I didn’t find this in the bugs reports, might have missed it, but I’ve been having a devil of a time uploading the adif file from HAMRS to LoTW. It seems to always have an error in the upload. Last night it said my Grid Square was incorrect. I am in grid square EM54pg and it would not let me upload to LoTW as that. It wanted me to say it was Grid Square EM54qi (maybe EM54iq) so I loaded it into ADIF Master and changed my grid square to EM54qi. It then uploaded properly. I chase grid squares, but someone I worked might.
Anyway, just wondering the best way to upload my contacts from my activations to LoTW from HAMRS. Thanks folks, de WJ5K - Rob
The simplest method is to export the ADIF and use ARRL’s TQSL (companion software to the LoTW logbook) to upload the file. Depending upon your setting, the grid square may or may not be required to match as explained below.
TQSL offers three options for handling location data:
Defer to the Location selected in TQSL. If you do this, it doesn’t matter what you put into your log; TQSL will upload it and simply use the location data you’ve entered for that assigned Location in TQSL.
Warn you if there is a mismatch. If any of the QTH information in your log doesn’t match the Location you’ve selected for upload in TQSL, it will refuse to upload the record. This is likely the setting you are currently using since there is a grid mismatch.
Tell TQSL to override the TQSL Location settings with location data from your log. So if you enter into your log the grid square, state, county, ITU zone, or country, and you attempt to upload the log to LoTW, TQSL won’t complain – it will happily overwrite the TQSL location settings with the location data from your log. Note that it doesn’t permanently change the TQSL location settings–it just temporarily overrides them.
I always select option 3 and make sure my log in HAMRS contains my grid square, state, and county. Provided the other fields are correct, my log will upload without a hitch.
HAMRS doesn’t let me (yet) change my country, ITU zone, or CQ zone, so if that becomes necessary (it hasn’t yet), then I would either (1) create a Location in TQSL that includes the correct country/ITU/CQ zones and upload to that location, or (2) edit the log with another utility such as ADIF Master (WIndows only) to insert those fields into the log before uploading it.
As I mentioned, my personal preference is to override location fields with my log’s data. I don’t go directly through TQSL though; I import my HAMRS ADIF export into Log4OM and use its LoTW upload to do this. Log4OM has a setting that mirrors the override, and in fact it calls the TQSL application to execute the upload.
If using Options 1 or 2 above, then make sure you edit or create a station location in TQSL that adequately covers your park activation, and upload to that TQSL Location. I’ve circled the location fields that are required. Option 2 will ALSO require you to enter the same location data in your log.
Awesome explanation, Kevin. I think that I will be better off going with option 3. But question, I use N1MM software at my house for all my qso’s, hunting and dx’ing. Will this change how I upload these using the LoTW’s TQSL? I really appreciate your help. 73 de WJ5K - Rob
I’m using it because our radio group that does Field Day, etc. uses it for all or our group contests. It has a lot more options that I’ll ever use, but I’ve got it configured with my IC-7300 to give me rig control, etc. It’s an awesome piece of software. I also have N3FJP software that I purchased many years ago. I just haven’t used it much.
