Category - Blog

It has been very difficult to get mail in and out of Venezuela over the last year due to the politcal and financial climate in the country. Several attempts to get our bureau packages to the YV QSL Bureau failed with mail being returned as “Route suspended” however thanks to the help of the YV Bureau team we were able to route the mail via USA and this was picked up by the YV team.

 
The photo from YV4BCD, Juan shows that the cards from M0OXO Charles and myself, M0URX Tim finally got through to the Venezuela hams. Thank you to all who helped!

Something is happening that I believe could be the death of the Bureau QSL card. For security reasons all parcels sent around the world will soon have to have “Pre-Advice Data”

What this means is that I need to send in advance, electronically, personal data of the recipient and the contents of the parcel to customs.
I will need the IARU Bureau email address, name of the person I am sending to, telephone number, as well as the usual customs declaration.

This electronic data will need a “Commodity code” for the items inside the parcel. QSL cards are as near as we can get it “postcards” which is commodity code 49090000.
This is where we have a problem, this is telling customs that the postcards in the box are a commodity and are likely to be charged VAT standard rate to other European Union Countries (Isn’t the EU supposed to be there to help EU citizens?) The only good news is that outside EU is 0% tax.

But I see nothing that can tell the recipients customs or douane that these postcards are a gift of “no value”
This will be starting in January 2019 and in some countries like Brazil it has already started. I am trying to get my head around this, looks really complicated and as far as I can see IARU Bureaus are not ready for it. I have asked my mail carrier for advice, so if I find out more on this I will report back soon.

3rd June – As of this time i am working with my account manager to ensure that our bureau dispatches will meet the new “Pre-advice data” requirements, however this does depend on cooperation from the IARU Bureaus to ensure that we have the data we need. 

A new QSL for John, HK3C is now in the printroom and will soon be ready to post.
As always OQRS is open for your requests.

HK3C, John in Bogotá, Columbia has been in touch and asked me to take over QSL management of his call sign, HK3C, I will also be looking after his older calls signs of HK3AK and HK3OZ.

The logs have been uploaded to OQRS and are live.

A new QSL card will be designed shortly so QSL requests will be confirmed as soon as we have a new stock of cards.

QSL cards for all call signs owned by 9M6XRO John, (now SK) must not be sent to me through the bureau as his RSGB membership will be closed. 
All QSL requests must come through the OQRS only.

All QSL cards requested on OQRS for both Direct and Bureau will be sent out on the next mailing.

Thank you to Jim, AD1C for the old out of date IRC’s received. These will be sold and used to fund our outgoing QSL mailings to the IARU Bureaus. Thank you Jim for your support.

Donate your old out of date IRC’s to United Radio QSL Bureau!

Please post your old, out of date IRC’s to:
Tim Beaumont, P.O. Box 17, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, CV8 1SF, ENGLAND

Press Release #4  April 16, 2018
VP6D Ducie Island 2018 DX-pedition (OC-182)

We are now in the implementation phase of the project; equipment is being consolidated in Fremont, California. Customs brokers in the USA and New Zealand have been selected, and the New Zealand Government issued us an import / export license to ship the equipment to and from the country.

Manufacturers and distributors of amateur radio equipment are critical to the success of DX-peditions to rare entities. We are happy to have received significant support from DX-Engineering. They have furnished coax cable, guy ropes, a 40 meter four square system, coax connectors, ground anchors and other accessories. DX-Engineering has been a long time supporter of our projects and many other DX-peditions to rare entities; we very much appreciate their continued commitment to the hobby.

 Joining our list of corporate sponsors is SteppIR Communications Systems. We will add to our antenna lineup two 2 element Yagi antennas. These antennas proved to be indispensible during our TX3X Chesterfield Island project; we’re happy to have them for VP6D and appreciate SteppIR’s ongoing support.

A Garmin InReach Satellite Communicator will be used during the DX-pedition. You will be able to follow our journey on the web, details to be announced. This handheld unit also provides 2 way SMS messaging similar to that of a traditional mobile phone, and one way messaging to Twitter and Facebook. We will use this technology to communicate with family, the pilot team and to update you via social media, as required. We’ll also have an Inmarsat BGAN terminal for log uploads and e-mail with the pilot team.

 Our budget for this project is $175,000 (USD). Our current fundraising campaign is underway; you may see the progress at our website. We appreciate the donations and equipment support we’ve already received. With the final payment for the Braveheart due on September 1st, the next most expensive line item is equipment shipping budgeted at $20,000. Please remember, we have to pay these expenses whether or not you make a contact. We need your help to keep our DX-pedition team’s investment at a reasonable level. You may help by donating at: vp6d.com

 Members of the VP6D team will be attending the International DX Convention, Visalia, California April 20 – 22, 2018. We hope to meet many old friends, and make new ones at the convention.

73, Team Ducie – 2018

The UK QSL managers continue to deal with large volumes of outgoing QSL cards both direct letters and bureau parcels to all the IARU Bureaus. 18,216 items posted. This is a summary of the postage for the year 01/04/2017 to 31/03/2018.