[Dx-qsl] Some Cards From PA and ON to USA Bureau Lost

Tue Sep 19 09:08:10 EDT 2006

To illustrate why some promised via bureau cards never arrive, here is
an account of what happened yesterday here at the ARRL Third Call Area
Incoming QSL Bureau.
A box from the Dutch QSL Bureau containing cards from ON and PA
stations (the Dutch and Belgian bureaus have recently combined their
shipments to save postage), which had been mailed on 25 March finally
arrived here at the current Third Call Area Bureau post office box.
It had detoured through the old Third Call Area Bureau post office in
Pennsylvania. We have a forwarding order on file there so the box did
eventually make it here to the correct address. Bureau managers are
supposed to consult the updated list of IARU Bureau addresses at
http://www.iaru.org/iaruqsl.html regularly but some do not.
The box as received was taped over and banded in such a way that it
appeared the box had initially contained more volume than it did when
we got it. Upon opening the box we found cards arrayed in a slapdash
manner intermixed with a bunch of CD's and broken CD covers. The
total number of cards in the box when we got it was almost exactly 400
cards. Normally the PA-ON bureau shipments number just over 1000
cards each, so we estimate that up to 600 QSLs have gone missing.
Those that remained were in good condition.
The CD's had no relation to bureau business and obviously had come
originally from a different box. They are being returned to the USPS.
In this day and age when packages arriving from overseas are checked
for security reasons by often overworked personnel, this sort of thing
will happen every now and then.
73, Fred Laun, K3ZO
Manager
NCDXA/ARRL Third Call Area Incoming QSL Bureau