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

Sun Dec 16 15:26:09 EST 2007

Mike
Would reducing the subs by a couple of quid make you that much happier?
I am all in favour of cutting costs and passing these savings on to our 
membership, but let's pass them on in the form of re-investment in the RSGB 
to support the fantastic work done to safeguard and further our hobby.
As for paper QSLs I have replied to a couple of thousands cards this year 
for my trips round the Scottish Islands without the buro there would be a 
lot of very disappointed amateurs throughout the world! I have been 
collecting paper QSL cards since the sixties and look forward to doing so 
for a long time to come.
The value of supporting the RSGB far outweighs the cost, at 84 pence a week 
it's almost too cheap !!
73
Jim,  MM0BQI

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Ruttenberg G7TWC" <g7twc at rutty.eclipse.co.uk>
To: <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 6:40 PM
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] OT: RSGB move and QSL bureau - closure?

> 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
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > UK-Contest mailing list
>>> > UK-Contest at contesting.com
>>> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/uk-contest
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> UK-Contest at contesting.com
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>>>
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