QSL CARDS

By Roger Western G3SXW

We use the previous year’s card as the example from which to develop the back of the card. I send photos and text to Gennady, he (usually the same day) sends me a draft lay-out. There are usually a couple of very minor amendments, then he goes to print.

The upshot is that within four weeks of getting home I am posting out cards, usually over the Christmas holiday period. My garage is groaning with the weight of all the incoming cards over so many years!

As Mike KC7V says, we also upload the log to CQ Magazine, LoTW and ClubLog – all within just 2-3 weeks of getting home. We used to firstly spend a day or two eye-balling the log for impossible call-signs and making a handful of corrections, but we don’t even do that these days.

Over the years in West Africa we have made some 250,000 QSOs of which some 50% have resulted in a QSL request. At an average of two QSOs per card this suggests that some 60,000+ cards have been sent to ‘The Deserving’. Of course we also respond efficiently to QSL requests via bureau – that normally results in a peak of incoming cards about 12-18 months after the trip, starting to tail off after two years. A trickle of cards still arrives many years later. With the spread of LoTW the volume of requests is reducing these days, especially from USA.

Broadly speaking, there is no cost. I find that income from direct requests exceeds the cost (print and postage) enough to cover bureau costs, so the whole account more or less breaks even. We feel that it’s very important to provide cards for anyone who wants one (provided they are in the log, of course!) because we have had enormous fun making the QSOs, so then we have to pay-back, so to speak. But we do so most willingly.