[Fourlanders] W4NH QSL's

[Kos]

Brian, can I help out by handling QSL duties? Between handling the logs, 222 band captain, and the SVHFS treasury duties, you sound like you've got a lot going on when I'm not doing much of anything, other than the SVHFS website and showing up to eat Jeff's cooking. If you were to send me the ADIF export from Writelog after each contest, I could take it from there.

Either way, preprinted cards with checkboxes would probably save you tons of time, rather than messing around with printing and cutting card stock. I think some cards would be a good investment.

Kos




________________________________
From: Brian McCarthy <brian at rfacres.com>
To: wa4kxy at bellsouth.net
Cc: Fourlanders <fourlanders at contesting.com>
Sent: Tue, June 8, 2010 1:51:38 PM
Subject: Re: [Fourlanders] W4NH QSL's

The volume is not that large. Maybe as many as 20-30 for a June or September
contest. More if there is a huge band opening. The ugly truth is that I had
not been able to get myself to work on QSL's for the last year and a half
with my unemployment and related issues. I sent out about 80 pieces with
about 110 total cards.

Now that we have been at the same primary location for so many years, not as
many want the cards. The trouble is in the exceptions. Would you believe
that there are 6m and 2m county hunters out there?!? They want the specific
county we were operating from indicated. Unlucky for us, there is a county
line smack through the middle of the campsite.

Most people seem to want an individual card for each band. There have been
many times where I have sent 3-4 cards in one transaction (one card for each
band). I had one or two in this last batch that wanted cards from both Soco
Bald and "Sanford Shed" (W4ZST's).

At the moment, everything from year 2000 onward is in one database file. I
have to watch out for the July and January cards versus the June September
cards as one should say Soco Bald and the other should be Dahlonega. If we
operate other small contests, I will need to indicate the correct location
on those cards.

Since the volume is not large, I have been making the cards from 8 1/2 x 11
card stock paper. The design is simple, but easy to read. All the
information is on one side. By making the cards, I can customize them for
the odd requests. I have a few cards that say Hayward county and a few that
say Swain. I still have a few cards that say Glassy Knob and Wine Spring
Bald, but nobody has asked for those in a few years. I use a paper cutter to
keep the slices square and clean.

To add the QSO information, I use 30-up Avery label sheets and QSL'ing
software, BV7 by DF3CB. The individual QSO information can be searched
easily and tracked reasonably. I would not want to chase DXCC using BV7, but
it is very well suited to answering piles of cards quickly.

To get the data into BV7, I use the ADIF export function from Writelog.
These can be imported directly into the BV7 database.

I don't really see how this could be easily divided up to multiple people.
One thing that would help, a stack of printed Soco Bald and Dahlonega cards.
The Soco Bald cards should have the two counties as check boxes for the
county hunters. Something like 250 or 500 of each should set the starter
supply up nicely.

Anyhow, this is probably much more information than you expected in this
email. Watch for my next one where I rant on LoTW and copy ARRL Section and
Division representatives...

Brian
NX9O


On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 11:42 PM, Jim Worsham <wa4kxy at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> I have no idea who that was but I have a question.  How many W4NH QSL cards
> are you processing in a year?  I imagine after a contest it could be
> substantial.  I mention this because this is a group effort and if you need
> help processing those cards in a timely fashion don't be shy about asking.
>
> 73
> Jim, W4KXY
>
>
> It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart
> you are.  If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong.
> Richard P. Feynman
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fourlanders-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:fourlanders-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Brian McCarthy
> Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2010 10:37 PM
> To: Fourlanders
> Subject: [Fourlanders] W4NH QSL's
>
> I made an effort to get all the W4NH QSL'ing of SASE'd cards answered. I
> finished this weekend and the envelopes were dropped off at the P.O. today.
> I was watching to see if there was a card from a local that had been
> complaining about not getting a card. I did not really see any cards from
> Forsyth or North Fulton. Does anyone recall who it was that complained on
> the air (6m?) about not getting a card?
>
> Thanks,
> Brian
> NX9O
> _______________________________________________
> Fourlanders mailing list
> Fourlanders at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/fourlanders
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
Fourlanders mailing list
Fourlanders at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/fourlanders