[50mhz] Outstanding QSLs

Mon May 30 16:58:03 EDT 2005

If what JV says is true, then he is probably right that you will need to work
the state/grid again...

Having said that, though, I've had pretty good success with a few simple
strategies:

1) The first thing I do is try to contact the guy by e-mail using the address on
his QRZ.com page (if there is one) or on any other ham site I can track down.
Oftentimes, the guy has lost my card, never got it, or just needs a nudge. Many
people maintain e-mail addresses at one or more of the large ISPs (MSN, AOL,
etc.) that they maybe used once, but don't use anymore. In one instance, having
exhausted all of one guy's published e-mail addresses, I found one of his
"private" e-mail addresses by researching his ham interests. Turned out he was
into meteor scatter work, and a search through the archives of the MS prop
logger turned up an e-mail address he had once given out on the prop logger
several months earlier. An e-mail to that address got through to him. He asked
me how I had discovered this address, so I told him. He was so impressed with my
tenacity and diligence, he sent me a QSL card -- after more than a year.

If the e-mail bounces, though, or I never get a reply, I go on to Step 2.

2) I look in the various online "white pages" to see if the guy has a listed
telephone number. In almost 100% of cases, though, my experience has been that
the guy who never responds to my QSL/SASE has no listed phone number either.
Interesting, but perhaps not surprising.

3) The next thing I do is some Internet sleuthing to try to determine if the guy
still really lives at his FCC address, and if he is still an active ham. Besides
the obvious Google search on his call, I look for ham clubs in the vicinity of
where he lives and check out their websites for possible leads, sending inquiry
e-mails to club officers most likely to know a lot of hams in the area. For
contest QSOs, I will look in the ARRL contest database and find out the calls of
the hams who participated in the effort, sending them all e-mails requesting
help getting a QSL from the station license-holder. As a last resort for an
absolutely one-of-a-kind, must-have QSL, there are a number of "skip trace"
sites on the Net that can and will track down just about anybody for a fee of
$25 to $50 or so.

4) The next question is whether the guy is still into ham radio. In a number of
cases, the guy simply dropped out, and apparently wants nothing more to do with
the hobby. You can usually figure out that this is the case when you see
numerous Google hits (e-mail lists, ham websites, club rosters, prop loggers,
contest QSO summaries, etc., etc.) over the course of several years, and then
suddenly nothing up to present time. This doesn't mean you have no chance of
getting a QSL, but it is a serious negative finding. I've never succeeded in
getting a QSL from a guy who has dropped out of ham radio, for whatever reason.

5) If I determine that the address is good and the guy is likely still active,
or at least was active fairly recently, I will send a "reverse QSL" along with
another one of mine and another SASE. I make it using Adobe Illustrator, but you
can use any vector illustration app like Corel Draw, MS Visio, etc. There are
probably share-ware vector art apps, too. I print them on an inexpensive HP
DeskJet 895Cxi on glossy, heavy photo paper, and cut them out with a desktop
paper cutter. (Scissors work fine, too, if you have a steady hand.) I can't send
an image as an attachment to a mail reflector like this, but if you want to see
what one of mine looks like, e-mail me privately and I'll send you one.

I also include in this "care package" a short hand-written note expressing
concern at the guy's lack of response to my earlier communications and wondering
if he is OK. I then explain why I need his card, and explain what the "reverse
QSL" is. All he has to do is sign it, drop it into the enclosed SASE, and mail
it.

There as many reasons why this final approach works as there are hams. In one
case, I discovered that the guy was sightless, and his friend who had always
helped him fill out his QSL cards had moved away. In another case, a serious
trauma had left a ham without the use of his right arm, and writing was
extremely difficult for him -- but he was willing to scrawl him name on the
signature line. More often, it's just that the guy doesn't have any cards, for
any of a wide variety of reasons.

About 10% of the needed QSLs I now have for WAS and VUCC were finally obtained
by using one or more of these steps. Some guys simply don't want to QSL, either
out of disability, apathy, laziness, poverty, or a deep-seated socio-religious
conviction that QSLing is fundamentally wrong. (I dunno, seems that way
sometimes.) When presented with a reverse QSL and SASE, though, many of the most
recalcitrant hams will sign their John Hancocks and drop the reverse QSL in the
mail -- maybe just to make me go away.  :-)

QSLing these days is not what it used to be back in the 1960s and 1970s; it
sometimes takes more work and expense than operating the radios. But if you're
into getting the awards, this is a part of the game you have to play. I play it
to win.

Good luck --
Bill / W5WVO

JV wrote:
>      It's my understanding that Steve has been very sick for the past
> few years. I don't think he came home when his father became a SK
> approx three years ago. Probably best to work some one else.
> JV
>
> -------Original Message-------
>
> Just going through some outstanding VHF QSLs and noticed I never
> recieved one from KL7FZ in BP51 from 2001 (sent 3 cards w/ SASE). Did
> a little digging and have found others have had the same problem.
> Does any one have any ideas or has had any luck getting a card from
> him?
> Thanks & 73!
> Narrowing down the WAS,
>
> Jaime
>
> KG4FJK
> Alpharetta GA USA
>
> Moderator: Ray Brown, KB0STN
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