and managing accounts for every time I move around is simply a no go for me.
I made two accounts for unlimited time now, and I confirm qso-s which happened from those QTH-s but this is insufficient, and many OM are bugging me to confirm from whatever QTH, they are not interested in it, but I find it to be not too nice to overrule the current status quo with qth = account. So I'm waiting for a good and easy to manage solution (like the one in the previous comments)

73, Csaba

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YO6PIB/P Kertész Csaba-Zoltán

Same issue here, I'm often portable. I have a favourite spot where I go for contests, but for SOTA and holidays I may go to different locations. I tried setting up different /P accounts using a different QTH Nickname, but that doesn't work.
If I set up a new account for each time I go /p, with the correct date-slot, I will end up with hundreds of accounts.

Is there any solution to this?
Using the NickName feature would enable me to set up several /p locations and just select the correct one when sending out eQSLs, but I can see that this would create a problem for incoming eQSL's
Perhaps in combination with multiple time slots for 'nickname' locations could solve this?

73, Michael M0MPM

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M0MPM/P Michael Meerman

Dear Sirs,
is there any updates to the question that has been running for more or less five years?

Just a question relating to QTH,
while I'm using my VE0OHT that is a maritime mobile callsign,
I'm never able to set the correct "location" since the system will not validate an entry without a country, while the ship I'm onboard are on transatlantic voyages or other places in the world located in international waters.
is there a easy way around this problem

73
Ove

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VE0OHT/MM Ove Hansen Turoy