Since this group received the message below, I thought you would like to know the disposition of this issue.

First, this issue only affected a very small group of people who have very high grid-square totals and have pursued this award earnestly.  The problem occurred when the LoTW engine was switched to the "second instance" some months ago, and some credits were inadvertently dropped in the process.  The problem specifically affects satellite contacts, so this obviously constitutes a small, albeit important, number of credits.  Though there was extensive testing before the second instance went live, this was a "corner case" that was missed during release testing.

Second, Norm and Sharon are working with those affected, and IT is working to identify the specific credits that need to be restored.  Specifically, Norm has worked with W8LID, so he understands the work in progress.

Third, social media are not monitored for user support, so reporting the problem there, as did this user, is not a good way to get resolution.  Michelle, who does monitor social media, is now also checking to see if there are users reporting problems, and if so directing them to the best place to get their problems resolved (like LoTW-Help@arrl.org or vucc@arrl.org, etc.).  If Directors hear from users about other issues, it is appropriate to direct them to these addresses.

At this point, then, the problem is understood and is being addressed.  Procedures are in place to avoid future "open loop" complaints like this.
73,
       Greg, K0GW


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: LoTW VUCC
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2017 10:33:46 -0400
From: Mike Diehl <diehl.mike.a@gmail.com>
To: w3tom@arrl.org, k3rf@arrl.org, w9xa@arrl.org, k9la@arrl.org, ka0ldg@arrl.org, k0bbc@arrl.org, k5uz@arrl.org, wb4rhg@arrl.org, wa8efk@arrl.org, w8wtd@arrl.org, n2ybb@arrl.org, w2udt@arrl.org, k0das@arrl.org, k0aiz@arrl.org, k1ki@arrl.org, k1twf@arrl.org, k7cex@arrl.org, ab7zq@arrl.org, w6rgg@arrl.org, k6jat@arrl.org, n2zz@arrl.org, n2cop@arrl.org, wy7fd@arrl.org, k0rm@arrl.org, w4ozk@arrl.org, n4zuw@arrl.org, n6aa@arrl.org, aa7a@arrl.org, k5rav@arrl.org, n5aus@arrl.org


All,

I'm reaching out to all of the directors as there is a problem with LoTW that affects members in every division. This problem has been going on for several months now without any acknowledgement by the league. A simple announcement that it is known about and is being looked into will go a long way in helping users to feel a bit more at ease about lost award credits. Attempts have been made on social media to get the ARRL account to issue some kind of response but this has proven fruitless. The general response we've seen from other members is to send the league an email but in a time that we are trying to engage the youth I would highly recommend a stronger social media presence. 

On to the LoTW problem. There seems to be an issue with how credits are counted for VUCC which only seems to happen once a rule set is changed in some way causing the loss of credits. In my own personal experience I made a rule change and it took me from 312 credits down to 70, as you can imagine it's quite frustrating. At some point in time, mine, as well as others, were awarded some of their credits back. In my case I was brought back to 290 credits which is still quite a bit off from being accurate. Similar experiences were had by the many other members I've discussed with. 

After discussing with several of the other ops who have ran into this we have found some common denominators which you may or may not be aware of. The first being that I've only heard of credit losses by VUCC Satellite accounts. I believe this to be related to how satellite operators like to activate grid squares, often at grid lines or corners due to the portability of their stations. 

Ultimately the vast majority of credit losses all revolve around QSLs that contain more than one grid square. I believe this to be in part due to the league's own specification that is inaccurate. You can find the specifications here https://lotw.arrl.org/lotw-help_devel_en/developer-query-qsos-qsls/?lang=en The specification claims that when multiple grids are part of a QSL then multiple lines of GRIDSQUARE will be returned. After starting development on some mobile software that queries LoTW, I found that there were missing grids in my count. Investigating a known QSO and searching through the ADIF data I found where the problem was. Unlike the specification, what was actually returned was a line called VUCC_GRIDSQUARES with each listed in comma separated format which is not mentioned anywhere in the specification. After writing an exception for this my grid count was once again accurate. I believe that after the server upgrade some code was used that followed the actual spec and when credits are recalculated it fails on an ADIF field that was never documented. 

Again, I'm reaching out to the many in the hope that someone will pursue a resolution and equally important, a public response from the league that at the very least it's being looked into. I think I speak for many of the amateur satellite operators in saying that an acknowledgment is long overdue and we all hope to hear something soon. 

73,
Mike Diehl
W8LID