[UK-CONTEST] OT: RSGB move and QSL bureau - closure?

[Mike Ruttenberg G7TWC]

Don/et al,

I choose not to subscribe to PW because I don't feel I get anything I personally find 
worth reading. I had a subscription when I was 17, I no longer do. i have made my 
choice there on the basis of interest and cost.

Similarly I don't find much that catches my interest in Radcom either (though the 
content there is not the subject of this thread and I have no intention of making it 
so).

I use the bureau (though admittedly not often), and I appreciate the work done in the 
Ofcom negotiations, though cost saving is my prime motivator given the foresight of 
RSGB to seek cheaper alternatives to existing services (who wouldn't in a commercial 
world).

If there are savings to be make then cost savings in the bureau, I would have thought, 
would/could/should be passed on. If and when Radcom ever goes electronic then I would 
have thought the same discussion would be had, namely, "are we [the RSGB membership] 
getting value for money given the cost savings that outsourcing will deliver", 
irrespective of whether we use all/some/none of the services as members.

Mike

On Sun Dec 16 16:36 , "Don Field"  sent:

>Over 30,000 direct confirmations so far mailed out for 3B7C, and requests
>still coming in at 20-30 a day. We have seen no decline in % terms since our
>first (1998) expedition as 9M0C. As Dave NKC says, it will be interesting to
>see whether things have changed in another 10 years, but certainly no
>discernable change yet!
>
>On another matter, G7TWC's comment about "value for money". I would only ask
>that Mike check out the annual sub for PW or any of the bookstall computer
>mags. And then compare that with RSGB, whereby one gets a magazine and a
>whole lot more besides (much of it by unpaid volunteers). But I guess some
>folk are never satisfied.
>
>Don G3XTT
>
>
>On 16/12/2007, G3SXW g3sxw at btinternet.com> wrote:
>>
>> Peter,
>> YOU don't understand the magic of paper-QSLing. Your prerogative. But for
>> many folks it's much more than "information capable of digital
>> transmission".  It's not cold logic - it's human nature.
>>
>> Anyway, where is your evidence for "terminal decline"? I check the stats
>> on
>> all my DXpeditions. The incoming paper requests have run at around 50-60%
>> (depending on rarity) for decades. I discern no decline.
>> 73 de Roger/G3SXW.
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Peter Hobbs" peter at tilgate.co.uk>
>> To: "UK Contest reflector" uk-contest at contesting.com>
>> Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 3:02 PM
>> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] OT: RSGB move and QSL bureau - closure?
>>
>>
>> >> LoTW covers DXCC and WAS.......Nothing else.
>> >>
>> > . . . where the US leads, others inevitably follow . . .
>> >
>> > I may have been a little tongue-in-cheek, but QSLs are, after all,
>> nothing
>> > but information which is capable of digital transmission, as evidenced
>> by
>> > the precipitous decline in the letter sector of the postal service (now
>> > viable only as a result of the growth of junk mail).  Things are
>> changing
>> > fast - if one particular "soft" QSL solution bites the dust as a result
>> of
>> > NIH, better ones are bound to surface.
>> >
>> > In the same way as TV standards are eventually resolved, it will happen
>> > and
>> > it won't take long.  In a technical hobby such as ours, digital QSLing
>> > should be in the vanguard.   I certainly wouldn't put cash into a
>> > management
>> > buy-out of a manual sorting service in terminal decline, if that is what
>> > someone suggested could be a solution.
>> >
>> > How many contest entry logs now use the postal service?  And a QSL
>> fulfils
>> > a
>> > very similar function at the end of the day.
>> >
>> > 73
>> > Peter G3LET
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/uk-contest
>> >
>>
>>
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