Category - Blog

In recent days i have received many letters with either NO postage costs with letters saying “can’t find any IRCs or $$” and also letters with considerably insufficent funds to return the QSL so I have below written the costs for you to see. I consider these costs to be VERY fair so please make sure that you send the right postage costs with your QSL!

Paying by Paypal (ONLY)            OR Direct QSL By POST
2 Euros for 1 (ONE QSL ONLY!!!) Or by post US$2 / 1 x IRC
3 Euros for up to 4 QSL cards      Or by post US$3 / 2 x IRC
5 Euros for 5 – 10 QSL cards or   Or by post US$5 / 3 x IRC
7 Euros for 11 – 20 QSL cards      Or by post US$7 / 5 x IRC

More details here on HOW TO QSL!  
If INSUFFICIENT funds are sent, QSL WILL be sent Via Bureau! 

Andy P29CS/P has returned home from his family holiday in Rabaul Island OC-008. The log is now on my online Log search and QSL cards will be overprinted for the IOTA information and sent very soon. Andy is now back on Lihir Island OC-069 and will be active in his spare time.

I am getting many emails asking for communication to Andy P29CS about QSL cards from before Jan 16 2010. The situation is this! WAIT! Please wait. Your QSL will be dealt with by Andy as soon as he can.  Please do not email me here as there is nothing i can do to help at this stage.
200 blank P29CS QSL cards are to be mailed out to Andy this week so that he can process QSL cards from before 16/01/2010. Please be patient.
M0URX is QSL Manager for P29CS for QSOs AFTER Jan 16 2010.

There has been an increased amount of emails this week concerning the costs of QSL Via Bureau, who should pay? There is an example of one QSL manager who charges US$1 for up to 3 QSL cards sent Via Bureau which many find quite concerning. Should the Bureau be FREE? But free for who? This is not a new question of course just one that is getting a louder voice now as postage costs rise.

Here at my QSL Bureau it costs in excess of US$1,000 a year to send all QSL cards Via Bureau and these costs have to be met by someone. In my case it is carefully managing income from Direct QSL cards, by finding the cheapest route for sending outward QSL cards, by having a good working relationship with my QSL Printer Max which allows flexibility in printing costs and also searching for the right costs for stationary, as envelopes, inkjet labels and printer ink all add significant cost to my Bureau costs over the year.

This week the RSGB QSL Bureau also informed me that some of my clients are not able to use the Bureau as they are not members of the RSGB, this is not a problem for us as most of our Bureau cards are not routed through the RSGB but instead I send Direct to World Bureaus every 10 weeks or so.

So the truth here is that Bureau QSL costs are met jointly by those who send Direct QSL cards, and a careful management of funds saving money wherever possible. Also there are many who send donations (Thank you!) even if it is only sending an extra IRC or dollar in with the QSL it all helps keep the United Radio Bureau going to keep the QSL cards flowing around the World quickly and as efficiently as possible. Then of course we also provide some sponsorship to DX’peditions globally where we are in a position to do so. 

How can you help keep Bureau costs down? Well only by sending for Bureau cards that you actually want. For DX’peditions and many other callsigns that I manage “EMAIL REQUEST IT, DON’T SEND IT” This not only speeds up the Bureau QSL process but saves a lot of money both for the DX station AND for the World QSL Bureau’s. So before you send that QSL please spend a little time in checking with the QSL manager first. 

You may remember I invited Ofcom (Office of Communications) to investigate some local QRM giving me major grief on the Amateur Bands, well the TV Masthead Preamp PSU on the house at the end of the street has now been replaced, and the drifting noise on 15m now has gone… BUT.. I quickly realised that was not the main cause. I invited Ofcom back and asked them to investigate further as I still have total wipe out S9+20 on all bands about 3 hours every evening.
Ofcom now require a test done to make sure that the interference is 6db higher than the noise floor before they can take the case on. Not easy as the noise is in the evening and Ofcom work 9-5. Luckily during the day there are sprogs on 20m and various other parts of the HF spectrum for the guys to test. Happy that i have a case they went away to DF the little sprog. Got him! A Plasma TV a few doors away! Oh no!

The field engineer comes back to tell me the bad news, however he says that the first stage is to encourage the owner to compliance. Also his Office will send out further equipment to test the field strength of the Plasma TV to prove that it exceeds regulations. He says that if asking the owner to comply does not work then they will take the action of enforcement if it is required.

On a plus side the owner of the Plasma says that they are moving house at the end of April! Bonus!!! But the Ofcom engineer says that the case will stay live even when they move as the equipment MUST be repaired or replaced.