Being a newer ham, there’s so many things besides just pressing PTT that need to be considered. One area that is much larger then it appears is QSLing. Until I get farther along in the post, I’m not sure if this will be 1 post or multiple. The areas I’d like to post about are QSL Cards, eQSL, LOTW, bureaus, IRC, greenstamps, SASE, incoming, outgoing, etc. Yeah, I don’t think this will be 1 post.

To start, once I got on HF and started making contacts within the US and to DX locations, I figured I needed to get QSL cards. So I started looking. Cards ranged from generic without your call sign, plain with your call sign, and full blown customized. I considered all of them and decided to start with the full blown customized. It’s much more expensive then generic cards but I didn’t consider those for long. Then I considered the more plain QSL cards that had some customization such as call sign and a selection of canned images. I spent a couple days reviewing web sites and thinking about it. I figured if I was going to go through the effort of sending them, and in some cases the expense of sending them, then I might as well send something I felt really good about. So once again I hit the Internet looking for various QSL card companies. I ended up with a short list of 3 or 4 that I felt provided what I wanted at a cost I was willing to pay. I checked out their references on various sites and from posts in forums, etc where folks talked about dealing with the vendors.

I selected http://www.qslworks.com because of all the good reviews/comments I read about them but more so because of the interaction I had with them. Specifically, I dealt with Tami at QSLWorks and it couldn’t have been a better experience. I had an idea of what I wanted and did my own mock up. I sent them the image I wanted to use and Tami sent back an amazing card. After a little back and forth to tweak the back of it, it was all set to go.  Assuming it stays up, the card is visible at http://www.qslworks.com/K2DSL/. Top not service and quality at QSLWorks!

I use Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) for logging and it automagically updates eQSL, an online QSL site. There’s no charge to sign up and it seems a lot of folks use it, but it’s not an official way if you’re looking at specific awards such as Worked All States (WAS). Regardless, there’s no harm in uploading your contacts to it (HRD does it for you) and seeing contacts confirmed by others. As of 8/7/2008 I am seeing just under 20% of the contacts I made confirmed in eQSL.

Another online QSL site is LOTW (Logbook of the World) which is hosted by the ARRL. Like eQSL, it’s web based and you upload your logs (ADIF files). LOTW, since it’s hosted by ARRL, takes confirmed contacts as the equivalent of physical QSL cards received for use in awards such WAS, DXCC, etc. It’s more cumbersome to use and does require setup time in that postal mailing is involved, but it’s worth it as it’s a recognized QSL platform.

I think that’s it for this post and I’ll finish up some other QSL items in a subsequent post.

73, K2DSL