QSL'ing Tips & Tricks - Hint #3 - QSL Cards

 A series of "Tips and Tricks" for obtaining a QSL when normal means fail.

Why would anyone even go to the trouble of getting a QSL card from any DX station they work?  One of the main reasons is that a confirmation of a QSO is essential to many awards.  Logbook of the World (LoTW) has made a major impact on confirmation of contacts but not every station uploads their logs to LoTW.  That leaves a "written" confirmation (QSL card) as the method needed to apply that contact toward many awards.  And, collecting QSL's from rare DX stations is FUN!  Looking back through a stack of attractive and informative QSL's allows you to remember those contacts and educates you, your family and friends about the interesting places around the world which you have contacted.

You can view many different QSL's from all 340 Current DXCC entities from 1920 to the present on the K8CX QSL Museum.  In addition to QSL's, the K8CX Museum contains Sound Clips, Photos from the Dayton Hamvention, Tributes to Ham Operators, and several other interesting items.  Check out the Table of Contents for all that info.

An important first step in filling out your own QSL is to make certain the DATE is understandable to anyone in any country around the world.  If you put the date down as "10/12/2023" does that mean October 12 or December 10?  American usage calls for a month/day/year date format, the United Kingdom and much of Europe use a day/month/year format, and most countries in Asia use the year/month/day format.  Confusion!  Putting the date in the wrong format can result in the dreaded "Not in Log" result.  Make sure you either spell out the Month or create columns on your QSL that leave no doubt as to the date of the QSO:

It should go without saying that you need to write out your QSL information in a legible manner.  Always think that your QSL is being viewed by someone for whom English is NOT their primary language.  PRINT everything as clearly as possible.  Better yet, use your Logging program to either print the QSO information directly onto the QSL Card or onto an adhesive label.  This is not difficult to do and provides the clearest way to put all the necessary information onto your QSL.  (The pre-printed information on my QSL in the image below has been grayed out to better show the QSO information I printed onto the blank QSL with my own computer & printer.  Click on any image to see it larger.)

Where to have your QSL's printed?  There are dozens of printers who will print QSL cards for you and you can even print them yourself.  (See my Hint #1 Post HERE for a way to print your own.)  For several years I have been using UX5UO Print to print my QSL's.  Gennady is located in the Ukraine and appears to still be in business even with the current Russian war.  As of October 2023, 21,972 unique callsigns from 320 DXCC countries have already been printed by "UX5UO print".  You can get 1,000 Luxury cards printed with Full Color on the front and single color on the back for less than $85 including shipping!  Below are my current QSL's which were printed by UX5UO from photos I provided.  You can see the rear of one of the QSL's above - the grayed out area.

You do not need fancy QSL's but you do need at least a basic one to be able to send for the QSL's you want to collect.  I have worked four New Ones on 6-M in the last 3 days and TWO of them are NOT on LoTW!  Therefore, I need to send my QSL to them or request their card via OQSL (more on that method later.)

QSL'ing Tips & Tricks - Hint #2 - Using Email

A series of "Tips and Tricks" for obtaining a QSL when normal means fail.

Often you "think" you had a good QSO but it never shows up on LoTW or on the Online Log for the station you think you worked.  If it is for a New One (on a particular Band or Mode) or even an All-Time New One (ATNO) then working a bit to secure a confirmation for that contact is warranted.

If it is a DX'pedition, you really need to immediately try to work the DX on that same Band or Mode for an "Insurance Contact."  That way if your initial QSO can not be confirmed, you have a 2nd chance with the insurance contact.

A good first step to acquiring the confirmation is to send an email to the station you worked - or to the QSL Manager.  You can usually find the email address on QRZ.com under the callsign of the DX station you worked.  Or, if the DX has a Manager, look at the Manager's QRZ.com address for his email.

ALWAYS be polite in your email.  Never make statements like "You busted my call!" or "Why did you not put me in your log?"  Being polite always pays off.

Make the subject line descriptive of what you want.  Something like "4L4DX QSL Question from W8TN" will tell the DX or the Manager what you are seeking.

In the body of your email, keep it "short and sweet."  Describe why you think you had a valid QSO for which you are seeking a QSL.  For a WSJT-X contact, you might include something like this:

I have a question about a QSO I believe I completed with 4L4DX on 17-M FT8 back on May 30, 2023.  I am writing because this QSO does not show in Club Log.

Below are all the pertinent items I have in my ALL.TXT file:

230530_031930    18.100 Tx FT8      0  0.0  506 4L4DX W8TN EM98
230530_031945    18.100 Rx FT8      1  0.2 2012 W8TN 4L4DX -17
230530_032000    18.100 Tx FT8      0  0.0  506 4L4DX W8TN R+01
230530_032115    18.100 Rx FT8     -9  0.2 2012 W8TN 4L4DX RRR

If it was an SSB/CW/RTTY QSO, you could say something like this:

Dear Mr. Jones,

I sent my QSL with $2 U.S. and a self-addressed envelope to the following address on 05/05/2014 (05-May-2014):

Esmond Jones
P.O. Box 10868
Georgetown
GUYANA
SOUTH AMERICA

As of 02/11/2015 (02-November-2015) I have not received a QSL from 8R1AK.  Did my envelope/QSL/$$ get lost in the mail?  Do I need to send again?

