© DELARA News a monthly publication of the Delaware Amateur Radio Association
Joe … the Other Joe
Joe Fischer, AA8TA
Do you QSL? Do I have to?
Let’s just say it and get it over with: I am not a fan of QSL cards. I got to thinking about this
after reading Bob Schenck’s (N2OO) column in the December 2018 CQ Magazine. Bob’s
thesis was that LoTW, FT8 and the International Grid Chase are harming ham radio. Why?
Because they are discouraging the use of QSL cards.
Those three items above are ARRL concepts with the last one requiring LoTW and FT8 users
being frequent LoTW users. LoTW is an online contact confirmation database. In my
opinion, it is a wonderful thing. After a session at the radio, I press a button on my logger,
the contacts are uploaded to LoTW, my contacts are matched to other hams there and I can
see who has confirmed my contacts. All without waddling down the driveway to my
mailbox to sift through all the junk mail there.
I can imagine some readers’ eyes getting big and wondering “what kind of un-American
heathen are you?” It’s not just Bob who enjoys physical QSL cards, many people who I have
talked to or have read about agree. I certainly do not begrudge their interest in those
things; indeed, I will send one to anybody who asks and I will pay for the stamp. Even if the
stamp is an overseas variety.
I check my LoTW account frequently and wonder who might have confirmed. I don’t mind
too much getting a domestic QSL card in the mail, but if I see a thick envelope from my
letter sorter, meaning I have a bunch of DX cards, I groan. It’s the work that I don’t enjoy.
Looking up the contact in my log, printing the card and addressing the envelope are not that
fun. If it’s DX, then trying to figure out the address is much less fun. I wonder how many
cards never get delivered because I messed up the address format.
So, Mr. Brilliant – why don’t you use the outgoing bureau? Yes, I have done that, but for the
small number of DX cards I get in a year, it is cheaper to mail direct than pay the high fees
the ARRL now charges. Am I lazy and cheap or what?
Writing this article caused me to do something that I have not done for a couple of years –
look at my forlorn pile of cards sitting in a shoe box at the edge of my desk. Looks to be
about 5 inches thick and many of those are cards from the ARRL’s W1AW portable
Centennial Celebration. I accidently requested those and regretted it but, oh well. I have a
box of hundreds of blank cards that I will never send and I kind of wish I did not have to
keep them, but there are those bureau cards which could come in any time over the next
several years.
Just for grins, I checked my database. In 2017, I made about 6,000 contacts and received
four domestic cards and 16 DX cards. Many of the DX cards were IARU contacts; why they
sent cards, I do not know. This year, I’ll make around 4,000 contacts and I think I got one
domestic card and six or eight DX cards so far. The domestic card was a promotional thing.
Contesters are not card exchangers, one more good thing about contesters.
I had a little debate (which almost got a bit heated) with a guy who loves cards and orders
batches of 5,000 cards. I could not send out that many cards in hundreds of years and I
would hate to think how much the postage would cost.
Pushing that LoTW button on my logger sure is easy. And cheap.