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This page shows you how to sign in with your callsign and prove that the callsign is yours. At the end you have an account, and a verified callsign that counts on the leaderboard.

Your account is your callsign. There is no username. With a passkey there is no password either.

Before you start

  • Your amateur radio callsign, for example OE8APR.
  • A phone or computer with a browser.
  • An email address, if you cannot use a passkey.

No licence yet

The map, the caches and the leaderboard are open to everyone: select Browse the map on the sign-in panel. An account needs a callsign, and a callsign comes with an amateur radio licence. Your national amateur radio society runs courses and tells you where to take the exam; the licence gives you the call you sign in with.

Sign in

The same steps create an account for a callsign that has none.

  1. Tap Sign in in the top bar, or Sign in with your callsign on the front page.
  2. Type your Callsign and tap Continue. The panel shows your callsign. A new one says new account.
  3. Pick one way in:
    • Passkey. Tap Create account with a passkey on your first visit, or Sign in with passkey after that. Your phone, computer or password manager keeps the passkey. You unlock it with a fingerprint, your face or the device PIN.
    • Email link. Type your email and tap Email me a link. Open the email and tap the link. On the page that opens, tap Sign in.

← different callsign takes you back to step 2.

If another account holds your callsign without having proven control, the panel offers Take over: see Take over your callsign. The instance operator's own callsign opens only with a proof of control or the operator's sign-in link.

Passkeys work only on a secure page: an address that starts with https://. On other pages the app says so and offers the email link instead.

The email link works once and expires after 15 minutes. On a new account the email is optional; it lets you sign in again if you lose your passkey. A returning player must use the email on their account. Any other address gets That email doesn't match …'s account.

An email you type when you create the account with a passkey waits for confirmation. The instance sends a link to it; open it within 24 hours and tap Confirm address. Until then Settings → Account shows the address as waiting for confirmation, and it does not sign you in. Resend there mails the link again.

To add an email later, or change it, open Settings → Account, tap Add email or Change, type the address and tap Send confirmation. The new address waits for confirmation the same way. Your old address keeps signing you in until you open the link. An address that belongs to another account is refused.

Your passkey belongs to your account, not to one callsign. It signs you in from any callsign your account holds, with or without an SSID, also after you switch your active callsign.

Check that you are signed in

Your callsign shows in the top bar, and You shows your profile. The profile says unverified until you verify the callsign.

How a passkey keeps your account yours

A passkey is a pair of keys. The private key stays on your device, locked by your fingerprint, your face or the device PIN. The instance keeps only the public key. To sign you in, the instance sends a random challenge, your device signs it, and the instance checks the signature. There is no password to steal or guess.

  • A passkey works only on the address it was made for, so a look-alike site cannot use it.
  • A callsign that already has an account gets a new passkey only from a device signed in to that account. Someone who types your callsign elsewhere cannot add their own.
  • A passkey proves that you are the person who opened the account. It does not prove that you hold the licence: that is what verifying your callsign does.

Use more than one device

Each device signs in with a passkey of its own, or shares one through your password manager:

  • Apple and Google sync passkeys between your own devices: an iPhone and a Mac on the same Apple Account, or an Android phone and Chrome on the same Google Account. Tap Sign in with passkey on the other device, and it works.
  • On any other device, sign in once another way, then add a passkey for that device.

To add a passkey on a new device:

  1. On the new device, tap Sign in and type your Callsign. Then sign in one of these ways:
    • Tap Sign in with passkey and, in the browser's window, pick the option to use a phone or tablet. It shows a QR code: scan it with the phone that holds your passkey, and confirm on the phone.
    • Tap Email me a link, if your account has a confirmed email.
  2. Open Settings → Account and tap Add a passkey on this device.
  3. Confirm with your fingerprint, your face or the device PIN.

Check that it worked: Passkeys under Settings → Account counts one more, and Your passkeys lists it. Next time, this device signs in with Sign in with passkey directly.

Lost a device? On another device, open Settings → Account → Your passkeys and tap Remove next to its passkey, then Sign out everywhere. The last passkey of an account without a confirmed email cannot be removed: it is your only way in. Confirm your email or add another passkey first.

Account left without a callsign? If the licensee took over your only callsign, tap Sign in, then Get or erase my data: a link to your confirmed email opens your data to download or erase (Your data).

Verify your callsign

Signing in claims a callsign. Verifying proves that you control it, and keeps it yours: the licensee can take over a callsign held without proof. A verified callsign gets:

  • a place on the leaderboard,
  • announcements of your finds on APRS-IS, and
  • transmitting from the browser.

You can receive, hunt and log without it.

Open Settings → Account and tap verify next to the callsign. Then pick a Verification method:

Method What you need
On the air An APRS radio or a MeshCom node in range of one of this instance's receiving stations
ampr.org DNS The name <call>.ampr.org, which ARDC gives only to the licensed holder of the call
LoTW certificate Your ARRL Logbook of The World callsign certificate (LoTW)
Ask the sysop Your licence document, shown to the instance's sysop

Some instances do not offer every method. Without a receiving station, the app says This instance has no receiving station yet and opens on ampr.org DNS. Without LoTW, it says This instance has not set up LoTW certificate verification.

One verification covers the callsign and every SSID of it, such as -7 or -9.

On the air

  1. Tap Get a code. The app shows the message to send:

    • To: the instance's service call, your sysop's callsign with SSID 15, such as OE8APR-15.
    • Message: VERIFY and a six-digit code, for example VERIFY 482913.

    It also names the Receiving stations that listen for it.

  2. Send that message from your callsign or any SSID of it. Use an APRS message on your radio, or a MeshCom direct message from your node. Copy message copies the text.

  3. Wait while the app listens. When a receiving station hears your message, the app shows OE8APR is verified, and your radio gets an ack.

The code is valid for 30 minutes. If it runs out, tap Get a new code and send again. After five wrong codes, get a new code.

Only a receiving station this instance trusts counts, and it must hear you directly over the air. A copy that arrives over APRS-IS, the internet or other mesh nodes does not count. Anyone can put any callsign on those paths. Your APRS-IS passcode proves nothing either.

DNS at ampr.org

  1. If you do not hold <call>.ampr.org yet, ask for it in the ARDC portal under DNS → My subdomains. ARDC checks your licence first.
  2. In the app, tap Get the record. It shows the Name in the Portal (_aprscaching-verify), the full name, a Type (TXT) and a Value.
  3. In the ARDC portal, under DNS → My subdomains → Resource Records, add a TXT record with that name and value. The record has a name of its own, so a federation record under your call stays as it is. Do not use an alias (CNAME).
  4. Wait until the record is live. This can take hours.
  5. Tap Check. The app verifies the callsign when it finds the record. Until then, Check says the record is not published yet. You can try again as often as you like.

The code in the record is valid for 48 hours.

LoTW certificate

  1. In TQSL, open the Callsign Certificates tab. Select your certificate and choose Save a Callsign Certificate. Save it as a .p12 file with a password.
  2. In the app, tap Choose the certificate file (.p12) and pick the file, type the File password and tap Verify.

The file and its password stay in your browser. Only the certificate and a signature go to the instance.

Ask the sysop

If no method is in reach, ask the sysop. A sysop can verify your callsign by hand after checking your licence.

Every verification records how it was done and who vouched for it. Your data export lists it. For how the instance checks each method, see Callsign verification.

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