Hi Bill!

I just upload several hundred sat contacts to LOTW.  Many matches were returned, BUT many of them were credited for "VUCC 144 mhz" or "VUCC 432 mhz" and NOT for "VUCC Satellite", which is how they should be credited.

Does this mean that the person on the other side of the QSO did not properly encode the log entry as a satellite QSO?  Or is there some glitch in the LOTW program?  I would have guessed that, if I encoded the QSO as Satellite and the guy on the other side did not, it would not show as a match at all.

Most likely, the other station didn't include one or both of the fields used to mark a QSO as a satellite QSO (Propagation Mode, Satellite Name). I've seen this on a handful of QSOs I've uploaded in the past few weeks.

Anyone know how this is handled?

Assuming your log has all the necessary fields for a satellite QSO (all of the QSLs I've gotten from you are showing as satellite QSOs, so I don't think your logs are missing anything), there is only one way to fix this - the other station has to upload the QSO record(s) again, this time making sure those additional ADIF fields are in their log. As long as the other QSO details like date, time, your call, etc. are the same, the new upload replaces what was originally uploaded.

If the other station's log has the satellite-related fields, then an e-mail to lotw-help @ arrl.org is necessary. There could be errors in how ARRL's database queries run to match up QSO records and make QSLs. ARRL will not fix problems with other stations' log uploads, and everything has to be in there correctly in order to use the resulting QSLs toward awards. I found this out recently, as I accumulated just enough grids from satellite QSOs to apply for my satellite VUCC using LOTW. It's been almost 2 weeks since I filed for that, and hopefully there is some movement with my application soon.

73!

Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/