[PPRAANet] Message from Al Walker

[Lee Inman]

>From Al Walker, K3TKJ (of QSL.NET+), 


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Based on some comments we have received there is some misunderstandings
about QSL/QTH.net and our requests for donations.

In 1996 I started providing e-mail addresses and home page space to
Amateurs world wide. This was a single server co-located at a local ISP.
I had a contract with him that the monthly charges would slide, based on
bandwidth. The first months we paid $40 for access but there were not
many users, later this increased to $300,$500 and eventually $2500. At
this time I purchased the first T1 fiber and moved most of the load to
circuits we owned. In a few months we had  all the load on our own
circuits.

>From the one server start, it soon became necessary to balance the
server loads and we moved QTH.NET to it's own server along with Mail,
DNS and Admin servers. SWL.NET then needed a server. By 1999 we had
$18,000 in computer hardware, a dedicated T1 to serve the 20,000 web
page users and the 195,000 users of the lists at QTH.NET.

I love this hobby, but not more than my family, home or 401k so in 1999
we made the whole system a corporation in Delaware and operate under IRS
501
(3)(c)  non-profit status.
This shields me personally from any litigation based on actions of any
users, such as copyright violations etc. This corporation is QSL.NET,
Inc. so when you see a reference to QSL it means the entire entity not
just the web sites

In 1999 I also asked 12 prominent hams and active users of this system
to become directors, with their only obligation to keep the system
running in the event anything happened to me.

How was this funded?  I had some excess income derived from stocks and I
used this to fund the start and growth of the system. I owe everything I
have  to this hobby and I made the commitment to give something back to
it. Since 1996 my contribution has averaged $1000 a month.

So where are we today?

The system has grown to the largest in the ham world, it is popular and
grows daily. The highlight of 2002 was the receipt of the Dayton Hamfest
"Technical Excellence" award and the acknowledgement that we had created
a "new and mature" mode of operation. What is this system all about?
Knowledge..... that's it. We are the largest repository ever for ham
information. Was this planned NO! Did it just happen? YES!

Today to make all this run we have 28 servers and associated Internet
connection hardware, 2 spare servers, a spare router, CSU/DSU, 100Mb
switch and 6000 watts of UPS power to keep it alive when the lights go
out. 2 T1 circuits, one fiber optic, the other 2.4Ghz microwave. There
is also a Starband satellite link that does some of the incoming FTP
traffic.  This is an investment of about $50,000

Users today..... Web sites 50,000+  (most of which I have never seen).
About 400,000 users of reflector lists....most are subscribers but we
have tens of thousands who read the archives and daily posts.

Who uses the system?  About 40-50 people per second....24/7 we gets hits
in the millions and serve Gigabytes of data daily. Mail users send and
receive about 350,000 emails every day. We kill or block about 35,000
spam messages every day. The reflectors receive about 20,000 posts
average which generates about 500,000 e-mails daily.

What are the operating costs and for what?

Cavalier Telephone Fiber T1           $999 month
DOL                  Microwave T1       $695 month
Starband Satellite                          $75 month
Electric                                        $150 month
Telephone, FAX                             $60 month
Insurance                                      $90 month
Taxes,licenses,fees                       $125 month
Accountant  fees                            $800 year
Repairs, upgrades                           $100 month

I'll let the reader do the math but you can see this is not cheap nor is
it ever going to be.

Until recently I continued donating $1000 monthly but in the present
stock market conditions I have dropped this to $500 hence the need for
more user support. Understand this one thing, the system has nothing to
do with "Al Waller the person". I give to the system as any user would
it is no way connected to my personal finances nor do I ever receive
anything from it other than the fun of making it all work and the many
friends I have made because of the system. The system has to stand on
it's own and if there is no money to run it then it will have to be
shutdown...

I usually ask for donations twice a year, in the winter and again in the
summer. Typically a request for help returns $2000-4000 in donations
from about 350 users.....most times it is the same users over and over.
I'm not saying that a user has to donate, I don't know everyone's
circumstance and I understand the difficulty of foreign users. User
support is just the ONLY way we can continue.

Some things we do to fund the system....host ham and commercial domains,
we were an ISP but have discontinued it due to various problems, we host
ham radio banner ads,  we sell the "404" errors generated by the system
to a banner ad company. All of this make about $1000 yearly.

As of today we have $10,000 in the operating fund and at the present
burn rate we will be good the rest of this year. I would feel a lot
better if there was twice or three times that amount and I would have to
write these e-mails less often.

To answer a common misunderstanding....the system here is NOT
commercial, never has been and never will be. It is by hams for hams and
hopefully funded by hams.

You may have noticed I refer to all of this as "the system" The network
is so interwoven that it takes all for it to work,
QSL.NET,QTH.NET,SWL.NET,DX.QSL.NET all are the same to me, a donation to
one or all assures "the system" continues.

My present e-mail load is about 500 a day, I try to read every one and
have robots help me answer many. It is sometimes very difficult to
balance a family, a real job (NASA) and the 40-50 hours a week I give to
the system. I am slow in answering mail, I am slow in thanking the
donors but eventually I get to it. Be patient with me or call me on the
phone if it is really important ( 302-875-7979)

Finally as always a few thank-you's to the volunteers:

Mike Imrick, AA9ZT
Tim Miller, WB8ZQU
The 250 list managers....
All the financial supporters old and new....

and my wife Denise who allows me to do this when other things need doing
just as much.

73, Al
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