Hi Clayton!
I will be very interested to see what "QSL rate" you get after uploading 16K contacts. I highly encourage others to utilize LotW for satellite confirmations. I personally love paper and always QSL via mail but enjoy the "instant gratification" of a Logbook of the World QSL.
I'm with you on that. I like receiving cards, don't mind sending them out, and also like LOTW. I'm doing my part to support office-supply stores for the cardstock and printer supplies, as well as my local post office. :-)
Out of roughly 1200 satellite contacts I've uploaded, I am seeing a 4% QSL rate via Logbook of the World. Most of those are repeat contacts who regularly upload to LotW like me.
For my 11K+ satellite QSOs made from all locations, I'm seeing about 13% confirmed in LOTW. I know it helps that I'm operating from different places, but I'm putting every QSO into LOTW - even if it is the umpteenth QSO with the same station. Then I have a complete copy of my log I can access online, in addition to the spreadsheet copies that are on backups here at home and on a flash drive with me.
Just for other statistics... I have only confirmed 63 grids of the 200+ I have confirmed on paper. And the majority of those 63 LotW confirmations are from stations like WD9EWK or K8YSE who have gone rover.
Thanks!
I need to run through my log to see how many grids I have confirmed, on paper and in LOTW. I think it is near 500 now, and 134 of those are confirmed in LOTW, for my Phoenix-area activity.
My advice is to ensure your satellite names and grids (yours and theirs) correctly match up for all contacts. It is critical for LotW satellite confirmation. If you did any portable or rover satellite work outside your home grid, this becomes very critical.
And make sure to include your grid when you define a station location in the TQSL program! Otherwise you get confirmation for the QSO, but it is useless toward a VUCC award. Multi-grid QTHs work fine in LOTW, too.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/