One aspect of our hobby that I have always enjoyed is collecting QSL's. I
have a certain amount of interest in various operating awards. Currently my
goals are 6 and 2 meter WAS & DXCC and 80 and 160 meter DXCC. Overall, my
rate of return on QSL's sent is good for DX stations, but it is dismal for US
stations. I always include an SASE and a personal note, and generally engage
in the type of QSO the other person seems to be looking for, such as a quick
exhange of reports on AU or MS or an opening or a more lengthy QSO when
conditions are appropriate. In the past I have even included contact cards
already filled out with the QSO information so the repcient only had to sign
it and return it in the enclosed SASE.

I would like to hear others' opinions as to the reasons for not returning a
QSL and on how to improve the rate of return.

What is even worse is the rate of return for contest QSO's via Logbook
of the World which is free and almost effortless if one has a computer
log which contester's usually have.

Ron WA0KDS

pd wrote:

One aspect of our hobby that I have always enjoyed is collecting QSL's. I
have a certain amount of interest in various operating awards. Currently my
goals are 6 and 2 meter WAS & DXCC and 80 and 160 meter DXCC. Overall, my
rate of return on QSL's sent is good for DX stations, but it is dismal for US
stations. I always include an SASE and a personal note, and generally engage
in the type of QSO the other person seems to be looking for, such as a quick
exhange of reports on AU or MS or an opening or a more lengthy QSO when
conditions are appropriate. In the past I have even included contact cards
already filled out with the QSO information so the repcient only had to sign
it and return it in the enclosed SASE.

I would like to hear others' opinions as to the reasons for not returning a
QSL and on how to improve the rate of return.

"Ron" wrote in message ...
What is even worse is the rate of return for contest QSO's via Logbook of the
World which is free and almost effortless if one has a computer log which
contester's usually have.

My experience is just the opposite. I have just over 30,000 QSO's uploaded to
LoTW. My overall hit rate is 13%, but if I examine contest weekend dates only,
my hit rate is 24%. If I narrow the seach to just domestic contest weekends
(SS, NAQP, state QSO parties), the hit rate is 41%. That tells me that
contesters are far more involved in LoTW than is typical of the overall ham
community.

73, de Hans, K0HB

Yes QSLing for domestic contests is better than DX but 41 % is still
pretty poor considering the electronic log issue.



KØHB wrote:
"Ron" wrote in message ...

What is even worse is the rate of return for contest QSO's via Logbook of the
World which is free and almost effortless if one has a computer log which
contester's usually have.


My experience is just the opposite. I have just over 30,000 QSO's uploaded to
LoTW. My overall hit rate is 13%, but if I examine contest weekend dates only,
my hit rate is 24%. If I narrow the seach to just domestic contest weekends
(SS, NAQP, state QSO parties), the hit rate is 41%. That tells me that
contesters are far more involved in LoTW than is typical of the overall ham
community.

73, de Hans, K0HB

"Ron" wrote

Yes QSLing for domestic contests is better than DX but 41 % is still pretty
poor considering the electronic log issue.

I don't think it's poor at all, given that I experienced 1% "paper" QSL rate
before LoTW.

73, de Hans, K0HB

Some of us simply don't want to use electronic logs!!!

Ron wrote:

Yes QSLing for domestic contests is better than DX but 41 % is still
pretty poor considering the electronic log issue.



KØHB wrote:

"Ron" wrote in message
...

What is even worse is the rate of return for contest QSO's via
Logbook of the World which is free and almost effortless if one has a
computer log which contester's usually have.



My experience is just the opposite. I have just over 30,000 QSO's
uploaded to LoTW. My overall hit rate is 13%, but if I examine
contest weekend dates only, my hit rate is 24%. If I narrow the seach
to just domestic contest weekends (SS, NAQP, state QSO parties), the
hit rate is 41%. That tells me that contesters are far more involved
in LoTW than is typical of the overall ham community.

73, de Hans, K0HB

Ham op wrote:

Some of us simply don't want to use electronic logs!!!

How is this anything to brag about?

On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 20:18:04 GMT, (pd) wrote:

One aspect of our hobby that I have always enjoyed is collecting QSL's. I
have a certain amount of interest in various operating awards. Currently my
goals are 6 and 2 meter WAS & DXCC and 80 and 160 meter DXCC. Overall, my
rate of return on QSL's sent is good for DX stations, but it is dismal for US
stations. I always include an SASE and a personal note, and generally engage
in the type of QSO the other person seems to be looking for, such as a quick
exhange of reports on AU or MS or an opening or a more lengthy QSO when
conditions are appropriate. In the past I have even included contact cards
already filled out with the QSO information so the repcient only had to sign
it and return it in the enclosed SASE.

I would like to hear others' opinions as to the reasons for not returning a
QSL and on how to improve the rate of return.

Welcome to ham radio in the 21st century.

I worked my first 2 meter MS QSO in about 1970. In those days, hams
were unfailingly polite and QSL rates were essentially 100%. I think
it was the expertise of the hams, and the difficulty of the QSOs that
made it important to memorialize the contacts.

