[CQ-Contest] QSLing was:JA QSL Collecting Contest

[Pete Smith]

At 11:58 AM 1/16/04 +0000, Stuart Santelmann KC1F wrote:
>     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...

Pre-emptive QSLing is the only thing that makes sense to me, and DX4WIN 
makes it easy to QSL only new band/mode combinations, but having just taken 
another 40 lb box of received QSLs up to the attic, I'm going to make sure 
that my next outgoing batch says, in BIG letters, "Thanks for the QSO -- 
reply not necessary."   And also, "All QSOs confirmed via LOTW."

I hope that eventually LOTW will become so ubiquitous that people will no 
longer want or need my paper QSL, but until then, I don't think we have any 
choice.

73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the World HF Contest Station Database
Updated 9 Jan 04
www.pvrc.org/wcsd/wcsdsearch.htm