[Dx-qsl] CQWW QSL's

Sun Oct 27 23:53:01 2002

At 09:33 PM 10/27/2002, you wrote:
>I was just wondering how successful folks have been at
>getting QSL's from the CQWW contest? I racked up 52
>new entities this weekend and am hoping to get some
>good responses.

Hey, Congrats!! That's quite a haul. I did about the same last year and I 
got a good number of QSLs back. I'd have gotten a lot more if I'd fully 
understood at the time just how to go about getting good returns, but I 
think I got about 40 or so new ones confirmed last fall out of about the 
same number worked, more or less.
Just by the bye, at the end of last year's CQWW I was at about 50 or 60 
total. I find contest QSLs come back from the bigger stations almost 100%, 
but not necessarily from Single-operator stations whose operators contest 
for skill and results not to paper chase. Hell, I'm still waiting for ZP6T 
from last year. Got 'im on the air again this year too :-) Hope the result 
will be better.
My best suggestion is to QSL direct to the those New Ones that were part of 
major contesting ops (like VP2B, V47KS, P40A, etc). The bonus is that most 
are stateside and require only an SASE. Then, for every new one that's in a 
foreign destination, look at the individual entities entries on QRZ and see 
if one operator welcomes QSL's over another (maybe puts his manager 's call 
on the QRZ.COM page, or has a picture of his card, says he's into awards 
himself, etc--as opposed to a page from another operator in the same new 
entity with no info at all). I'd send the latter stations cards through the 
bureau and hope for the best. If you only have a "marginal" possibility 
(let's say only one operator from <entity>, and he has nothing on QRZ.COM, 
I'd say do a little research and hope for the best with a direct QSL. 
Sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised.
I was only lucky enough to pick up Ascension Island and East Kirabati this 
year, so I sure hope the cards come back (#s 212 and 213)!! I desperately 
wanted Mongolia and Ogasawara--they were both on but I couldn't bust the 
pileups with 100W and dipole from the east coast :-( Those are the only 
things standing between me and a WAZ, and I'd give body parts 
(figuratively) for both of 'em confirmed < hi hi >!
Anyway, enough rambling from me, and congrats on a hard-fought contest and 
hard-earned results.
73 de W2IRT
Peter Dougherty
[email protected]
Please visit http://www.nyctrackbook.com
for details of my book, "Tracks of the New York City Subway"