QSO info:

W8TN

05-March-2014 (05/03/2014)

2209 GMT

12-M (24.950 MHz)

SSB

This is my only 8R QSO on 12-M.  Thank you for your consideration.

Finally, keep track of these emails you send.  Make a note in your log as to when you sent an email or make a "Label" or "Folder" in your SENT email folder for "QSL Questions" and put these emails there.  That makes it easy to look back and note if you have not received a response after a reasonable time.  This will allow you to follow up with another email or try to contact someone else.

For reference, both the above examples were successful.  The QSL Manager agreed that I had a valid QSO and saw to it that my QSO with 4L4DX was placed in the online log.  And for 8R1AK, I did receive the paper QSL a few months after sending this email.

Update WSJT-X to the Latest CTY.dat File

 The following quote is from: https://norfolkcoastamateurs.co.uk/cty-dat-country-files/

Have you ever wondered how all of the various types of amateur radio software, e.g. N1MM and DX Cluster nodes, keep up to date with the plethora of changes that occur to a simple list of countries and prefixes? These changes take place almost daily and getting it right can be vital for contest point scoring and award tracking so you need to log the correct information.

Which DXCC entity is GB4CTY located in this week? It could be any of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Island, Guernsey or Jersey.

What about G3YPP/NHS. Surely the /N places him stateside.

It would be a remarkable feat if every single program was updated individually by their development teams every time a prefix or entity changed or a new Special Event Station was activated.

Fortunately, most logger and contest software makes use of cty.dat files which have been kept updated by Jim Reisert, AD1C as a labour of love for many, many years. Known as country files, full details can be seen on Jim’s website here: Country Files

This is from: https://www.country-files.com/contest/wsjt-x/

The WSJT-X User Guide states, “WSJT-X includes a built-in cty.dat file containing DXCC prefix information. Updated files can be downloaded from the Amateur Radio Country Files website when required. If an updated cty.dat is present in the logs folder and readable, it will be used in preference to the built-in one.”

Starting with Version 2.7, you can update the country file from within the program. In Settings, click on the Colors tab and you’ll find the information at the bottom of the window.

WSJT-X pull down File | Settings... | Colors tab

This update process simply can not be any more painless.  Doing this assures that your WSJT-X decodes are identified as the correct country.  And, if you use supplemental programs like JTAlert or GridTracker, they can give you audible or text/email alerts for those decodes you need.

QSL'ing Tips & Tricks - Hint #1 - Blank QSL

A series of "Tips and Tricks" for obtaining a QSL when normal means fail.  

Recently a friend told me he was trying to obtain a QSL for a contact that was several years old.  He had sent his QSL + SASE to the QSL Manager but the manager replied with a note saying he recently had downsized, moved, and no longer had any blank QSL's.  The manager DID state he had uploaded the logs of the DX station to the QRZ Logbook and my friend's contact WAS listed there.  However, since he had no blank QSL cards, he was unable to confirm the contact.

My method of solving such a problem is to send some BLANK QSL cards to the QSL Manager.  I learned this trick from Steve, KØCS, (now a SK) several decades ago.  YI1BGD in Iraq came on the air in the late 1970's and Steve worked them for an ATNO but could not get a QSL.  So, he had 100 QSL cards professionally printed and he airmailed them to Iraq.  He then sent his QSL + SAE +$5 EVERY MONTH for a year until he got it confirmed.  Unfortunately it was not with one of the QSL's he had printed!  Still, I learned from that trick and have used it on a few occasions to secure a QSL for a needed State or Grid. 

To help my friend get the QSL he needed I found a website where you can quickly design a Blank QSL.  The site will produce a PDF file which you can use to print on your own printer or at a local print shop.  Then you just send the Blank QSL's to the QSL Manager and ask him to fill one out.  Here is the website I used: QSL Card Creator. You can make just a very simple, basic QSL or get creative by adding graphics.  Below is the Blank QSL I created for my friend.  It took about 5 minutes to do this.

I gave my friend 6 of these Blank QSL's (which I printed on some card stock) to send to the QSL Manager.  I will post back here his results.

BONUS HINT: You can use this method to print Blank QSL's for yourself to confirm contacts you may have made while portable - like Field Day or POTA.

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The A35TR QSL Manager DID respond by filling out one of the blank QSL's and he returned it to my friend.  The Blank QSL preparation was well worth the minimum effort it took in order to receive a confirmation for a New One which had seemed impossible to get confirmed in a normal manner.