[Dx-qsl] Dead Beat QSL Stations/Managers

Tue Nov 2 18:27:16 EST 2004

At 14:47 02-11-04, you wrote:
>this survey for several years now that you really can't make a "dead beat" 
>list. Last year I had several qsl managers nominated for the Top 5 that were
>repeatedly bad mouthed on the reflectors as being "dead beats". As it 
>turned out these managers were some of the best of the best.

Exactly, it can't be at the whim of a couple of DisgruntledOldPharts © who 
forget to include SASEs or postage, etc, then kvetch when the get bupkis back.
>There are just to many variables in play that both the Qsl requestor and 
>manager have no control over that affect the delivery/receipt of the qsl card.
>As an example I had a couple of contributors to send me their worst list 
>last year and one of the Managers was KU9C and he was voted in the Top 5 
>by over
>2500 contributors.

Steve, of course, is probably one of the absolute best. Some kind of 
control would have to be in place to ensure a few gripes wouldn't land a 
good guy in there, ever. Nobody's perfect after all!
AS with most things in life, most only b*tch out the bad ones and take the 
good ones for granted. I'd go so far as to say most of the disgruntledness 
out there is directed to individual direct-only DX stations, not managers 
(though heaven knows there are some of those too).
But yes, absolutely, there should be such a forum -- with controls on it 
somehow -- to deal with this unpleasant aspect of Amateur Radio. It's no 
longer a trivial amount of a 14 cent stamp on a postcard. We're talking 
about a serious investment, bordering on a passionate hobby in its own 
right. At 2ドル a card roughly, if you're collecting a 5B DXCC or more, that's 
many hundreds of dollars plus the anxiety.
On the other side of the coin, if a deadbeat gets even 10 requests a day, 5 
days a week - even if only one G$ is included - that's 50ドル a week he steals 
from our fellow hams. After contests, etc, you can bet that's a *very* 
conservative number indeed. There's a reason that some of these guys are 
always 59(9) + 30 and always on the air. Are we doing ourselves any favours 
by "being gentlemen" and just ignoring this cancer? Officer Barbrady, I 
call Shenanigans!
No, I'm not talking about complaints of long turnaround times on occasion 
or using one envelope for several cards, yadda yadda. I'm talking about 
many different people reporting cards and money/IRCs/stamps sent and 
nothing returned over a period of years. Sometimes cards get lost, 
sometimes logs don't show, etc. All legit, but if nothing's received or 
heard for years, then there's a problem, and we really suck if we roll over 
and take it.
Just my two cents on the matter.
73 de Peter (W2IRT)
w2irt at nac.net
Please visit http://www.nyctrackbook.com for details of my book
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