A QSL Card Revival for the 21st Century

It’s an old tradition that is probably slowly dying out. But what a pleasure it is to receive the occasional QSL card in the mail. Many years ago, well before I earned my ham ticket, I was an avid Short Wave Listener. Many short wave broadcasters would send a QSL card in response to a reception report. I collected many of them, probably now gathering dust in an old storage box somewhere in my basement.

QSL cards were especially popular among amateur radio operators. Often they would be required as proof of a contact when applying for various awards. It was fairly routine for hams to exchange cards following a QSO and that resulted in a large volume of cards potentially flowing through the postal mail system.

Save on Stamps

Enter the “QSL Bureau” – a centralized exchange point with QSL managers who would receive cards on behalf of many hams. Amateurs who subscribed to the service would receive their cards in batches. They would be sent through the mail if the subscriber sent Self-Addressed Stamped Envelopes (SASEs) for that purpose to the bureau. Or, they could often be picked up at the bureau’s table at hamfests. You might reasonably think that QSL card bureaus are a thing of the past, but they are not! QSL bureaus are still going strong – well maybe “strong” is, err, too strong a word. Let’s just say that many are still in business.

A Long, Long Wait

QSL bureaus were/are a great way to save on postage costs. The cost of a stamp – especially to overseas countries – has risen steadily. That may not be a problem for occasional use, but could become an unreasonable expense for a ham who frequently exchanges cards. One big issue relating to the use of bureaus is that it can take a long time – sometimes a very long time – to receive your cards. By the time they arrive you may have to search deep into your log to verify the contact.

Who Pays?

But let’s say you send and receive your cards directly through the mail. You receive an unexpected QSL card in your mailbox one day and there is a check mark in the box that says “Please QSL”. Who pays for the return postage? My own philosophy is that if the sender has paid the postage to send me a card then I will happily reciprocate. On my QRZ.com page I specifically state “no SASE required”. Recently I received a card from a ham in the US (I am in Canada remember) who had enclosed an SASE – with a US stamp. I took my return card – using the envelope with the US stamp – to my local Canada Post outlet and inquired whether they would accept the US stamp. The staff didn’t know! I mailed it anyway and it did arrive safely.

IRCs

Another payment option is the International Reply Coupon (IRC). I have never used – or even seen – one of these. I checked the Canada Post website to see if these are still available. They are, but there are several cautions concerning their use. The value of the IRCs may be insufficient to cover the postage. IRCs are also subject to fraud and illegal reproduction. Sounds a little unreliable to me; better stay with good old “lick and stick” stamps.

Refill Your Ink Cartridges and Go Broke!

And what about the cost of the cards themselves? There is a wide variety of choices if you want to have them printed in bulk and the cost is not unreasonable. Or, you can print them yourself – quick, on-demand and potentially very expensive indeed. Have you noticed how cheaply you can buy a high resolution printer nowadays? Have you also noticed how extremely expensive the ink refill cartridges have become?

A Better Way

Surely, there has to be a better way to send and receive QSL cards? Well there is. No printing involved. No mailing involved. No cost involved. I am sure most of us own a computer and have access to the Internet. Why not make an electronic QSL card and attach it to an email? Here is how I do it.

I am a Linux user and my Linux Mint operating system came with LibreOffice installed. LibreOffice is a free alternative to Microsoft’s Office package. In my opinion, and that of many of its users, it is at least as good as the paid Microsoft Office suite. LibreOffice can be used to make your own QSL cards. I use LibreOffice Draw. LibreOffice is also available for Windows and Mac OS. The procedure is very easy:

• Under the [Page] menu select [Page Properties]
• Select the [Page] tab and set the [Format] to “User”
• Set the Width and Height to the size required
• Set Orientation to Landscape
• Set Margins to zero
• Click the [OK] button

Now you can import a nice image of your choice to use as a background. Setup some text boxes to overlay your contact information fields (leave them unfilled for now) and – THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT – save the file as a TEMPLATE. In LibreOffice Draw, a template file has the file extension .otg.

When you need to send an electronic QSL card to somebody, open the template file, fill in the contact fields and from the [File] menu, select “Export As” then “PDF file”. If you selected a modest page size when setting up your template file, the resulting PDF is not too large to attach to an email. I set my template page to be just a little larger than a postcard so that small fonts are still readable. My electronic QSL card is at the top of this post so you can see what you might receive if we exchanged QSL cards in this way.

Just imagine – if sending electronic QSL cards became popular it would be a real delight to open our email inboxes every morning to find interesting card designs and learn a little about other hams’ home towns and equipment. And maybe it would be a good way to spark new friendships too!

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