QSL.now

Uploading to LoTW

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Logbook of The World (LoTW) is the ARRL's confirmation service, and it has no way for another program to upload on your behalf. Every upload must be signed with your own callsign certificate using TQSL, the ARRL's signing program. QSL.now can do that signing for you, one upload at a time, if you give it a copy of your certificate for that upload. This page explains how to make that copy and exactly what happens to it afterwards.

Export your certificate from TQSL

You need a file with the .p12 extension, which TQSL calls a Certificate Container. These steps follow the ARRL's own help page, Saving a Callsign Certificate to a File.

  1. Start TQSL and select the Callsign Certificates tab. It lists the certificates installed on this computer.
  2. Click the certificate for the callsign you want to upload under, then click the Save the Callsign Certificate button.
  3. In the window titled Enter the name for the new Certificate Container file, choose a folder and a name, then click Save.
  4. A Certificate Container Password window appears. Type a passphrase and type it again to confirm, then click OK.

Please set a passphrase. The file holds your private key, and the passphrase is the only thing standing between that key and anyone who finds the file. Pick something you can type into QSL.now a minute later. If you have ever saved a certificate with no passphrase, make a fresh one with this procedure and delete the old file.

The certificate must match the station callsign on the batch. If you operate under more than one call, export one .p12 per call and use the right one for each batch.

What QSL.now does with it

When you turn on the LoTW option for a batch, you choose the .p12 file and type its passphrase. Then:

  1. The file and passphrase travel over HTTPS to our signing server and nowhere else.
  2. The signer creates a fresh, empty TQSL working directory for your batch, installs your certificate in it, builds a station location from the callsign, grid, state, and county on your batch, signs the selected QSOs, and uploads the result to LoTW.
  3. The working directory, the certificate, the key, and the passphrase are deleted as soon as the upload finishes, whether it succeeded or failed.

Nothing is kept. The next batch asks for the file again. We chose this over storing certificates because a stored private key is a liability we would rather not hold, and because a fresh TQSL directory every time means TQSL's local duplicate list is always empty, so a re-upload is never silently filtered out on our side.

What "queued" means

LoTW does not process uploads while you wait. Its upload response is a single line saying the file was queued for processing, and that is all QSL.now can honestly report, so the batch page says queued rather than a count of accepted QSOs. LoTW usually processes a small file within minutes, but it can take longer during busy periods. To see what was accepted and matched, log in at lotw.arrl.org and open Your Account, then Your Activity, or look at the QSOs tab for the date range. LoTW keeps one copy of each QSO, so uploading the same contacts twice is harmless.

Station location fields

LoTW wants to know where you were. QSL.now fills the station location from your batch and profile: callsign, DXCC entity, grid square, US state, and county when you have them. A portable or club operation from a different grid is a separate batch with its own station details, which is the same rule TQSL applies.

Common problems

Wrong passphrase. The signer cannot open the file and says so. Nothing was uploaded. Export again if you have forgotten it; TQSL will ask for the certificate's own password if it has one.

Expired certificate. LoTW certificates last three years. TQSL shows the expiry date on the Callsign Certificates tab. Renew in TQSL first, then export the renewed certificate.

Callsign mismatch. The certificate's callsign and the batch's station callsign must be identical, including any portable suffix the certificate was issued for.