[CQ-Contest] JA QSL Collecting Contest

[Stuart Santelmann KC1F]

> Hi Tanaka,
>
> I would love to ignore them but I would also like to reward other JA
> stations with QSL cards that are not playing this frivolous game
> and deserve them for their effort and expense of getting their cards to
> me!!!.
>
> 73, Dennis N6KI
>
>


Hello from frigid New Hampshire:

    Anyone who takes their DX contest QSLing seriously from the East Coast
knows that this problem is rampant with the Europeans as well.  In the past
I have just QSLed every received card with my logging program (DXbase), but
in the last batch of 500 cards or so I started taking the extra time to
research whether I had already sent a card to that station for that band and
mode.  I would estimate that a full 40 % of the requests I received were for
band/modes that I had had already issued cards for, and long enough ago that
they should have received them.  And yes, these are generally from European
contesters, and not the casual ops.  A sort of QSL spamming, I think !.  Now
that the cost of issuing bureau cards has gone up to about 6 cents per card
for me (standard YCCC card plus ARRL shipping), I'm taking more of my time
to weed out the duplicate requests.
     Maybe I should try one of those programs that picks out new callsigns
and pre-emptively QSLs them - except that then some DX stations would be
getting cards THEY don't want...

                                                        Stu            KC1F