Well, for reasons yet unknown even to me, I decided to give the qrz.com logbook function a try. Over the years I had logged a few contacts haphazardly on the qrz website simply because I saw the button labeled, "log contact with x#xxx" on the page of somebody I had just looked up, but now I've decided to jump in with both feet. I explored the logbook function on the website and started entering logs from my paper books as quickly as I could. I found the web interface to be quite serviceable, and I was very pleased when I saw that it can be used to import/export to/from the ARRL Log Book of the World. I had only submitted a small number of logs to that one as well usually because of a special request.
Well, here are my observations. First of all, I like that the qrz logbook has a web interface for making direct entries. I feel like this is a function LOTW is missing. To get started using an online log, it only makes sense that you should be able to visit the website and type entries directly into it as well as make edits to erroneous logs. Once started, it certainly makes sense that the logbook should also allow import of log files created by other logging programs. LOTW is entirely dependent on the user to have some sort of third-party software that creates the log files that must be imported. With qrz.com the import function is an option, but it's not mandatory.
Another factor that has pleased me about the qrz.com logbook is that many hams seem to be keeping their qrz logs up to date. As I typed logs dating back nearly 20 years into the qrz logbook I've observed that approximately one third of my QSO's were immediately confirmed by the pre-existance of a log entry by the other party, and almost certainly many hams were probably pleased to finally see their contacts with me confirmed, however tardy.
Now with the qrz.com logbook, I've found a new ham radio interest, and that is award chasing. Before, I figured I wouldn't bother with awards. The process seemed complicated, and I'm such a casual operator that I figured it would require hours of scouring my paper logbooks to just see what awards I might be close to. Well, qrz.com has its own batch of awards that are awarded based on entries to its logbook, and pretty quickly as I started to enter my old historic logs I found myself eligible for the qrz.com 30 Years of QRZ award, for which I applied, and now it's a badge displayed prominently on my qrz.com callsign page for any ham who looks me up to see. I can also click on any of the awards to see how close I am. I'm about halfway to the qrz.com Gridsquared award. Furthermore, since my logs are easily exported to LOTW, it's suddenly not so out-of-reach to get some of the more respected ARRL awards.
But let's talk a little about pricing. The good news is that the qrz service and its logbook are free. Any ham can start submitting logs if you have a qrz.com account. Doesn't every ham already have a qrz.com account? The catch is, and this is where they got me, that if you want to EXPORT any of your logbook to any other form you have to pay. I decided to purchase the 5 year XML logbook data subscription at $143.87. Being generally averse to spending any money and especially to signing up for some sort of recurring expense, I was hesitant at first, but I decided that having the ability to export my logs from qrz.com to LOTW was worth the expense. Once paid for, after you provide the required information, qrz.com interfaces very nicely with LOTW. Imports from LOTW were available for free, but exports to LOTW were not available until I had the paid subscription, but now after a session of filling in log entries in the qrz.com interface, I can just click the button and I my new entries are easily uploaded to LOTW. So, with one subscription, I'm suddenly an active contributor to both the qrz.com log and the LOTW.
Overall, I'm pleased. This is a good system, and I think I'm going to continue to add historic contacts and make sure my new contacts are submitted to qrz.com, and subsequently to LOTW. If I ever decide to stop paying for LOTW I could make use of another logging software, upload to LOTW, then sync my qrz.com log.
Very nice. My current blogging situation is thorough, but a scattered mess. One of the factors which has made it easy to not address the problem is some of uncertainty regarding which system to use.
I agree that direct entry is important. I will check out the qrz logging. Thanks for the detailed accounting of your experience.