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

[Jim Reisert AD1C]

KC1XX perspective:

About three years ago, I did a mass mailing for KC1XX - we sent out about 33K
QSL cards to DX stations via the bureau confirming about 66K unique band/mode
QSOs. You can read more about the effort here:

  http://www.ad1c.com/HamRadio/kc1xx_qsl.htm

I'll give you some some of the conclusions before my editorial comments:

  1.  It's expensive!  We spent over $2000 to confirm those QSOs.

  2.  It's time consuming!  We would never have done it if it meant
      confirming each QSL received via the bureau, one at a time.

  3.  Matt is pretty well caught up on direct cards (I think).

Having said that, let me editorialize a bit:

We only sent DX QSLs via the bureau.  We did not confirm stateside stations. If
you worked KC1XX because you needed NH or Hillsborough county or a KC1 prefix
on some band, sorry.  I have a box with the stateside QSLs from the first mass
mailing, if you want one, first use the log search engine to see if you are in
the log:

  http://www.kc1xx.com/logs/

Then send an SASE to AD1C, and I will make sure you get a QSL card in return.

I was hoping to get another batch of QSLs printed and mailed out this summer. I
don't know if it will happen this year, we're already a couple (few) years
behind again.

Before we did this, we received a number of complaints from DX stations, either
over the air or via packet spots, that they would not work KC1XX, he doesn't
QSL, etc. Being one of the top multi-multi stations in the United States, we
feel we have a responsibilty to set a good example.  So we sent out cards. The
following contest season, we received a number of on-air Thanks Yous from DX
stations for the QSL cards. We truly believe that this helped our contest
scores.

At KC1XX we primarily enter DX contests - CQWW and ARRL DX.  We also operate
WAE, WPX, 10m, 160m but primarily in the interest of working DX, not stateside
stations. Therefore, we primarily QSL DX, not stateside stations.  There is no
domestic QSL bureau at this time, and even if there was one, I believe the cost
of bulk-mailing stateside cards would be prohibitive.

Could we be better at this?  Sure we could. If you have sent a card to Matt and
haven't received a response, let me know. I don't have time to be a QSL
manager. I really would like to get the current batch of backlogged contest
QSOs confirmed, and I will shoot for the last week in August to do so.  But as
you can see, it's a few years between QSL batches, so there will be some
delays.

73 - Jim AD1C


=====
Jim Reisert AD1C, 7 Charlemont Court, North Chelmsford, MA 01863
USA +978-251-9933, <jjreisert at alum.mit.edu>, http://www.ad1c.com
PGP Fingerprint: D8E2 3D78 339F A7F1 8C13  1193 B5D1 4FB6 79D1 70DC