[Dx-qsl] In Defense of KU9C

Sun Aug 22 21:31:33 EDT 2004

Wow....I guess I took a good week to take a vacation!
I'm not going to defend what I do as a manager, but I'll state a few facts:
I handle over 100 stations, I handled last 3 years an average exceeding 70,000 QSOs per year, and something like 30-40,000 cards per year (I have the records somewhere, but I'm pretty sure this isn't overstating the situation.
If I get a sase, I try my best, other commitments aside, to get it back to you as soon as I can. THis requires logs, your card, your sase, and my cards, to all be in the same place at the same time. 
If I don't get your sase due to a mail failure, obviously I'm flying blind, and you don't get your card.
If I get your sase, it goes in the mail. I'm pretty sure one or two don't make it back to you, addressing, shredded, whatever. Stuff happens. I try my best to get what I get out...but part of the process is beyond my control
If i do a bunch of cards, and notice there are more than one sase going back to you, I combine them. I keep the extra SASE. However, I do not use it for personal use. If someone wants to pay my QSL bureau costs, I'll be glad to send them every extra SASE I have, and if you can find a way to make that balance positive for you, you're obviously a better QSL manager than I! As an aside, my bureau costs have been somewhere between 500ドル-750ドル PER YEAR, and the 'extra SASEs' pay less than 100ドル of that.
Lets see....oh, if you want to send me a LARGE number of QSLs in one envelope, like a ham did the other day, with 83 cents on the envelope sent to me and 37 cents on the envelope going back to him, well......you might as well use the bureau, as most of the cards, beyond the ones that fit in the sase will EVENTUALLY go back that way. However, I'm not particularly crazy about putting those QSOs on the top of the bureau 'to do pile'. In fact, they're likely to go quite a way near the bottom.
Folks. I have a 'real job' that pays me pretty darn well, a lot better than I can make with extra SASEs. I put a ton of hours into this hobby, and I've not touched a radio for 2+ years, as best my memory serves. I dont' claim to be the best, but I try to do my best, and that's all I can do.
I do attempt to answer email...but frankly, I get 500-1000 emails a day, 99.9% being SPAM. Having ku9c at arrl.net, etc., on many web pages (do a google search!) doesn't help. If the subject isn't one that hits me over the head, or if it ends up in my spam box, it's gone...life is too short to find your email amongst all the other 'interesting' email I get.
As a personal note, you'll find my activity in QSL managing to be slowing down. I've been slowly posting the logs to LOTW to help, and frankly, reading a few posts like I've had the pleasure of doing this evening make me a bit happier with this decision, which was a hard one to make. However, with the increase in demand for "instant gratification" that I've noticed in this hobby over the last few years has made the job of QSL managing, always a fairly 'thankless effort of love' even more thankless...
Enough said. I do appreciate the many positive email's I've read, and PLEASE DO NOT continue that thread! However, as someone wanted to post my response indicating what I do with the extra SASE's, I thought I'd let you know a bit of the process here. And, then, 'YOU can decide'.
73
STeve KU9C