ARRL Announces Logbook of The World Systems Upgrade

ARRL’s Logbook of The World® (LoTW®) is the 2nd most popular benefit among ARRL members. It is also an extremely popular service internationally for non-members, as it is the primary means for providing confirmations for ARRL Awards, such as DXCC and Worked All States.

As a part of the ongoing modernisation of the ARRL systems infrastructure, LoTW will be receiving major upgrades to the operating system it is running on, the relational database system it uses to store and access logbook and awards data, and server hosting, where it will be fully migrated to the cloud. These changes will, among other improvements, ensure LoTW performance needs can be better met based on user demand.

LoTW will be unavailable from 27th June to 2nd July 2025, to complete these upgrades. We will bring LoTW back online if it is available sooner than 2nd July 2025.

More Information - http://www.arrl.org/logbook-of-the-world

RSGB Examinations Standards Committee Publishes Annual Report

The RSGB Examinations Standards Committee, or ESC, has published its annual report, relating to activities in 2024. The report shows that overall candidate numbers have increased to above pre-pandemic levels and are well above the extrapolation of the declining trend over the decade before the pandemic.

The ESC believes that this is probably due to the availability of remote invigilation online examinations taken at home and the increase in provision of distance learning courses, making the hobby much more accessible than in the past.

More Information - https://rsgb.org/main/blog/examinatáion-standards-committee-reports/2025/06/18/examinations-standards-committee-report-2025/