| The QSL Card |
| After a radio contact is made with another station, it is usual to confirm the contact with the courtesy of exchanging QSL cards. This has been an Amateur tradition going back to the early days of experimental radio. The QSL card is a verification of the contact. All the larger clubs have their own printed cards, and many independent operators go to great expense in having their own individual cards printed. The majority of radio operators collect these cards for display or for club awards. These days, with the high cost of postage and printing, it has become an expensive side of the hobby. Perhaps in the future, we will be sending electronic cards via the internet. In the meantime, if you are going to be very active on the radio, the QSL cards are going to take up much of your time and pocket money! When QSL-ing, always keep in mind that many of exotic prefixes are in less developed areas of the world and those operators, like you, love to receive cards, but face great expense just to reply. It is always a good idea to send an addressed envelope and an IRC coupon to cover postage. It will always be appreciated and your returns will be much higher. Remember, the true spirit behind the exchange of cards. The quality of the card makes no difference, providing it has the correct information of the contact. Some of the cards I value most, are hand-made ones from Asia and South America. |
| The QSL card should have at least the following information: (1) The correct Call Sign of the station. (2) The date and time of the contact in UTC. (3) The frequency used and the mode. These are the essentials required, but often the card will include interesting information, such as details of equipment, power and antennas, etc. For certain club awards, it is useful to also include your Province or State. Using the Q Code (see Radio Note Book page), makes it easier to communicate with stations whose language might be different to your own. You can also use the Alta Vista Translator at: http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn For plain text translations in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, etc. |
"SPECIAL ACTIVATIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS" There are many operators who will ask for a "Contribution", usually $1 or $2 towards the costs. This is far from the true spirit behind the exchanging of QSL cards. Even some well known international clubs encourage this kind of activity, and somehow manage to come up with some really stupid "activations".... many going as far as to offer free membership and rewards to local operators to carry out these activations! There may be some excuse when this is a club sponsored activation of some remote island or Prefix, where there is a lot of expense involved, but then there are other ways to do this without passing the costs on to operators, whose only chance of obtaining a card for their collection totally depends on how much they are willing to part with. In recent years, many good operators will have little to do with this kind of activity... which is one reason why many have lost interest in DX-ing on 11 Meters. "dollar -a- card" activity should be discouraged. Not everyone collects cards, and it is not the whole objective behind having a QSO. |
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| " Remember the True Spirit behind the exchange of QSL cards." |
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| IMPORTANT DO NOT PUT ANY CALL SIGNS ON ENVELOPES, JUST THE OPERATORS NAME, PO BOX, Etc. |
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| HOME RADIO NOTE BOOK |
| New QSL's from Lake Macquarie QTH |
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