QSL – TestBlog

Fustercluck

I spent lunch today bouncing around area Post Offices until someone could definitively tell me that, while the USPS honors International Reply Coupons [1], they do not sell them [2].

So now sending a SASE to Omsk involves finding an online market for these products, knowing someone in a country with a postal service with a more rational posture toward IRCs, trying to navigate a foreign country’s postal service web site, or just throwing US currency in with the envelope and hope the person on the receiving end has decent luck turning that into appropriate postage.

This was a problem solved in 1906 [3]. Why the Hell is it no longer solved?

A cursory glance at eBay shows stamps are going for about twice the face value with shipping & handling being yet another multiple of the nominal value of the stamp. Russian Post [4] feels a little intimidating although I think I’ve figured out I need to purchase ₽27,14 (68¢) worth of postage. I’m just not sure how to get that paid for and shipped to me.

As for shipping US currency—I’m not morally opposed to it. I just don’t know how convenient that is for someone living somewhere north of Kazakhstan to deal with. And, really, this is the biggest obstacle to getting the QSL card that I’m really into receiving. Judging by the guy’s signal [5] and looking at his online logging, the guy probably gets scores of cards a week. I want his sending a card this direction to be as painless and brainless as possible.

So any of my Canadian friends want to engage in a little international commerce? Tariff is negotiable.

[1] http://www.upu.int/en/activities/international-reply-coupons/about-international-reply-coupons.html
[2] http://pe.usps.com/text/Imm/immc3_020.htm
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_reply_coupon
[4] http://www.russianpost.ru
[5] http://www.blackfez.com/2014/10/06/omsk-on-20-meters/

Hey, Mr. Postman

Just knocked out my first ever set of QSL cards for the Route 66 On the Air stations I managed to contact. All told I hit 9 of 21 which isn’t awesome by any stretch of the imagination but it was my first HF experience. Anyway, I don’t think I’ve written that much in longhand since I graduated.

MEMO TO SELF: break down and buy some ink for the printer and make with some mailing labels already.

Route 66 On the Air

Bagged two Route 66 special station calls [1] tonight. Flagstaff, AZ (W6G) on 20 meters (14.25700) and St. Louis, MO (W6P) on the 40 meter band (7.27300). I was happy to get W6P tonight after unsuccessfully trying to get through last night. Only four days left to collect them all.

[1] http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?448515-2014-Route-66-On-The-Air

First QSL

My first HF QSL goes to W1AW Portable 7 [1] in Oregon on 7.170.0Mhz. Contact made at 2014 September 07 at 0349 UTC. The W1AW portable calls in 2014 are celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the ARRL [2] and every state gets two one week whacks at a portable call.

Tonight’s station was located just west of Portland, Oregon. That makes it about 1500 miles station to station. So happy to know my piddling 100 watts off a vertical antenna without grounding radials can reach that far and get a 5/9 RST [3].

[1] http://www.codxc.org/new/page.asp?content=w1aw
[2] http://www.arrl.org/centennial-qso-party
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RST_code

QSL from China

Speaking of QSL cards, a SWIARC ham, KQ0J, just received a QSL card from a contact he made in China [1]. I can’t wait to get on the air!

[1] http://swiradio.org/2014/08/26/qsl-card-from-chine/

QSL Card

My latest iteration of the QSL card. Getting happier with it by and by. I like the 1864 Johnson map of the area for the historical oddities but it is a little busy even when washed out. If anyone knows where to find a line drawing of the six state area centered along the Missouri River I’d be much obliged. I need the image to be large (>=2000px) because I’m going for 4×6 print-quality image file.