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

Sun Dec 16 16:47:50 EST 2007

There is a danger that if the RSGB were to offer its members the choice of
not paying for the QSL bureau that it might become financially unviable and
would have to be stopped.
Personally I'm not much interested in QSL cards but I'm happy to have the
service included in my RSGB membership just in case I change my mind at some
time.
If you focus too much on cost then you run the risk of losing sight of the
actual value of a service, so my vote goes towards keeping things as they
are.

John
MM0JXI

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Martin
Sent: 16 December 2007 20:26
To: g7twc at rutty.eclipse.co.uk; uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] OT: RSGB move and QSL bureau - closure?

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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