diff --git a/application/controllers/Lotw.php b/application/controllers/Lotw.php
index 4d8ea80b6..20f4c6be6 100644
--- a/application/controllers/Lotw.php
+++ b/application/controllers/Lotw.php
@@ -958,16 +958,19 @@ class Lotw extends CI_Controller {
 		$key = $sign_key;
 
 		$pkeyid = openssl_pkey_get_private($key, 'wavelog');
-		//openssl_sign($plaintext, $signature, $pkeyid, OPENSSL_ALGO_SHA1 );
-		//openssl_free_key($pkeyid);
+		if ($pkeyid) {
+			//openssl_sign($plaintext, $signature, $pkeyid, OPENSSL_ALGO_SHA1 );
+			//openssl_free_key($pkeyid);
 
-
-		if(openssl_sign($qso_string, $signature, $pkeyid, OPENSSL_ALGO_SHA1)) {
-		  if (defined('PHP_MAJOR_VERSION') && PHP_MAJOR_VERSION < 8) {
-		    openssl_free_key($pkeyid);
-		  }
-		  $signature_b64 = base64_encode($signature);
-		  return $signature_b64;
+			if(openssl_sign($qso_string, $signature, $pkeyid, OPENSSL_ALGO_SHA1)) {
+				if (defined('PHP_MAJOR_VERSION') && PHP_MAJOR_VERSION < 8) {
+					openssl_free_key($pkeyid);
+				}
+				$signature_b64 = base64_encode($signature);
+				return $signature_b64;
+			}
+		} else {
+			log_message('error', 'Error signing LoTW log.');
 		}