Lee, To answer your questions:
Every two years or so I travel to the Philippines for a major contest. I am a
part time sponsor to a Tech College Ham Club there. The Ham Club is supported
by successful school alumni or interested parties like me. If not for the
sponsors there would be no equipment, computer, etc, no station at all. When a
foreign visitor like me comes they box up all their out going QSL cards and I
carry them back to the states to mail to the ARRL Buro. Some of these young
men
(and recently girls were first admitted) had never heard of Ham radio but
became
interested because of this school club station. They work DX and enter
contests, experiencing the thrill of working a new DX station or Mult. Some of
these young kids don't have 2 Pisos to rub together for their lunch, how do you
expect them to pay $57.00 USD for a annual subscription? Even if they did
subscribe the chances of them getting their magazines is slim. The postal
system is corrupt. When I lived there I was fortunate that all my
International
mail came to my Embassy APO address via the US Mail. But my local mail
delivered to me at home was a different matter. Forget about any International
mail, it wouldn't get past the airport or main post offices. Local mail was
hit
or miss. I wouldn't get my utilities bills and I'd have to go to their offices
and pay in person to continue service. I have a letter from the Director of
Philippine Customs apologizing for the delay in answering a letter I had sent
to
him. He mentions the post mark of my registered letter to him and states it
took two weeks to get to the Customs Dept mailroom where it was signed for.
This is a matter of about 20 blocks distance. Forget about any magazines
through the mail, you will never see them. There are people who sell
subscriptions to local magazines and THEY deliver the magazines to your house
in
person every month. They know they won't reach you via the local mail.
But these students DO have access to the internet at school or any number of
cheap internet cafes. Some may even have access at home through any number of
homemade, thrown together assortment of PC's. You access the internet on a
phone card system there. No month to month subscription. You buy a Internet
phone card. It has your ID and password. You log on and use it until your
prepaid minutes run out then you recharge or refill your card. Not a system
where you want to spend a lot of time on line. Bottom line, these young
contesters, and I'm sure many more in other countries, can't afford the
magazine
subscription but can get access to their contest standing via the internet.
Lee Hiers wrote:
> If they can't afford a subscription, how can they afford
> having a contest station? How can they afford QSLing? How
> can they afford the INTERNET ACCESS required to access the
> results you want posted?
>
> On 5 Aug 2005 Alan wrote:
>
>>Many DX'ers and especially those in 3rd world countries can't afford a
>>subscription, and even if they did subscribe chances are the magazine
>>wouldn't
>>reach them anyway.
>
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