In the analog days of amateur radio, confirming a QSO (contact) often meant waiting weeks — or even months — for a paper QSL card to arrive via postal mail. These cards, beautifully designed and personally meaningful, were — and still are — treasured by hams around the world. But with the rise of digital logging, there came a need for something faster, more secure, and scalable for the modern era.

Enter Logbook of The World (LoTW), a game-changing system developed by the ARRL (American Radio Relay League). LoTW enables licensed amateur radio operators to submit and match QSO records electronically, eliminating the need for physical QSL cards while still offering a trusted confirmation process.

At the heart of this system is TrustedQSL (TQSL) — the official software used to digitally sign and upload your contacts to LoTW. It ensures that:

• Your identity and callsign are verified via a certificate issued by ARRL.
• Your log files (usually in ADIF format) are cryptographically signed, proving their authenticity.
• Confirmations happen automatically when your logged QSOs match with others in the system.

🔄 How This Changed QSO Confirmations Forever

Before LoTW, confirming a DXCC or WAS award required collecting and organizing piles of paper cards, often at considerable cost and effort. Now, with LoTW:

• Confirmations can happen within minutes, not months.
• There’s no postage or mailing involved.
• It’s globally accessible, 24/7.
• It reduces errors, fraud, and loss compared to traditional QSL methods.
• Operators can easily track award progress with automated tools.

While paper QSLs still have sentimental and collectible value, LoTW has become the de facto standard for official QSO confirmation in contests, awards (like DXCC, WAS, and VUCC), and everyday operating.

In short, LoTW and TrustedQSL have brought amateur radio into the digital age, without compromising trust, authenticity, or the sense of connection that makes this hobby special.

For amateur radio operators who log their QSOs digitally, the ARRL Logbook of the World (LoTW) is an essential service. To upload your logs securely to LoTW, you need a tool that signs them using a valid certificate, and that’s where TrustedQSL (TQSL) comes in.

If you’re using Arch Linux or an Arch-based distro like Manjaro, EndeavourOS, or CachyOS, you won’t find TrustedQSL in the official repositories, but thanks to the Arch User Repository (AUR), installing it is straightforward.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to installing the latest development version of TrustedQSL using the trustedqsl-git AUR package.

🔧 Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have an AUR helper installed. The most common options are:

• yay
• paru

If you don’t have one yet, you can install yay with:

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si

🛠️ Installing TrustedQSL from AUR

Now that your AUR helper is ready, you can install TrustedQSL:

paru -S trustedqsl-git

Or with yay:

yay -S trustedqsl-git

This package pulls the latest source code, compiles it, and installs it on your system.

💡 Note: The -git suffix means this package builds the development version of TQSL from source.

🚀 Launching TQSL

Once installed, you can launch TrustedQSL from your application menu or by typing:

tqsl

The interface should feel familiar to those coming from Windows or macOS. You can now:

• Request or load your LoTW certificate
• Sign ADIF logs (e.g., from WSJT-X, Log4OM, CQRLOG, etc.)
• Upload signed logs directly to LoTW

💡 Why Use trustedqsl-git?

Using trustedqsl-git has its benefits:

• You’re always running the latest version with the newest features and bug fixes.
• Great for testing upcoming features or contributing feedback upstream.
• Works well for those comfortable with the rolling-release nature of Arch.

However, keep in mind that development versions can occasionally introduce instability. If you prefer only stable releases, consider building from ARRL’s release tarballs.

🧰 Updating TQSL

Like any AUR package, updates trustedqsl-git won’t come via pacman -Syu. Instead, update it with your AUR helper:

paru -Syu

Or specifically:

paru -S trustedqsl-git

This will rebuild TQSL from the latest commit.

📬 Final Thoughts

TrustedQSL is a crucial tool in the modern ham operator’s digital workflow, and it works beautifully on Arch-based systems with just a bit of help from the AUR. Whether you’re uploading FT8 contacts from WSJT-X or submitting your latest DXpedition logs, TQSL keeps your LoTW submissions valid and secure.