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  2. Special Event Calls and Cards

Re: Special Event Calls and Cards

Jerry N9AVY
 

Joe:

Pretty much the same here with QSLs.  Back in my SWL days (1958-1975) my day pretty much hinged around the daily mail delivery ... Sundays and Holidays were torture ! 

Ham radio was much the same for first few years, but was extremely disappointed in the number of cards not received; chalked it up to 1) other guy has no cards, 2) too cheap to spend $$ on postage , 3) was waiting for my card first , or 3) just to lazy or putting it off until his retirement. Finally figured out in a decade or two that worst QSLers are FD stations... for every 100 QSOs you might get one card. If I sent out QSLs it was worse - nada.

Used to have lots of "wallpaper" , i.e. , QSLs hanging on wall but discovered that were better dust collectors so took them down; they now reside in about 6 shoe boxes - alpha-numerically sorted in case I ever need to find one ! 

Sorry for those who don't use LoTW/Eqsl/Bureau/direct because they are in the minority and will receive fewer confirmations and will someday find out what happens when the decide to go after awards.  DX stations and DXpeditions have nicer QSLs it seems, but they're all good.  One of my plainer QSLs received was from Wallis & Futuna Island back in 1980's... It was just an airmail envelope with a slip of paper inside which had pertinent QSL data  and ARRL accepted it for credit !!! (Was among my first 100 DXCC entities !)

One of the interesting ones one was from a Greek station who had the box of QSO data printed on the back of an envelope. Guess it was in case envelope and card were separated the recipient would somehow get the confirmation. Neat idea.

Suppose we have to keep up with the times and that's why we have digital logs and digital QSLing. Makes sense since we are, after all, digital hams. Remember life as a QSL Manager back in 1980's when I had to search through hand-scrawled logs ... oh what a joy digital logs are !

Jerry  n9avy

From: Joseph <ljl2002@...>
To: 070Club@groups.io
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2018 2:01 PM
Subject: Re: [070Club] Special Event Calls and Cards

Jerry,
I for one love to get and send paper.  It's been that way since my SWL days long ago.
It would be sad to see confirmations reduced to several lines of text but at least EQSL gives you a picture of a card.
I only use EQSL and LOTW and several others because so many Hams have asked for them.  I still like getting them in the mailbox though.  Old fashioned I guess.
 
Joe
KA1PPV  #1482
 
 
 
On Mon, Feb 26, 2018 at 02:11 PM, Jerry N9AVY wrote:
 
 

You're are either going to have writers cramp or buy a lot of labels.  


Jerry  n9avy


From: Matthew King - AK4MK <kk4cps@...>
To: 070Club@groups.io
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2018 1:06 PM
Subject: Re: [070Club] Special Event Calls and Cards

I really enjoy paper QSLs, and request one at the end of each QSO (it's in my "bye" macro). 

I get them on occasion, but certainly not with the regularity that I request them!

Speaking of being on top of QSLing.... I'm not. I have several hundred to send out, both for my old KK4CPS call and AK4MK.  I did, however, just receive my AK4MK cards from Gennady (UX5UO) in Ukraine, so that's my excuse on that one!

73

Matt King
AK4MK - 070 #1708
PODXS 070 Club Executive Director


On Mon, Feb 26, 2018 at 2:00 PM, Sherri Rapp <srapp7@...> wrote:
I like getting QSL cards and am willing to reply with my own card. I keep a minimal stock of cards (less than 10 at a time that I print and cut put myself) for that purpose. I think I've sent 3 QSL cards out of about 120 QSOs. I upload to LOTW, eQSL, and QRZ for all QSOs. 

Sherri, WB4OSU, #2601

On Feb 26, 2018 1:47 PM, "Jerry N9AVY" <n9avy@...> wrote:
Still have about 500 or so blank QSLs left.  Requests are getting fewer these days and most are LoTW or Eqsl.  The cost of postage seems to be getting increased every year. When I worked for QSL Bureau my monthly shipments dwindled from a thousand of more to just  100-200 a month.  LoTW/Eqsl has taken the bulk of the cards away from bureaus and direct mailing.  In time, the bureaus may all disappear.

What I don't understand is the need for QRZ and others to feel the need to confirm contacts. All it seems to do is add extra work to making a contact. If a station says confirm via QRZ they get ignored by me.  My logging program only has 2 buttons for QSLs:    1)  LoTW  and 2) Eqsl . Simplify, simplify in he words of Henry David Thoreau.

Went overboard and didn't allow for crummy band conditions when I ordered last batch of cards.  Think Barry might have waited a year before ordering cards  so he would get a better idea of how many to order. That may be what ARRL did with the Centennial QSLs.


Jerry  n9avy


From: Rick - N7WE <n7we1980@...>
To: 070Club@groups.io
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2018 11:48 AM
Subject: Re: [070Club] Special Event Calls and Cards

Barry-
No suggestion about what would work for you...but I stopped doing paper cards quite some time ago.  Can't remember exactly when but it has to have been about 10 years.  Since then I think I have only had maybe two or three on-air requests for paper cards that I had to say "Sorry, don't have paper cards anymore."  I do upload all QSOs to LoTW, eQSL, and QRZ.com Logbook.  I think anymore most people (even DX) use one or more of those three. I have on maybe two or three occasion received a paper card requesting a QSL.  When that happens, I go to eQSL Outbox, do edit, display as card, open in new tab, and print one for them. Hope that helps. 
--
Rick - N7WE
070 - #1602


 
 
 
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