I wasn't low-band DXing then, but I imagine that it was a similar
situation.

Today's new hams just don't have the courtesy to give a damn about a
QSL. After all, the packet cluster tuned their radio to the
frequency, the voice keyer made the call and it's time to move on. On
vhf, the new digital modes that allow a "QSO" to take place without
the participants actually hearing each other likely makes a QSL seem
like an anachronism.

I too am having a hard time with QSL returns but in this case it's
from DX. I need a few 80-meter cards for 5BDXCC and can't get them.
When I first started semi-seriously DXing in the late 70's my returns
were nearly 100%.

The 2 or 3 that I need for Honor Roll will likely come from
expeditions so I'll probably get them but otherwise, I feel for you
and don't know what the answer is.

Sorry to come across as a sour old fart, but that's the way I see it.

Hi Wes,

Please don't lose hope in us younger hams. I for one recently got back
into the hobby after about 10 years. I earned my novice back when I was
13 but grew out of it during my college years and KC4GHA finally
expired in '97. I started getting the bug back about a year ago when I
was working a grave shift and listening to a Uniden scanner to keep me
company. One night when a nasty rotating super cell was moving into the
Austin area, I monitored two hams tracking the storm. One of the hams
happened to be a morning weather anchor at a local station and was
relaying radar information back to the other ham in the field. Well
being an life long weather enthusiast, this did it for me! Skywarn
initially attracted me back into the hobby. I went to take my
technician exam primarily to be able to use 2m/70cm phone for Skywarn
activities with the CW portion of it as an after thought. However, when
I got to the testing facility and the VE examining team found out I
held a previous novice licence and knew the code, they weren't about to
let me get out of there without atleast trying to pass the code part of
the exam. So I took it and I passed! I could hardly believe it was
still with enough to bearly make enough characters in a row at 5 wpm!

This was enough for me to save up and try to get back on HF. I shopped
around for a while. I looked at all the new high tech IC-706's and all
the others that do virtually everything for you. I also looked at some
other older radios and with price also being a deciding factor I
finally settled for a used FT-101B with a bunch of accessories for
about $350. I've been using this setup with a Cliff Dweller dipole
through a MFJ tuner and I love it!!! I work almost exclusively CW,
usually on 40M. My station works beautifully. I'm one of those geeks
that actually *enjoys* tuning up the final amplifier! I really like the
nastagia of older equipment with lots of knobs and switches to mess
with in order to change frequencies.

So at the age of 31, I enjoy amatuer radio more than I ever have and I
take pride in every qso I make whether it be a few counties over or a
weak dx contact on the other side of the globe. And you bet I will send
a QSL to EVERY contact I make! I always enjoy getting QSL cards (when
they do come, hi).


73,
Matt

On 22 Jun 2005 08:13:01 -0700, wrote:

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your comments. Of course I was painting with too broad a
brush, but that's Usenet [g].

Welcome back to the fold. I no longer QSL every QSO but I *do* QSL
every one received (as long as they're in the log), even SWL cards and
JA's [g].

Regards,

Wes


Hi Wes,

Please don't lose hope in us younger hams. I for one recently got back
into the hobby after about 10 years. I earned my novice back when I was
13 but grew out of it during my college years and KC4GHA finally
expired in '97. I started getting the bug back about a year ago when I
was working a grave shift and listening to a Uniden scanner to keep me
company. One night when a nasty rotating super cell was moving into the
Austin area, I monitored two hams tracking the storm. One of the hams
happened to be a morning weather anchor at a local station and was
relaying radar information back to the other ham in the field. Well
being an life long weather enthusiast, this did it for me! Skywarn
initially attracted me back into the hobby. I went to take my
technician exam primarily to be able to use 2m/70cm phone for Skywarn
activities with the CW portion of it as an after thought. However, when
I got to the testing facility and the VE examining team found out I
held a previous novice licence and knew the code, they weren't about to
let me get out of there without atleast trying to pass the code part of
the exam. So I took it and I passed! I could hardly believe it was
still with enough to bearly make enough characters in a row at 5 wpm!

This was enough for me to save up and try to get back on HF. I shopped
around for a while. I looked at all the new high tech IC-706's and all
the others that do virtually everything for you. I also looked at some
other older radios and with price also being a deciding factor I
finally settled for a used FT-101B with a bunch of accessories for
about $350. I've been using this setup with a Cliff Dweller dipole
through a MFJ tuner and I love it!!! I work almost exclusively CW,
usually on 40M. My station works beautifully. I'm one of those geeks
that actually *enjoys* tuning up the final amplifier! I really like the
nastagia of older equipment with lots of knobs and switches to mess
with in order to change frequencies.

So at the age of 31, I enjoy amatuer radio more than I ever have and I
take pride in every qso I make whether it be a few counties over or a
weak dx contact on the other side of the globe. And you bet I will send
a QSL to EVERY contact I make! I always enjoy getting QSL cards (when
they do come, hi).


73,
Matt