[Dx-qsl] Contest QSLs

Fri Apr 5 17:22:01 2002

Bridget,
In general, I agree with you. My feeling is that if you work me in a
contest and I send you a QSL request, you are honor bound to answer it.
That doesn't mean a full color QSL card, nor does it mean you have to drop
everything and do it right this instant, but sometime in a reasonable time
period.
Some amateurs are being mis-labeled as poor QSL'ers either because they
don't respond fast enough, in someone else's opinion, or because they never
got the request in the first place. Some people are so used to instant
everything they forget that the bureaus take time, sometimes a long time, to
work. And some people go through conniptions if they don't get a 3 day turn
around on their request. Takes all kinds.
AI6V (P40V / P49V) is a great example of a good contester & a good QSL'er.
I don't know how many times I've worked Carl over the years in Aruba, he has
always answered my request without question or complaint. Of course, Carl
is also an example of QSL I normally won't request in the future unless it's
for a new band or mode (I don't think I've gotten him on any WARC bands yet)
because I've successfully QSL'd with him so many times.
On the other hand:
I've read the article by AD1C. I have a lot of respect for Jim and the
KC1XX crew, and I can sympathize with their situation. But when you
consider the time, effort, and most importantly $$ that have gone into that
contest station, I think they're being short-sighted with their position on
QSL requests. I'm sorry, it doesn't take much to go to a printer and get a
QSL card design printed on perforated card stock (such as Avery 8387). You
can then run the other side of the cards through a standard ink jet or laser
printer and generate quality looking cards cheaply. You won't have to stick
labels on them either -- and splitting them up is faster.
I've done just that with my ARRL DX Phone & CQ WPX Phone QSL's. Total
processing time, including sorting and parsing the database, was about 2
hours for 350 QSO's for the last batch. I just have to pick out the ones
I'm going to send direct, and the rest go out to the bureau on Monday.
There's no excuse for not responding to a QSL card. And if a high-QSO
contest station doesn't want to answer cards, shame on them.
73, ron wn3vaw
"Why, he's no fun, he fell right over."
-- The Firesign Theatre
----- Original Message -----
From: Allan & Bridget <[email protected]>
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 4:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Dx-qsl] Contest QSLs
Hi, Tony,
What are going to be the criteria for calling someone a bad QSLer? I guess
that's my only concern. I agree that anyone who wants to call CQ on the air
(contest or not) should be willing to answer QSL cards...especially for
those people that have helped him/her have a successful contest score (it's
been proven that the "casual contester" is VERY important to a person's
score), but I think that the high volumes of QSL cards that some of these
people receive should also be taken into account...AD1C wrote about this:
http://www.kc1xx.com/qsls/kc1xx_qsl.htm with regards to KC1XX's situation.
I have received cards from many people that have been labeled bad QSLers,
and I know others with a bad QSLing reputation who have simply gotten
behind. K4WI (ex-K4JYO) has just printed over 5,000 labels that he and his
wife are now attaching to QSL cards. If he truly refused to answer QSLs we
would not have allowed him to use the club call of AI4AA in the last
contest.
All this to say that I'd hate for someone's reputation and/or even contest
score to be hurt because he/she was listed as a bad QSLer when often there
are circumstances that differ from a simple refusal to QSL. At the same
time, I have no problem with someone making sure that a true non-QSLer is
"blacklisted."
One of the things I like about this list is that there is a very large base
of people here and it usually becomes quite obvious whether or not someone
QSLs, along with reasons why a particular person might not be returning QSLs
(Abubaker, with the call 5A1A is a good example).
Best wishes on getting the list together and know that if I'm "searching and
pouncing" that I'll be more than happy to support the boycott of operators
who are definite bad QSLers. That being said, I hope you've received my
cards via the bureau by now. =)
73,
Bridget, KS4YT
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