Qsl services available.
We now have four methods of confirming your contacts these days and I favor three of them in the scheme of things. With these advantage’s there is little excuse for not making an effort to qsl if you have requests, or you are an award hunter and want some wall paper in your shack.
So let’s take a look at all four and see what the old man thinks about each of them.
Number 1. My preferred method of confirming contacts for DX is still paper cards, something about receiving a distantly marked envelope in the mail. My qsl card collection of DX alone is quite large I have made a modest estimate of the number of DX cards I have and came up with a conservative estimate. It takes about 100 cards to make a one inch pile, if you compact them more can fit in the pile. I have eight file cabinet drawers at 14 inches long, that is the storage tray. Multiply 100 by 14 and you come up with 1400 at least in one cabinet, multiply this by eight and you have about 12.000 cards, there is possibly 1500, or more cards in the cabinets and very tightly packed. If that is the basis for counting then the figure becomes around 13.000. I have never counted them, no point, this is just an estimate based on some simple math.
The figure increases every year since I seek cards from expeditions and other DX stations I have worked send me their card for a reply. I usually add about two hundred cards a year. Yes, I have more file cabinets, but the question becomes available space, but we can work that out when we need it.
For any country claimed I have worked, I can produce a card, since only one entity is needed on the current list, well I have hopes, but in reality the chances are slim to none and slim left town.
Yes, I know sending cards directly can be a pain, postage, green stamps and you wait, I have about an 85% return,but you always have some one who fouls up the works. They pocket the green stamps, appear again in a couple of months to get more money and then vanish. No intention of sending cards direct, or via the bureau. In other words take your chances, but this method is pretty effective and works well for me.
Number 2 EQSL this has some advantages and disadvantages, but it does work and is simple to navigate. I was a little reluctant to sign up for this system, but glad I did. The advantage is simple to navigate as mentioned, you have the choice of taking their pre made qsl cards, or for a few extra bucks a year up load your own design. You have the advantage of storing the cards you get in their files, they can be recalled easily, or you can print them if you want to display your contacts on your shack walls. EQSL also offers any award ARRL offers, but EQSL is not accepted by ARRL towards DXCC, or any of the sponsored awards from the league. If you do not care, then by all means EQSL may work fine for you.
If you do not care for the paper awards offered by EQSL you can purchase a nice plaque to mark the achievement, rather expensive, but the money you saved in postage can be applied toward a plaque if you want one. I have not purchased any plaques, but know of some who have and they are nice indeed.
You will spend about $30.00 per year for membership, there is no free lunch, but one big problem is that many stations have a back log of 2000, or more cards to be answered and make no effort to clear their mail box. I rarely send a request via EQSL. I do a search of the station I just worked, if there is a big back log, there is little point in adding my request to this long list. Chances are, it may never be answered, DX stations prefer green stamps and of course EQSL provides no income for them. For those that only a few requests are in their mail box chances are they are the ones who will reply.
I reply to all requests and have out of 2500 cards, found only two that I rejected, one was for 60 meters, I do not work that band and the other for a RTTY contact. I do not work RTTY. You do have some freeloaders who want something for nothing, use the basic worst card of the lot, an ugly yellow, with black letters. Really a poor excuse for a card. I refused to use it, nor do I care for the cookie cutter cards provided by EQSL. I paid a little more per month, uploaded my own card and use it for my qsl card. It works and works well. So, take your chances on this one, it may be for you. BTW after paying my membership I had the program running within 5 minutes of signing on and there is no hassle if you change computers. Just enter your password and you are off and running.
To have your contacts count you must have AG status, this is explained on the site, you do have a few that do not have this, so basically their card is useless.
Number 3 is QRZ.com just a few days ago I have noticed that qrz has an award program going on their own, I am a member of qrz and use the logging program. I am in the process of logging all my DX contacts over many years and have found this to be most helpful. Previous to their award program confirming contacts on qrz was worthless, all you got was a gold star by the contact. Rather pointless, but now they have an award program and in fact I applied for the WAC award based on what I have confirmed already on the site. Navigation is easy and not a problem simple and to the point. You match contacts, you get the confirmed star, the computer does the rest for you.
I am not a free loader, so I donate to QRZ.com in order to use the logging program, you do not have to, but I support their effort and do not mind the expense of membership. Enter your contacts on the logging program and watch your file grow. It could not be easier.
Number 4 LOTW.
I know ARRL has touted this for years, but I found the program to be frustrating and confusing. I loaded the soft ware once, came to the conclusion it was too complex for what I was going to achieve. More pass words, secret cards sent in the mail, I even applied for my Orphan Annie Decoder ring, nothing helped. I dumped the soft ware.
A few months went by and I tried again, reloaded the software, read the instructions, they really did not make sense to me, dumped the soft ware again.
Finally, the third and final time I applied for that secret pass word card from the league, it arrived and I signed in to LOTW. I was more confused then ever, I found nothing on the site, it seems you cannot enter one contact at a time. I tried several expeditions that claimed on the site they had uploaded their logs to LOTW. I only got sorry we cannot find your contact. I downloaded the tutorial, it was over a hundred pages. The more I read, the more confused I got and the more confused I got the more frustrated I became. To me it is not worth the hassle, the aggravation, or the effort. You cannot obtain any qsl cards just the fact you worked the station you claim,that is if they match information.
You might find you like LOTW and nothing else, if you do and understand all the instructions and want to jump through hoops for an endless amount of time. Go for it. I do not want to devote hours of my time to try and make a complex program function. I want the results, up and running within a few minutes of singing up for the service. I have other things to consider, more dx hunting and searching for new DX challenge entities. I just do not need LOTW and have dumped the soft ware a third and final time. Little chance of reconsideration, or attempting a fourth try. I am done with it.
So now you have it, make your choice, see what works for you and confirm your contacts via that service. Now three out of four is not bad, but I expected far more out of ARRL and LOTW is a bust for me. If it works for you, fine, go for it and be happy.
