Barry,
 
Thanks for the update and further explanation.  Without getting into the "whys" of "hows" of the actual situation, I have one question regarding its management.  My question is why did we not send out a broadcast notice that described the situation and what was being done to rectify it as soon as the problem was recognized?  Doing this would most certainly have headed off much of the ". . . misinformation being tossed around in cyberspace . . ."  As the old adage says, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
 
FYI, after the situation had been described to Bernie, as I recall, I sent a message to the Great Lakes Division to let members know what had happened, and more importantly, what had not happened (i.e., that the misinformation was not correct).  A number of members replied.  While a number of these were displeased over what they viewed as the failure by IT to perform a basic function, they were as pleased that finally someone told them what was going on.  Conversely, several of them expressed considerable displeasure that by its inaction, HQ "once again" demonstrated (to paraphrase) "it is a self-serving operation that neither respects nor appreciates the members."
 
My major concern is that just about the time "we" seem to recover from a problem that became inflated by insufficient communication (and "our" status is nearly repaired with the members), "we" drop the ball once again and undermine "our" prior good work by failing to acknowledge a situation exists or in delaying the acknowledgement until after the ARRL-naysayers have had free reign to establish the tone.
 
Jim
 
Jim Weaver, K8JE
Director, Great Lakes Division
5065 Bethany Rd.
Mason, OH 45040
Tel. 513-459-1661; e-mail K8JE@arrl.org
ARRL:  The reason Amateur Radio Is
Members:  The reason ARRL is
 

From: arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Shelley, Barry, N1VXY
Sent: 09 November, 2012 2:35 PM
To: arrl-odv
Subject: [arrl-odv:21203] LOTW Update

While the misinformation being tossed around in cyberspace regarding LOTW is almost too wild to answer, let me try and respond to some of the more relevant issues.

 

Currently, LOTW is up and running as of 7:30 am EST with a processing queue of approximately 48 hours. What happened, despite what others may think, involved human error in not recognizing that the space allocated to the LOTW database was filling up. There were monitors on LOTW admin screens within the system but no one recognized the impending condition. This has been rectified and automated alarms have been added to the database. If we had recognized it earlier, expanding the storage to currently available space, it would have been done with no need to take the system down. And as has already been noted, there was no data lost. The system does, given the size of the database, take time to march through the recovery process and that’s what was happening over the past 3 days.

 

In the 2012 Plan (Capital Expenditure section) we recognized the need for more storage and got approval to add an additional 2.8 terabytes at a cost of $25,000 to allocate to various HQ functions including LOTW. This was in place.

 

And to respond to a couple of other questions, the system is built on a commercial database product from SAP. Of course there is a lot of custom programming for the actual LOTW functions as there is no product waiting to be pulled off the shelf for this application. In addition, there is unique, custom programming to connect the LOTW software to the SAP database.

 

The Chairman has assured me that this issue will be discussed further with the Administration and Finance Committee at their meeting Saturday, November 17th.

 

73,

 

Barry J. Shelley, N1VXY

Chief Financial Officer

ARRL, Inc.

The National Association for Amateur Radio

 

(860) 594-0212

www.arrl.org