[CQ-Contest] QSL'ing (Continued) - Quantifying the problem

[Fred Laun K3ZO]

Thanks to all who have sent me comments on my original post.  Most were in
agreement with me, but some continued to argue economics, so I find it
necessary to quantify the problem, which, since I keep precise QSL records,
it is easy for me to do.  Here are my statistics for the most recent
domestic or majority-domestic contests.  Granted, a few more QSLs will
trickle in over time, but experience shows that I have just about all the
QSLs I will get for these contests already:

      1997 CW SS:  1169 QSOs, 7 QSLs received:

           Percentage of QSOs for which QSLs were received:  0.6
           Postage cost for direct replies:  $1.40
           Cost of QSLs themselves:            .28  
                                        -------------
           K3ZO total QSL cost for CW SS     $1.68

      1997 Phone SS:  1808 QSOs, 41 QSLs received:

           Percentage of QSOs for which QSLs were received: 2.2
           Postage cost for direct replies:  $8.20
           Cost of QSLs themselves:          $1.64
                                         ------------
           K3ZO total QSL cost for SSB SS    $9.84

      1997 10 Meter Contest:  1275 QSOs, 26 QSLs received:

           Percentage of QSOs for which QSLs were received: 2.0
           Postage cost for direct replies:  $5.20 
           Cost of QSLs themselves:          $1.04
                                           ---------
           K3ZO total QSL cost for 10M Test: $6.24

Methinks there are some out there who doth protest too much!

73, Fred                                                    

                    


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