[Dx-qsl] LOTW vs paper QSL's

[Alfred Laun]

Having been the manager of the USA Third Call Area Bureau for the past five
years, I am well aware of people who are not interested in receiving QSLs.
They are usually DX contesters who work thousands of DX stations per year
and don't seem to care that this will, no matter what they do, result
automatically in the generation of lots of bureau QSLs.  In most European
countries and Japan, the national radio societies make it easy for members
to QSL via the bureau, and they do.  Putting a note on your QRZ.com page
that you don't wish to receive bureau QSLs, as many do, doesn't make much
difference because to send a  card via the bureau there is no need to look a
call up on  QRZ.com

In this respect LoTW has at least made it possible for awards chasers to
confirm some contacts they would otherwise not be able to confirm.  I myself
do not use LoTW because I am no longer an awards chaser except for my basic
mixed DXCC.  And that's just so I can stay in the good standing of my local
NCDXA club.   I don't want to give anyone an excuse not to send me a paper
QSL.

Eqsl.cc also has a value that is not always understood by many.  Especially
in Latin America, there are cases where the QSL bureau service provided by
the local IARU member society is practically useless, or not provided at
all.  At least Eqsl.cc has given amateurs in these countries a way to work
around this difficulty.  Otherwise it would be very expensive for them to
QSL every contact.  I don't use eQSL.cc because I like to have a piece of
paper confirming contact with every new station I work, and to print out
90,000 QSLs would take forever.  But with the availability nowadays of
inexpensive USB stubs on which I could store the data and selectively print
out the cards I want, I am starting to think I might join.

What annoys me as a bureau manager more than anything else are the people
who don't want their cards but will not answer when I ask them.  We can live
with people who are straight up about their not wanting cards and tell us
so, though of course it is sad to see so many cards go unclaimed.

It has been my effort over the past five years to try to contact everyone
who has five or more unclaimed cards to let them know about the bureau and
how it works.  It is true that a surprising number of people who work DX are
not familiar with the bureau system, and so this effort has had some
success.  However, an effort to contact people like this takes too much of
my time, so we are returning to the regular way of operating a bureau in
which the individual letter sorters decide how long they want to hold on to
unclaimed cards.   The ARRL mandates 45 days after a person has been
notified.  Beyond that it will be up to the individual sorter.

You can find on our web site the list of people who have told us they do not
wish to receive bureau QSLs.   We update it regularly.

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