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QSL CARDS A FEW CARDS FROM MY COLLECTION
The Flag of Earth QSL...the Earth, Sun, and Moon and the void of Space
A Word About eQSLS ...Before I get into my QSL collection here, I would encourage those of you who are active in making contacts , chasing awards, or who like to collect QSL cards to take a look at the eQSL program http://www.eqsl.cc/qslcard/Index.cfm and see how easy it is to send QSLs that you can hold in your hand within minutes of making a contact stateside or overseas. Currently, eQSLs are not accepted for ARRL awards or event contact confirmation. The League says it is concerned with the security of such cards when used for the awards program supported by the ARRL. Now however, eQSLs offers a way to verify the sender as being who he/she claims to be and as being a licensed amateur. It is called the Authenticity Guaranteed or AG verification. This verification requires the amateur sending a QSL to send a copy of his/her license to eQSL for verification and file. In this way, you (and the folks protecting the award program) know for sure who sent the card. It actually is much more secure (verified) than a card sent though the mail it would seem. Several advantages of the eQSL program include;
5. CQ Magazine and most everyone else has already moved to accept eQSLs for their prestigious awards. 6. A majority of Amateurs stateside and overseas are using eQSLs, although not for ARRL administered awards such as WAS, WAC, DXCC, etc. 7. eQSLs are considerably more simple to use than Logbook of the World (LoTW), and seem to be more internationally used than LoTW. If, after looking at the eQSL link above, you agree that it makes sense for the ARRL to again review its policy of non-acceptance of eQSLs for awards, please contact your area ARRL Director and respectfully request that the board take another look in light of the new Authenticity Guaranteed or AG verification procedure. In these tough economic times, Amateurs could save a lot of money not to mention the savings in time to get/send QSL cards. Note that the intent here this is not to replace LoTW, but rather to just provide Amateurs another viable option for sending/receiving QSL cards. Please consider expressing your opinion (hopefully in support) to your elected representative on this matter. OK...enough on that...now let's to look at a few of the QSLs in the collection.
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Collecting QSL cards is a great part of Amateur Radio and to many Hams, it is almost a hobby unto itself. It is always fun to get cards from "the Bureau" or by direct mail and I have accumulated a lot of cards over the years. Posted here are just a very few of the hundreds of QSLs I collected. I lost a couple of hundred prized cards due to water damage during one of my many moves while in the military and I learned a good lesson about packing and protecting QSLs from that experience! Now rather than keep all my cards in a file box, I thought some of you might enjoy seeing some callsigns from around the globe. You may see some QSL prefixes you know and some you probably don't (like XQ8AG), but if you are like me you find most any QSL interesting. I have only about 65-70 DX entities shown here and I tried to show a few unusual callsigns and some attractive cards from years past. Many countries are not shown in this collection and this is just due to my saving space on the web site. One very special QSL card to me (row #8) is the "5YE" card which was a QSL from club station at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in the 1920's. A couple of other Hams and I wanted to activate the Amateur Radio Club at Ole Miss when we attended there in 1959. We planned, and in fact did put a station on the air with the University's club call of W5YE. We used our our own equipment set up a station in the Astronomical Observatory on campus. While putting this all together, we were told by our Physics Department faculty sponsor that there was some old equipment in the attic of the Physics building and we could look through this gear to see if we could use any of it for the new club. Imagine our surprise when we got to the attic and discovered it was all "Spark Gap" equipment from the 1920's! We left the old equipment in the attic, but In one box we found a box of old QSL cards including a small stack of blank "5YE" cards used by the then student operators and we each kept one card as a souvenir and keepsake. It was interesting to note that at least four of the names on this QSL shown went on to become Deans and/or Professors at Ole Miss in later years. This QSL card is now approaching 90 years of age! I went on to graduate from Louisiana Tech University (W5HGT row #7) rather than Ole Miss, but this "5YE" QSL has been a really special card for my collection. Next to the original W5YE QSL is the QSL of Judge Brian Hunsaker, the new holder of the W5YE callsign! Brian agreed to let me post his card next to the original card to bring this story up to date! Another unusual QSL card was from a contact I made in July of 1985 while in Korea as HL9EZ. I worked XZ9A which turned out to be a group of Burma guerillas fighting the socialist military government. I have shown both the front and back of the card so you can see the group pictured in uniforms and armed standing around the Ham rig. A bit unusual to say the least to find guerilla fighters operating in the jungle, but playing on Ham Radio and having a first class QSL card! The contact/card is not recognized as a valid contact for "Burma" (now officially called the Union of Myanmar). The nation has been ruled by a military junta since 1962 and of course the rebels were not recognized by the Burmese government. The ARRL and IARU had little recourse but to follow the de facto government's ruling on this. It still makes for an interesting card. I have more than once wondered what happened to these ops. Some of the QSOs/QSLs shown were made using my home call here in the US. Some contacts were made when I was stationed in Germany as DA1EZ (1975-78). Other contacts were made while I was stationed in South Korea and operated as HL9EZ (1981-82). I have operated portable and mobile all over the US, and even some aeronautical mobile while flying around in Region 3 (Asia and Oceania). Contacts were made on CW and SSB. Some were QRP and some were QRO contacts. I also operated CW/SSB on OSCARS 6/7/8 satellites from the US and Germany. On row #5, card set #5, there are another two interesting cards. XQ8AG was a Ham station at one of the a Project Vanguard tracking sites set up during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) to track the first US satellite launched during the IGY (1958 as I recall). The launch program/satellite was called Project Vanguard. This site was located in the Atacama desert in a place so dry that at the time, it had not rained a measurable amount in over 18 years. I remember the operator said there were over 15 Hams at this one site and only one rig, so they had to stand in line to operate! The other card on row #5 and set 5 was from K4JKP/Aeronautical Mobile who was in a B-47 bomber flying over my house late one night when 15 meters had closed for the evening. I tuned across the band heard a very strong carrier (we were all on AM in those days) and I thought it a local. It was of sorts... K4JKP was right over my home town at something like 25,000 ft and when I raised the window, I could hear his jet engines very softly in the night air. We talked for a while and signed when he was over eastern Alabama a few minutes later. The closest thing I ever came to really being a 'somewhat rare' DX station was when I was in the military and stationed in South Korea just south of the DMZ. As I recall, there were fewer than 60 HL9's in country at the time and many of them were not very active on the bands, so it was really easy to make DX contacts as everyone wanted a QSO with an HL9. Pileups seemed to follow every time my callsign showed up on the band. I learned that having an uncommon callsign could be both fun and a pain at the same time. Hi! My equipment for all this ranged from a high end Collins KW and 4 elements on 20 meters at 100', to 5 watts CW and a mobile whip. Mostly, I used equipment in between the big and the small, but no matter...it was always fun! I remember many of these QSOs when they took place and there are some interesting stories that go with a lot of these contacts. In any event, these QSLs have been fun to look over down through the years so I thought I'd share them. I hope you enjoy them and perhaps see a callsign you know.
(Pick a page of cards and click on it to see larger size.) 1.
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