[Dx-qsl] Bureaus

[Alfred Laun]

As Manager of the ARRL Third Call Area Incoming QSL bureau I believe
the following post needs a bit of clarification:

On 1/6/07, Ray Andrews <k9dur at msn.com> wrote:

>
> 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.

The way the first sentence is worded might lead to the impression that
the ARRL has nothing to do with the incoming bureaus in the USA.  Each
of the call area  bureaus in
the USA and its possessions is in fact a part of the overall ARRL
bureau system.  When the local club which handles the bureau work
changes the ARRL Division Director must approve the new organization's
assumption of duties.  While unpaid volunteers do the sorting and
processing of incoming cards, the ARRL pays for bureau expenses such
as postage, cost of the bureau's PO Box,  mailing supplies and mileage
to and from the bureau post office box to the bureau's physical
location   Each January I must provide to ARRL HQ a detailed report of
the third call area bureau's activities for the preceding year.

> 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.

The delay is  not really quite as bad as the above paragraph implies.
Several of the smaller bureaus in other countries send their cards
directly to ARRL HQ rather than dividing them up and sending them to
each individual USA call area bureau.  In this bureau I would estimate
we get about five boxes of QSLs per month from ARRL HQ.  Each box
holds approximately 500 QSL cards.  ARRL HQ outgoing bureau manager
Sharon  Taratula and her staff do an efficient job of processing these
cards and getting them to us expeditiously.

When we sort cards we are not perfect and occasionally someone will
get a card from the bureau which is really for another station.  Other
bureaus are no different and in any shipment from another bureau there
are always a few cards for stations whose calls are handled by other
call area bureaus.  It costs us less in postage to send all of these
cards back to ARRL HQ in one package rather than mail them directly to
other USA call area bureaus in several packages so that's what we do
with them, separating  them apart by call area before we send them
back out in order to minimize Ms. Taratula's work, of course.
The particular problem our Third Call Area Bureau has is that most
bureaus do not separate out KP3/NP3/WP3  cards for Puerto Rican
stations from those they send to us, so we are forever sending lots of
cards bound for Puerto Rico back to ARRL HQ.

As far as QSL retention is concerned, I have requested that all of the
sorters in this bureau send back to me any cards which after a
reasonable period of time remain unclaimed and let me work on getting
the destinee to respond.  This results from sad experience during my
several years as a letter sorter before I became bureau manager of,
having just discarded a user's cards, getting a bunch of envelopes
from him or her in the next day's mail. My policy has therefore become
one of requiring that we have in writing a statement from the operator
in question that he/she does not want bureau cards before discarding
them.

A cautionary word is warranted here to the effect that we may be
successful in getting  cards to a particular station, but once that is
accomplished our responsibility ceases.  Whether or not that station
chooses to reply to the card with one of his/her own is none of our
business.

73, Fred Laun, K3ZO
Manager
NCDXA/ARRL Third Call Area Incoming QSL Bureau