QSL cards

In recent years I have not sent out many QSL cards, but I have received several recently by email. 

Most have been useless as the date is shown as 0000.00.00 which must be an error as in this example. I am happy to confirm the contact as long as the details are correct, not otherwise. 

I think these are sent out by email when the amateur subscribes.

Another old QSL card

Old QSL cards are becoming quite collectable. Some people collect old QSL cards as a hobby. This one dates from 1949.  

I suppose with LOTW, eQSL and similar they are becoming rarer. Certainly it is many years since I sent one.

Old QSL cards

Southgate News has a link to a French page that has a collection of old QSL cards.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/july/old-qsl-card-collection.htm m#.XwgnOYjYq00

This reminds me of two things I must do! I badly need to update my eQSL records and I need to subscribe to Logbook of the World. I also have to submit my log for VHF NFD. Although my score will be very poor, I should show my support. I came on for a short while on 2m with 10W and the big-wheel omni antenna.

QSL cards

These days I do not seek paper QSL cards. Mostly I use eQSL for QSLing, although I often forget! These are a few of my many paper QSL cards. 10m QRP SSB DXCC was achieved many years ago.

They include one for reception of SAQ (17.2kHz CW) and a QSO with K1TOL for a QRP 6m VHF CW 2-way contact many years ago. This one, is probably my best ever QSO.

Shortwave broadcast QSLs

Talking about QSL cards makes me think of my very first QSL cards received back in the 1960s. In those days I used the ISWL QSL bureau which handled broadcast band QSLs (I think it still does) and well remember the thrill when I got my very first cards. The first ever QSL was from Radio Nederland and it was an exciting moment. Somewhere I still have that red card with a windmill on!

In the subsequent years I did a fair bit of QSLing when using just my shortwave crystal set and got a few cards back from these reports. I heard stations all over the globe using that simple crystal set with best DX being Radio Havana Cuba, All India Radio and even Radio Australia, all direct and not via any relays. Not bad for just a tuned circuit, a diode a resistor and a crystal earpiece. I must have another go at a shortwave crystal set just for fun, especially as HF conditions are so good now, but these days shortwave broadcasting is not what it was. Using a decent toroid and a bridge detector it should be possible to arrive at a sensitive design with quite good selectivity.