Hi!
Back in February, shortly after ARRL announced that the VUCC award would be supported in Logbook of the World, I uploaded my satellite QSOs to that system. I have since added other non-satellite QSOs, and have uploaded subsequent satellite QSOs (including the QSOs from the Sierra Vista AZ hamfest and my operating from the DM51/DM52 grid boundary last Saturday). On 8 February, I filed an application for a satellite VUCC award using the 103 grids I had credit for in LOTW. After 3 months and lots of face-to-face chats with my ARRL section manager and division director, along with e-mails to the LOTW help desk and other e-mails copied to several in the ARRL hierarchy, my VUCC application was cancelled yesterday.
There have been problems in the migration of the VUCC award into the LOTW system, and my application was apparently a victim of those problems. Thankfully, the credit card I submitted with the application had not been charged - probably the only thing ARRL did right in the past 3 months with that (not charging it until the application was processed). I don't know the reason(s) why my application was cancelled, even after additional e-mails yesterday asking for more information. I was told that I could resubmit my VUCC application, now that the original application was cancelled.
In the past 3 months, my grid count in LOTW went up 10, to 113. I filed my application, and waited. This time, the application was approved in 24 hours! When I log into LOTW now, I see that I have been awarded a satellite VUCC. Other than seeing what gets charged to my credit card for the new application, ensuring there is no charge for the cancelled application and getting the certificate in the mailbox, this is the way things should work when an application is filed through LOTW. The fees are another matter, but at least the process of getting a VUCC through LOTW appears to be finally working.
Thanks to all of those who have been uploading satellite QSOs to the LOTW system. Many - like me - started in the last few months since the announcement that VUCC would be supported in LOTW. A few have been uploading satellite QSOs over the past few years. I'll wait and see if ARRL revisits the matter of the VUCC fees before I apply for an endorsement to my satellite VUCC (I have over 300 more grids I could add to it, using QSL cards), but for now I have a VUCC coming my way. I will continue uploading my satellite QSOs to LOTW, for those who want to use that to apply for or endorse a satellite VUCC.
I know I could have applied for a satellite VUCC with QSL cards as far back as late 2006. I know I had accumulated enough cards for a VUCC back then. I put it off, thinking "Why not wait until I have 125?" Then 150, 175, 200, and so on into the 300s. Around the 350 mark, I decided to wait until I reached 400. By this point, it was about the time ARRL made its announcement about VUCC in LOTW along with the new fee structure. I decided to try the on-line application, instead of having to buy dinner for my local card checker as he went through my cards (especially if I filed the application with all the grids I have confirmed). I may still be on the hook for a lunch or dinner, if I write out an application to endorse my VUCC in the future. :-)
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/