[Dx-qsl] Bureaus

[Ray Andrews]

Pete (Pete's-DX-Newsdesk),

Just to correct a misunderstanding that many non-US stations have:

The ARRL does NOT operate the incoming QSL bureaus in the US.  The ARRL only handles outgoing QSL cards.  The US incoming QSL bureau system consists of 12 separate incoming QSL bureaus serving the US & 4 more serving Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, & Guantanamo Bay.  Each of these bureaus are operated by a club or organization in their respective geographical area.  Each bureaus has its own policies for US amateurs claiming their cards:  some want SASE's, some just was money to cover postage & envelopes they provide, some will accept either, etc.

Therefore, the ARRL does not "...have huge storage facilities" to store the unclaimed cards.  The problem is spread out over the 16 individual bureaus throughout the country.  In addition, most bureaus divide the alphabet up & distribute the workload over several individual amateurs, each responsible for only their piece of the whole.  For example, all 9th call area cards go to the W9 QSL Bureau, operated by the Northern Illinois DX Association.  My cards are handled by N9AVY, who gets all cards for stations where the letter following the "9" is a "D".  It is these individual amateurs (all volunteer) who have to deal with the problems expressed by M5AAV of amateurs who do not make arrangements to pick up their cards.

The policies for retention of unclaimed cards varies from bureau to bureau.  The official policy of the W9 bureau is that unclaimed cards are discarded after 60 days.  However, the individual sorters (who hate to destroy QSL cards) usually hang onto them for a year or more unless they run out of storage space.

By-the-way,  QSL cards sent to the ARRL by non-US amateurs or bureaus will be seriously delayed.  The staff at ARRL Headquarters are kept extremely busy handling all of the outgoing cards.  Therefore, they are only able to package up incoming cards and forward them to the appropriate incoming QSL bureau on a sporadic basis.

73, Ray, K9DUR