[CQ-Contest] Sending LOTS of bureau QSL's - recommendations?

[Bill Parry]

Mark,

I also get a lot of QSLs and need to respond to them. My logging program is
nicely written to help with the process. I use my logging program daily to
keep up and import my contest logs into the same logging program. For a
while I used mail labels and I agree that labels are not the best idea. They
are costly and hard to deal with. I have arthritis in my hands and peeling
off those labels was a real "pain".

I have since started printing the QSL info directly on the QSL cards. This
is the best thing you can do to help solve your problem. I "pre-emptively"
QSL - sort of. I can print up to three QSOs on each QSL card, so if I
respond to a QSL from a station, the program calls up all of my QSOs from
that station and I include up to two more contacts with that station. Many
stations want a QSL for "every" contact! Having all the contacts and
information on QSLs for that station is helpful in not duplicating QSL
cards. The cards come out printed in order just the way the bureau wants
them. I almost always respond to all QSLs within the week.

I use one color cards on pretty light weight stock so that the cost per
pound is reduced as is the cost of postage to the Outgoing bureau. I don't
have a fancy printer, just an "all in one" HP2175 and I can respond to about
200 cards from the bureau in about and hour from start to finish. The
logging program updates the fact that I have received a card from this
contact and that I have responded and the date.

The program I use is DXBase but I bet most of the good logging programs will
do the same thing.

If you try to QSL to everyone, you are still going to get a lot of cards
through the bureau. It takes a while for the cards to get where they are
going and many DX stations will send additional cards to you through the
bureau if they haven't gotten your card in 3 months or less! I don't send
duplicates unless they have had at least a year to get my card through the
bureau system. A second issue is that of cost. The cost of QSLing to
everyone is going to be prohibitive and you will be sending out a great many
cards to stations that are not interested in your QSL.

I also upload all my QSOs to both LOTW and e-QSL. I know that e-QSL is
really not worth much but if it cuts down on the number of cards it's worth
it and it costs nothing. Using this process for the last two years has cut
down the number of QSLs that I get considerably.

Good luck and Merry Christmas
Bill, W5VX
    

>-----Original Message-----
>From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:cq-contest-
>bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Mark Bailey
>Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 7:00 AM
>To: CQ Contest
>Subject: [CQ-Contest] Sending LOTS of bureau QSL's - recommendations?
>
>Good day, everyone:
>
>I am drowning in bureau QSL cards!  :-)  I think the answer to
>this is going to be automatically QSL'ing all of the DX stations
>I work.  Does anyone have recommendations how to
>use to manage this and where to get the printing done?  I
>contacted a local printer we use at work but they can't deal
>with varying copy.
>
>My goal is to minimize the amount of time I need to devote to
>managing the QSL's.  Peeling thousands of labels or trying to
>print thousands of QSL cards on my home printer are not very
>appealing prospects.  I need to manage multiple callsigns and
>locations.
>
>I have read Jim Reisert's excellent article on managing the KC1XX
>QSL cards (http://www.ad1c.com/HamRadio/kc1xx_qsl.htm).  I have
>also fiddled with the BV program, which is very impressive.
>
>I'm sure it will take a lot of work to set up a system and I'd
>like to only do that once!
>
>Are any of you "pre-emptively" QSL'ing a large number of contacts?
>How do you do it?  Do you have any advice on how to approach it?
>
>Thanks in advance for your advice and help!
>
>73,
>
>Mark, KD4D
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>CQ-Contest mailing list
>CQ-Contest at contesting.com
>http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest