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Logbook of the World

LoTW has two pieces, and they do different jobs.

The certificate is how Cloudlog signs your contacts and sends them. The username and password on your account are how Cloudlog asks LoTW which contacts matched. You want both.

Open it from your callsign, Third Party Logbooks, Logbook of the World.

Picture needed: lotw-certificates.png The LoTW page with at least one certificate in the table: callsign, DXCC, QSO start and end, expiry, and the status badge.

The certificate

You make the certificate file in TQSL, the ARRL program, on your own computer.

  1. Open TQSL and go to the Callsign Certificates tab.
  2. Right click the callsign.
  3. Click Save Callsign Certificate File. Do not put a password on the file. Cloudlog cannot unlock a passworded one.
  4. On the LoTW page, Upload Certificate, and choose that .p12 file.

The table shows the callsign, the DXCC entity, the dates of contacts the certificate covers, when the certificate itself expires, and the last upload. Valid, Expiring, and Expired are the states you will see. Archive is for a certificate you want to keep on the page and stop using. Delete removes it.

A home call and a /P, or a club call, each need their own certificate. Cloudlog picks the certificate that matches the station callsign and the DXCC on that station location. If the location says England and the certificate is Scotland, nothing is sent for that location. Contacts dated outside the certificate's QSO start and end are skipped as well.

The server needs OpenSSL. If the page tells you it is missing, that is a job for whoever installed Cloudlog.

Sending, and pulling the matches

Manual Sync uploads the contacts that are not yet marked sent, then downloads the matches and marks them confirmed. Confirmed here is what the award pages are waiting for.

The same work runs on the timed job, usually once an hour, if that was set up at install. The Linux install notes have the line.

LoTW Import, the button at the top right, is the download on its own.

  • Pull LoTW data for me uses the username and password from your account. You can limit it to one callsign, or All, and you can give a start date. With no date, Cloudlog asks for confirmations since the last one already in the log.
  • Upload a File is for a report you saved yourself from the LoTW Download Report page. The file has to be .adi.

Put the LoTW username and password on your account, under Third Party Services, before you expect the pull to work. Leave the password box empty when you are saving the account for some other reason. An empty box keeps the password you already stored.

Picture needed: lotw-import.png LoTW Import, with Pull LoTW data for me selected, the date and the callsign dropdown visible.