AmateurRadio.com

This is a follow-up to a post from Sunday.

On Wednesday night, Sarah handed me an envelope from the day’s mail that had the appearance of a QSL card.  I took out my knife and opened it.  It had a some sample QSL cards, along with a brochure inside.  I scratched my head for a moment and concluded that I had just received my first QSL card for a blog post.

This curious turn of events brings me around to a couple of points.  For those of you who don’t know, this blog is aggregated by AmateurRadio.com (and it is syndicated on my Facebook profile).  My agreement with the owner of AmateurRadio.com is that he provides me with visibility in return for select content from my blog.  The QSL printer who sent me the samples is one of his advertisers.  Thanks, by the way!  The cards were very beautiful and of high quality and I will consider him to print photo cards for my next DX operation.  In full-disclosure, I received nothing from the printer who printed my cards in return for mentioning them.  But, I should clarify that the blog is something I do for fun and I’m not really in the business of product endorsements.

A final point of clarification is that my beef with the available QSL cards was not so much the quality available, but amount of semi-relevant stuff hams try to cram onto the card.  I guess if 10 meters ever opened up again regularly, we might start getting asked for our “Ten-Ten” numbers again.  After listening to the V31BB clip about the secret decoder ring, I’m sort of ashamed to admit that I have one.  Strike that from the card!  The long and the short of the original post was that I wanted an uncluttered, distinctive card.  And, I think I found it.

As I have bemoaned in the past, good QSL card designs are hard to come by.  This is my attempt to remedy that situation.  The front has my callsign, with a QR code linking the interested recipient to this web site.  The reverse is postcard-friendly with space for six QSOs, corresponding to 1.8/3.5/7/14/21/28 or 50/144/222/432/903/1296 MHz.  The address space can be used for a personal note if the card is mailed in an envelope.  The card is also QTH-unaware.  This means that I’ll have to write or sticker my way along, but I won’t be limited by my moves and travels.  The font is Gil Sans everywhere.  The cards were laid out using Adobe Illustrator CS4 and printed on 100-lb matte cover stock by Carlisle Printing, who printed my last cards as well.

One final note:  one week after SS CW, I am already up to 43/50 states for my CW WAS from Maryland using LoTW.   I’m not sure how many of these QSLs will actually make it into circulation at this rate.  Be sure to work me so you can have your own copy of this rare collector’s item!

If you have come to the site checking to see if I am still alive because you have not received a QSL card via the bureau system, you have come to the right place.  I finally mailed about four years worth of CE/K8GU, KP4/K8GU, PJ2/K8GU, and K8GU bureau cards out this week.  (Yes, it was a nice-sized pile, but not as big as it could have been.)  There are a few recent requests that have not been filled because I ran out of CE/ and KP4/ cards.  I will get some more soon.

Yesterday I worked Kouichi, JI1FGX/DU9 operating from Mindanao Islands in the Philippines. I’d worked a DU back in 2002 but unfortunately have been unable to get a confirmation from him. His US manager hasn’t received logs from him in years, and as a result can’t confirm my contact. Kouichi was the first DU contact since then, and I was very happy to discover that he has an active manager in Japan, so my chances of getting a confirmation from him are excellent.

Along the same lines, today I received a QSL card back from the 3C9B DXpedition to Equatorial Guinea that I’d worked in June of this year. That confirms my 295th country in mixed mode and 218th confirmed on CW. (I see that I have about 35 countries on CW that I haven’t confirmed yet, I guess I’d better start getting some cards sent out.)

My numbers will change in about a week when the reorganization of the Netherlands Antilles results in a probable deletion of 2 entities and the addition of 4 or 5, but I’m very happy to be so close to 300.

Yesterday I worked Kouichi, JI1FGX/DU9 operating from Mindanao Islands in the Philippines. I’d worked a DU back in 2002 but unfortunately have been unable to get a confirmation from him. His US manager hasn’t received logs from him in years, and as a result can’t confirm my contact. Kouichi was the first DU contact since then, and I was very happy to discover that he has an active manager in Japan, so my chances of getting a confirmation from him are excellent.

Along the same lines, today I received a QSL card back from the 3C9B DXpedition to Equatorial Guinea that I’d worked in June of this year. That confirms my 295th country in mixed mode and 218th confirmed on CW. (I see that I have about 35 countries on CW that I haven’t confirmed yet, I guess I’d better start getting some cards sent out.)

My numbers will change in about a week when the reorganization of the Netherlands Antilles results in a probable deletion of 2 entities and the addition of 4 or 5, but I’m very happy to be so close to 300.

I received a letter from the W3 QSL Bureau about a month ago that a few DX cards were awaiting shipment. I thought about our tradition, whether or not, a paper card has practical value given alternative routes. My self addressed stamped envelopes were sent and several cards arrived a few weeks later.

I registered with Logbook of the World and eQSL services, both, in my estimation are valued services. Each with their own complimentary award programs that measure one’s ability and station configuration. Admittedly, in my case, the ease of uploading my log after an event is a positive benefit. The return is nearly instantaneous without much overhead in terms of cost and time.

However, when my bureau shipment arrived in the mailbox, something changed my mind about the value of a paper card. It was tangible. I could hold it and share the storyline that follows our final confirmation. I have stated in the past that paper confirmation is old school. It is correct given today’s digital delivery systems, efficiencies, and modest overhead.

What I did not expect was the emotive response when those paper cards arrived.

Perhaps, most of us, continue experiencing a critical shortage in recreational time. When it is available one is either working on a ham radio related project, waiting to log the next, next DXpedition or attending to life responsibilities. Recreational time is not exactly in ample supply these days.

I’m researching how-to best respond to those who followed up our contact with a paper confirmation. I want to and it is much different than a need to respond. There is a solution that balances my returned fondness for paper confirmations.

73 from the shackadelic on the beach.