QRZ.com Awards Now Live!

Idly looking through QRZ.com's 'logbook' function today, I discovered a plethora of nice new logos for the various awards under development, showing steady progress towards launch.

Then I found I could in fact apply for an award!  Then another! Hours after applying, an email came through to say all had been approved.  You get a logo image alongside the header of your QRZ.com page automatically and for free, but the printed certificate is $24, inclusive of postage to the UK.  I can't say that's a bad price at all, and is directly comparable to LoTW certificates.

I continue to be very impressed by QRZ.com's efforts to bring an efficient, user-friendly and attractive logbook and awards programme to operators.  QRZ.com does make LoTW look extremely unfriendly by comparison.

The problem with QRZ.com's efforts continues to be persuading operators that it's worth confirming QSO's there, rather than on LoTW, E-qsl, or other systems.  My logbook continues to show a less than 50% confirmation rate, but that is more a product of days past, when entering QSOs into the QRZ.com system was only a cosmetic exercise, then having no award programme attached, and only rarely were QSLs reciprocated.

The low rate of confirming QSLs is a real problem.  All my QSOs entered on their log are real and accurate, yielding a DXCC count of 183.  Yet, because ops still think QRZ.com has no award benefit, there are very many of those DXCC remaining unconfirmed; it's very frustrating.  After a year of QRZ.com making it clear awards were on the horizon, the rate of confirmation has not increased and, if anything, has become worse.

With E-Qsl and LoTW, I have had DXCC certificates for some time, and well on the way to the next increments.  Yet, with QRZ.com, I'm only on 98 DXCC.  I don't even put much store in awards; it's just that the difference between systems is annoying!

QRZ.com obviously stands in a good place to attract users of its new logbook and awards programme, and I hope it does well - it certainly deserves to for the sheer beauty of the product they've produced.  It also has a clear US-centric presence, so it might steal away from the same nationalistic tendencies shown towards LoTW. 

But, QSLing is time-consuming.  Between all the 'Pleeeeease LoTW' and 'Pleeeeease E-QSL', and then the hundreds of physical cards each few weeks that need a return, QRZ.com is yet another demand on my time. So, it will be interesting to see which awards programme users will eventually spend their time on, and which they decide are just a waste of time.