On May 21 at approximately 9:40 PM EDT (0140 UTC on May 22), Logbook of The World (LoTW) -- the ARRL’s online QSO confirmation system – reached a new record: 500 million QSOs. This milestone was reached as Gabor Horvath, VE7JH, of Crofton, British Columbia, uploaded a log from 2011 for VC7M, the Canadian Multi/Multi Team in the 2011 CQ WPX CW Contest.

Since LoTW was first introduced in September 2003, almost 58,000 hams around the world have registered to use the system to confirm two-way contacts they have made. The confirmations are credited toward various ARRL operating awards, such as Worked All States and DXCC. By using digitally signed certificates with QSO date ranges and station locations for geographic information, LoTW is able to accommodate clubs, previously held call signs, QSL managers, DXpeditions, mobile and rover operators just as easily as it handles the individual user with one call sign and one location.