My kick out of radio is the Radioman stuff, not the Yeoman (clerk) stuff.
My QSL activity, living in a not-rare country/state/county, is quite
manageable. An order of 1,000 QSL cards is a 10-year supply.
I don’t primarily chase awards, fill band/mode slots, etc. I’ll dive into the
pileups with everyone else, especially for a “new-new”, but one contact is
enough to make a check mark on the map.
I participate 100% in LoTW, because it is basically free (yes, I know that I
pay for it with my ARRL dues, but there is zero incremental cost above that).
But it really isn’t a “QSL” to me.
I still very much enjoy traditional paper QSL’s. I probably initiate 10 or 20
myself during a year, usually to commemorate a particularly enjoyable or
remarkable contact, or to get one from a “new-new” (not many of those!).
Receiving a card (or a bureau envelope) in the mail is always like opening a
package at Christmas. Mostly the packages might be another “pair of socks”,
but you can still always hold out hope that one is a new “daisy BB-gun”.
(Hell, I even was excited with the envelope of samples you used to get from
“Little Print Shop” in Texas when you changed call signs. Often it was the
first notification of you new call sign, even before the official-use-only
envelope from Gettysburg!)
To me, the cardboard is the “real” QSL. The fellow that I met on the air
actually touched it, and it confirms the magic of our contact. It is valuable
in and of itself for that reason, not because it represents a “check mark” on
some award application.
I answer all incoming cards in the fashion they arrived, bureau via bureau,
direct via direct. One bureau shipment a year costs peanuts, and the number of
no-sase-enclosed directs is less than 5 per year.
If you’re DX, IOTA, or otherwise popular, or if your thrill is in wallpaper,
then your mileage may vary.
73, de Hans, KØHB
"Just a boy and his radio"™
From: Barry
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2016 3:39 PM
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] QSLing
Just say no to paper QSLs. While they may have sentimental value, they
are an anachronism. I used to QSL 100% received. In 2009, when I
downsized, cleaned house, and moved across the country, I decided no
more paper QSL cards. I told the W2 buro to throw away my incoming
cards when the money was gone (my letter handler told me that for many
years I was the most active station he handled) and I stopped sending
them funding for buro credits. I make it very clear on my qrz.com page
that I'm not a buro member, no more paper QSL cards, and LOTW only. The
only exception I made was for a trip to PJ2 a few years ago. For that,
I printed up some cards.
Even before 2009, for quite a few years, I didn't keep the buro cards I
received. I entered and flagged the QSO in my logging program to print
a label, then I'd toss the card. As Randy said, how many more shoeboxes
of JA (or EU) cards do I need to keep for no reason? While this may
upset the sentimentalists, the paper cards no longer serve any purpose.
I have plenty from the 70s-90s, if I ever want to look at them or show
them to someone.
Barry W2UP
On 12/30/2016 18:39, Randall K Martin wrote:
> On a different thread for the subject, I'm wondering if there is the
> possibility of setting up a "NO QSL" list, similar to the no-call list
> for phones (although the no-call list doesn't seem to work that well!)
>
> I have always attempted to answer all bureau cards as quickly as
> possible. It isn't unusual for me to send out a thousand or more
> replies in a given year. In fact, I am in the middle of answering a
> new batch that just came in.
>
> One thing I notice is that there seems to be a high number of DX ops
> that have chosen to simply QSL 100%, many using a third party company
> to print and forward the cards. If I eceive a card that doesn't
> specifically state "Please QSL", then I don't do any more than place
> it in another big box which will eventually be disposed of by my XYL
> or son when I become an SK. Sometimes I will even place them in file 13.
>
> Any ideas on how a registry could be created, where you could indicate
> that you do not want any qsl cards from anyone? The 100% QSLers could
> save some money by filtering their logs against the list, and then
> only sending cards for the remaining contacts.
>
> I think I have enough JA QSL's to fill up a bathtub. I don't mind
> replying to people who truly need a QSL from Colorado, but I'd love to
> find a way to cut down on the time I spend handling QSL requests.
>
> 73 Randy K0EU
>
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> CQ-Contest@contesting.com
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