[Dx-qsl] Various Oldies

Sun Jun 13 22:48:33 EDT 2010

I am a letter manager with the 2nd district incoming QSL bureau and I can
answer this. Each manager has a listing of those stations that do not want
to receive cards for whatever reason. In a typical month I have about 10 to
12 pounds of QSLs to sort alphabetically, put into envelopes, send to
members and then keep track of over 200 accounts. After every sort I'll have
about 20 or so cards that go to non-subscribers of the bureau and another 20
to 30 cards addressed to either SKs, people who never responded to courtesy
mailings ("we have cards for you, please subscribe") or who out and out said
we don't want them. I keep a "dead file" for those who aren't yet
subscribers and when they have 3 or 4 on-hand, I send them out a "hey, we're
the buro and you have cards" courtesy mailing. Any that are addressed to SKs
get bounced back to sender as a courtesy. Everything else gets trashed.
Here's why:

The bureau system is overtaxed as it is, and bouncing large volumes of cards
back to their senders is a waste of time and money, especially now in the
era of LoTW.

Figure 26 letter managers each sending 25 *unwanted* cards back through
however many bureau employees (local, national-US, national-DX,
local-to-the-DX). That's 650 cards **a month** from the #2 bureau. Multiply
that by 10 (all 10 incoming U.S.A. bureaus). **6,500** unwanted QSLs,
usually from extremely common DX entities to other extremely-common DX
entities (DL, I, EA, and JA make up the vast majority of my workload). Now,
when we mail to a subscriber, one ounce usually comprises 8 to 10 cards.
Let's say to 10 to make the math easy (I just weighed a pile of assorted
incoming bureau cards to come up with that calculation). That's 160 cards to
the pound. 6,500 cards weighs just over 40 pounds. A MONTH.

These need to be transported back to Newington either by a member driving up
there or by mail and sending 650 cards back to Newington costs about $6.80
in postage (easy enough to do by driving from the 1 and 2 bureaus; not so
much from the others). Newington pays a number of sorters who have to take
their time to sort these UNWANTED cards, file them in the outgoing boxes,
pay MORE postage to send them off overseas (remember, it's all air-mail, no
surface any more), and so it goes.

I can also tell you, when I get one of my own cards bounced card back (I get
maybe 1 or 2 a year on average), and it's stamped "not a buro member" or
anything other than SK, I get cheesed off. If I had to PAY MONEY as a
regular bureau subscriber to get my undeliverable cards back I'd be even
angrier.

In my opinion, the only real exceptions should be for
rare/old/deleted-entities and SKs. Those I'll often bounce back as
undeliverable, but if it's a card from a common DX entity that's addressed
to someone who's said they don't want cards, it goes in the round-file.

As to sending emails to senders of individual bounced cards, you've GOT to
be kidding! It's hard enough to track down the e-mail address of my own
subscribers some times, let alone someone in a DX country who may not even
speak or read a word of English. Sorry, that's just how it is. We do a hell
of a job as buro sorters and one I'm fiercely proud of doing (and my wife is
a "primary" sorter as well), but there is a limit to what we can do. This is
a "best-effort" job.

---------------------------------------------
73 and Good DX

Peter,
W2IRT

Letter O Manager,
ARRL Incoming 2nd District QSL bureau
Vice President, North Jersey DX Association

-----Original Message-----
From: dx-qsl-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:dx-qsl-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
On Behalf Of DANNY DOUGLAS
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2010 5:32 PM
To: qsl
Subject: Re: [Dx-qsl] Various Oldies

So what happens to the cards sent to the bureau?   Im seeing all too much of

this, from several countries.  We send a card, and it disappears, and we sit

here thinking the OP simply has not bothered to respond to it, but instead
its the bureau?
On many ocassions, mostly from Europe, I have gotten my card returned with a

ink stamp saying that the person is not a member, or he has moved, with no
forwarding address, or has died.  Acceptable.  To have them simply thrown in

a round file is not.  I know if cost something for the cards to be sent
back, but that, or some other method of acknowledgement is the
responsibility of the bureau.  Maybe the sorters (hopefully most have some
internet capability) could send out an ocassional email to the ops who sent
them cards?  This really needs to be addressed, as the accepted service is
not being supplied.

Danny Douglas
N7DC
ex WN5QMX ET2US WA5UKR ET3USA SV0WPP VS6DD N7DC/YV5 G5CTB
All 2 years or more (except Novice). Short stints at:  DA/PA/SU/HZ/7X/DU
CR9/7Y/KH7/5A/GW/GM/F
Pls QSL direct, buro, or LOTW preferred,
I Do not use, but as a courtesy do upload to eQSL for those who do.
Moderator
DXandTALK
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DXandTalk
Digital_modes
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital_modes/?yguid=341090159

----- Original Message -----
From: "Yutaka Sakurai (ysakurai)" <ysakurai at cisco.com>
To: "AA5AM - Scott Armstrong" <aa5am at vntx.net>; "El Med"
<eam1212003 at yahoo.com>; <dx-qsl at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2010 5:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Dx-qsl] Various Oldies

> JD1AMA is not a member of JARL, and the BURO does not work for him.
> The address shown in the QRZ.COM is fine.
>
> Yutaka, de JQ2GYU
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dx-qsl-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:dx-qsl-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of AA5AM - Scott
> Armstrong
> Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2010 2:43 PM
> To: El Med; dx-qsl at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Dx-qsl] Various Oldies
>
> Hi Eli,
>
> Just catching up on the emails .....
>
> JD1AMA    Sent  Feb 6th, 2007 via bureau --->   no response yet.
>
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