[Dx-qsl] IRC handling by USPS

[Tom Anderson]

Marsha:

Last year when the old large IRCs were about to expire
I called our post office and talked to the postmaster
and he said just call him and make an appointment to
redeem them all.  I had probably 50-60 large ones and
several small ones from  cards I'd received from a
DXpedition I was on.  He gave me new 84 cent airmail
stamps for all of them, even the old small ones.  

Of course now I have to add $0.06 extra postage each
time with the air mail stamps. hi hi.

As an aside, I was at the Dallas-Fort Worth
International Airport Air Mail postal facility
recently and none of the clerks there even knew what
an IRC was.  It used to be that you could drop air
mail letters off at the AMF any time of day or night
and they would be processed and loaded on the next
plane headed whereever your letter was going within
hours of dropping them off. 

The AMF folks tell me that all of their mail now goes
to the North Texas Postal Sectional Center north of
the airport, is processed, and then brought back to
the AMF for dispatch. Also, instead of being open 24
hours a day as it once was, it closes at 10 p.m. and
any mail dropped off there after 8 p.m. is processed
the next day, according to the new signs on the doors.

Years ago when I was in London for a month taking a
graduate course, my XYL Cheryl (WY5H) would take
airmail letters for me to the AMF and I'd get them in
3 days.    

73 de Tom, WW5L


--- Craftygal <craftygal at comcast.net> wrote:

>  
> Those of you who may have trouble getting IRC's at
> the USPS.  I went to buy
> IRC's at my local PO where I always get them and got
> a new guy.  (the other
> 2 clerks knew what to do).  They talked him through
> the process and I wrote
> down the code he keys into the machine -- 330700. 
> Of course, if they don't
> have any IRC's or 10 and 5 cent stamps in stock, I
> can't help with that
> part.  And don't forget to watch them stamp each one
> on the left bottom
> square.  
> 
> 73
> Marsha N8FE 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> &quot;Don't it always seem to go that you don't know
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