It costs nothing for anyone -- ARRL Member or not -- to submit QSOs to LoTW, and monitor their confirmation via LoTW. Some DXers are perfectly content with tracking their progress in this manner.

It costs money to submit confirmations to the ARRL to obtain award credits for DXCC, VUCC, WAC, and WAS awards.

This is a classic Freemium business model: by making the submission and monitoring free, a large number of hams around the world are motivated to participate, even if they themselves are not pursuing ARRL awards - or would be if LoTW were easier to use and localized to their native language.

This model is particularly effective because LoTW eliminates the costs of postage and time required to wrangle QSL cards, making it more palatable to pay for ARRL award credits.

From a revenue generation perspective, it would help if the ARRL actively promoted its awards.

73,

Dave, AA6YQ

Have very nice wall candy for challenge , grid chase, centennial, and now working VOTA that you see mentioned in each weeks club reports.

Not to mention WAS,DXCC and many others. 

Very had to not be aware of the ARRL awards

I might add if you want wall candy from any other group, it costs 💰

+ AA6YQ comments below

Very had to not be aware of the ARRL awards

+ There is a well-moderated Ham Radio group on Facebook with more than 125K members. Many are new hams.

+ The ARRL has never posted there, much less introduced and advocated its awards.

73,

Dave, AA6YQ

Dave's point about Facebook is well taken.

I've been operating as W1AW/5 for less than five hours short of a week.  Almost all (95% plus) of those I have worked on CW and SSB haven't heard of VOTA.  Many think I'm a POTA station every time I call CQ on SSB I state Volunteers On The Air.  BTW, some of the callers admit to reading QST and, apparently, missed the announcement in the January issue.

The sad reality is many hams are unaware of most operating activities, just like radio and logger features.  Mentorship is poor among members of this avocation.  We experienced and knowledgeable hams need to do a better job, just like Dave (along with others) does here.

If someone asks a question and we don't know the answer for certain, find out and let them know.  Much of the information handed out everywhere is wrong!

73, Bill, K8TE

On Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 2:54 PM Bill Mader, K8TE <billamader@...> wrote:

The sad reality is many hams are unaware of most operating activities, just like radio and logger features. Mentorship is poor among members of this avocation. We experienced and knowledgeable hams need to do a better job, just like Dave (along with others) does here.

We should start a national organization to promote the hobby, reach
out to newcomers, and maybe to protect our interests in Congress.

There is a group in Connecticut but I believe their main interest is
in selling radio relays. Sad given that everyone else has moved on to
solid state devices for switching.

--
Peter Laws | N5UWY / VE2UWY | plaws0 gmail com | Travel by Train!