More New K9ZW QSL Cards

More new K9ZW QSL Cards (upper right is a guest card) – Fronts

My remaining three designs arrived from printing, along with a variation made up as a “Guest Operator’s QSL Card” for people operating from my Washington Island neighbor & friend George W9EVT’s station.

These are updates to designs Jeff K1NSS did for me back in the 2014-2015 timeframe, that I never had printed as physical QSL cards. A series of distractions, an anticipated QTH move that would have required rework before printing that didn’t happen in the end, and our actual home QTH move kept putting the project on the back burner.

QSL Cards – K9ZW 2021 Update

Recently had a couple people inquire on where I am at with QSLing, particularly on paper QSL cards.

As of January 2021 here is where I am at:

eQSL & QRZ.com postings – these are done weekly and should be up to date.
LoTW postings – this is done roughly once a month, and would be up to date through 2020
Paper QSLing by SASE – is still on hiatus but expected to resume soon, and will take a while to catch up
GlobalQSL DX QSL Cards – on hiatus until I have designs – will likely be Q3 2021 before I get back at this QSL method

My formal QSL cards became obsolete when my home QTH station has dismantled and my operations moved to my work QTH’s tower and my new home QTH antennas. Our home move was complicated, as we bought the home we moved to with much of its contents, leaving us an extra tier of tasks as we moved. I didn’t get at having new cards made right away. With the CCP-Virus issues my card designer has been working remote, so the new designs are not finished nor are new cards printed.

In normal days I would expect to be able to put a timeline on a small project like this, but in our CCP-Virus disrupted world setting a deadline is unrealistic.

So I’ll fall back on that old two word way to explain that it will happen on its own schedule with a promise of “Soon Come..”

73

Steve
K9ZW

The Art of QSLing – New Tab

Have created a new tab on the menu above – “The Art of QSLing” which offers links to articles on the QSL process.

Later additions will include some direct on-line QSL resources.

Thank you – 73

Steve
K9ZW

Doing a QSL Seminar for Mancorad W9DK

For the upcoming Saturday January 21st I’ve been drafted to do a presentation and lead a discussion on QSLs for our local radio club – Mancorad W9DK

My outline points for the presentation on QSLing are:

•When should you QSL?
•What should be on your QSL card?
•What to do when cards you receive have problems?
•How to ask for aQSL Card?
•How to actually GET that Card?
•Ways to send your QSL cards out.
•The Electronic QSL – eQSL & LoTW options.
•The Famous “Plum Method” of Foreign Stamped SASEs.
•Bureau services like GlobalQSL.
•What are those SWL Cards and do you answer them?
•The use of “Green Stamps,” IRC (International Reply Coupons) and Donations.
•Special Twists, Like the Special Currency System.
•QSLing with DXpeditions.
•What is a Bureau and how do I use them?
•What does all this Cost?
•When to trade Money for Time, or Time for Money, in QSLing?
•Resources for the QSLing Radio Amateur.

I’ll be leading the presentation and discussion, hopefully with one or more of the guests I’ve invited.

Should be fun and if the handouts are well received I’ll see about getting them put up on the club blog and perhaps here.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Getting my QSLing Up to Date!

Making an effort here to get my QSLing up to date.  Unsing Global QSL http://www.globalqsl.com/ the vast majority of my DX QSLs should be caught up.  From the No Manager/No GlobalQSL/No Bureau courtesy information from GlobalQSL of the last roughly 1100 cards about 7 or 8 will have to be done here manually as directs.

While this takes care of my DX catch up, I am at least 400 cards behind on domestic QSLs.  I had been pretty good until until I bluntly just got a bit bored with the paperwork side of QSLing and let that side slip.

I do eQSLs as well http://www.eqsl.cc/ automatically as as much of a back-up log as anything, and about once every couple years I put up with the silly technical hurdles of LoTW and upload my logs there.

I’ll have to see about setting up a label printer and doing the domestic QSLs in arrears, so I can get back to even up.

BTW here are my current GlobalQSL card front faces.

K9ZW Home QTH QSL Frontside Image

and

K9ZW Washington Island WI001L QSL Frontside Image

My domestic cards are not all similar, as I often use a Lake Michigan Theme card I had printed up.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Simple Thoughts on a Complex Mess – LoTW, Run or Drop?

Tonight I received an ARRL email that my K9ZW LoTW (Logbook of the World) certificate is expiring in three weeks, and if I just followed some simple instructions it would all be easy.

Rubbish – twenty minutes later I’m still in the midst of dealing with the quirks of LoTW arcane .tq6 and .p12 file mysteries and the issues of upgrading my computer hardware several times during the three years this certificate existed.

I can renew a credit card in moments online, or I can file in all sorts of truly mission-critical online government data (like with the FAA & FCC licensing branches) in moments – BUT to do deal with LoTW is long winded, convoluted, sensitive to hardware (wonder what would happen if I was running a VM sandbox – say Parallels or BootCamp – and then tried to run the Windows version of LoTW in that ethereal environment?).

I’m going to revisit LoTW in a couple days – perhaps the Certificate Gremlins will let my software work and I might be a better mood – but I am thinking it is time for this Life ARRL Member to make a LoTW statement and just pack in a LoTW.

Computer time is measured in not only “clock time” but in “cost/benefit time.” The first is our usual measure of passage of time, and the second a revisit of that time weighted in what benefit/pleasure we get for our time investment balanced against the costs to do the activity (dollars, technical costs and the time used itself).

LoTW is a failure for me in “cost/benefit time.” It simple is to fussy and a time-eater with so little payback for my personal participation in the hobby.

Maybe my experience is untypical – given that I use several computers on several platforms and update them very regularly – but when doing on-line banking is easy compared to a QSL logging system, that QSL logging system is too flawed to waste time upon.

More in a couple days.

73

Steve
K9ZW