This string of QSL cards of mine is from my earliest years to recently
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QSLs are paper postcards with call-letters on one side. They are sent from one radio ham to another to "confirm" the contact. QSLs are used to verify
the contacts required for awards, as well as for display. Examples of awards are:
WAS = Worked All States, and DXCC = worked 100 different countries. From the beginning of ham radio, QSLs were posted on walls, bulletin boards, and under glass. In recent years, the interest for paper QSLs has dropped off a bit as a result of eQSL and LoTW, but for many old-timers who loved receiving the cards through the mail from exotic places, that interest has never dropped off. Dan, N1ZZ claims he has over 10,000 QSLs in boxes. I believe it. There are now 340 countries on the DXCC list. Dan is the only person I know who has confirmations from 339. He is only missing one: North Korea where there are effectively no licensed hams. I will always have a QSL ready for another ham, old or new. If you work me, I'll send you a card to confirm our QSO. That's how and why it's done. Here is a good example of the way QSLs were displayed LONG ago. This picture is ham station 9CXX. The name of this ham is/was Art Collins. He lived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and created Collins Radio - a famous company in earlier ham radio. This picture was taken before 1927 because in that year, the W was added to the front of call letters in the USA. All those QSLs on the wall do not have a letter on the front. In 1927, Art became W9CXX and then about 1947, he became  when the 9th
area was split into two and the new area was zero (with the slash) which included Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska... etc. Sometime soon, I will start scanning a bunch of QSLs I have received over my ham career. Several interesting ones I've received that come to mind: Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, McMurdo Station Antarctica, and Jonestown (Jim Jones) before the coolaid incident at Guyana, South America. Right now, I just have mine on this page because I already had these images in my computer memory. Check back. |
