Skip to content

trustedqsl

Signs and uploads logs to ARRL Logbook of the World

What it does

TQSL holds your callsign certificate and station locations, signs an ADIF or Cabrillo log with them, and uploads the signed file to Logbook of the World. It is also what requests the certificate in the first place and what renews it before it expires.

Why you would want it

LoTW accepts nothing that TQSL has not signed, so if you want DXCC, WAS or VUCC credit without posting cards, this is not optional -- it is the only door. Every Linux log that claims LoTW upload is calling this underneath or handing you a file to feed it.

Before it will work

A callsign certificate from ARRL, which requires proof of licence and takes days rather than minutes. Request it early. A station location must be defined before a log can be signed, and it has to match the location the contacts were made from.

How it installs

  • apt: trustedqsl

Known problems

ARRL raises the minimum TQSL version LoTW will accept, without much notice, and an out-of-date client is refused at upload with an error that does not obviously say so. The targets are three point releases apart -- 2.8.1 on Debian 13 and Parrot, 2.8.4 on Ubuntu 26.04, 2.8.6 on Kali, 2.7.2 on Mint, measured 2026-08-28 -- so an upload refused on Debian may succeed unchanged on Kali. Back up the certificate: it is a private key, losing it means requesting a new one and re-signing, and it lives in your home directory where a reinstall will take it with everything else.

Keeping it current

  • probe: apt policy
  • strategy: apt_upgrade

Where to get help with the software itself

ARRL runs LoTW itself; lotw-help@arrl.org is the support route for certificate and upload problems, which is most of them.

Source: catalog/packages/trustedqsl.yaml