[CQ-Contest] If You Don't QSL, LISTEN UP!

[Nat Heatwole]

I received a QSL card from AB1J a few days ago confirming a contact that
we made in the IOTA contest along with a typed letter dated July 30,
2003. Here is an excerpt from that letter:


"What I would like to get out of my participation [in contests] is QSL
cards for the awards (WPX, IOTA, USA-CA, 5BWAS, etc) I'm working on, but
I've found out that US contest stations seldom QSL. Even though I always
send an SASE, few of them ever come back. I have no idea what happens to
the SASEs since the self-adhesive stamps are tough to remove and reuse,
so I guess they just get tossed. Whatever happens, I'm going broke and
have little to show for it.

So I've concluded that contesters are interested in contesting, not
QSLing. And that makes sense, since it is a bother and has nothing to do
with contesting itself. It's just an after the fact irritant. And some
stations don't have QSLs or quest operators come and go and my QSL never
gets to the contest op. On the other hand, I do like to get contacts
confirmed and don't mind the sending cards and paying for their return.
So what to do?"


After reading this, it perplexes my why AB1J bothers to continue working
contesters. It seems that most of the contesters he's been working are
nothing but QSL Black Holes who care more about getting him into the log
than doing him the simple favor of returning a QSL card. This is
selfish, rude, and just plain poor amateur practice. For those of you
who don't QSL, *YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA HOW MANY CONTACTS YOU'RE
LOSING*. For instance, I am both a DXer/award chaser and a contester.
When I send a QSL to a U.S. station with an SASE and I don't get one
back, I make a note of that person's call sign and I simply don't call
them in contests anymore. I don't care if they would be a multiplier for
me or whatever, I simply continue tuning. This is the same method I use
for dealing with other operators who I feel exhibit poor amateur
practice: stations who go on FOREVER without identifying, those who
intentionally transmit out of band, jammers, and the like - I just
ignore them. Maybe when people stop paying attention to them they will
realize that they need to change their amateur radio ethics. I would not
hesitate to post a list of those contesters (many of whom are subscribed
to this list), but I have a hunch that the list moderator would not let
it though.

Conversely, those operators who return my QSL card, I make every effort
to work them whenever I hear them in all contests. Just off the top of
my head, some stations who fit into this category are K1AR, W6EEN, KQ2M,
K5TR, K4XS, K6LL, K3ZO, W4MYA, W0ETC, W3PP, and K4JA. If they ask me to
move to another band, I'm far more likely to say yes. If I'm connected
to the packet cluster, I'm far more likely to take the time to spot
them. Because they sent that one QSL card to me, they netted dozens of
QSOs and maybe even some mults in the long run. And I am not the only
person this; I know of other contesters who do this and I'm sure there
are thousands of casual ops who do it as well.

If you don't QSL, think about who you're hurting: yourself and
contesting as a whole. You're hurting yourself because most people will
simply tune past you and never work you again. And who can blame them?
They spent lots of money (and keep in mind that the annual salary of
most people who QSL is *FAR* bellow that of most contesters who own
superstations) and lots of effort sending you a card and you won't even
dignify it when a response. Instead of spending all of your time,
energy, and money putting up that new yagi, trying redirecting those
assets to returning QSL cards. I will improve your rate much more than a
yagi will! And in addition, you're hurting all other contesters and
contesting as a whole. If enough contesters don't QSL, all contesters
get stuck with the reputations of being "black holes" by the casual ops
and we lose all of their QSOs. Have you ever worked SS full-time? Have
you noticed how slow things get on Sunday? The United States has more
hams per capita than the vast majority of all other countries in the
world, yet we actually run out of stations to work towards the end of a
big domestic contest like SS! I guarantee you that one reason for that
fact is the poor QSLing habits on the part of contesters. The first
contest I ever dabbled in was SS and it was appalling how few people
returned my QSLs for that contest.

If Hiram Percy Maxim was alive today, I can only imagine what he would
have to say about people that religiously don't QSL. But regardless of
what the OM would say, here's what I have to say: if you don't QSL, your
hurting both yourself and contesting; you're killing your rate and
you're slowing down mine simultaneously. If you think that what you're
doing is OK, think again. To me, bad amateur practice is bad amateur
practice - you're no different than a jammer. I hope that everyone who
reads this who does not QSL thinks long and hard about what their doing
and how it's affecting us all. And if anyone would like the list of
stations that do not QSL, please e-mail me, I would be happy to send it
to you.

73,
Nat WZ3AR
<nat at ajheatwole.com>