The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) warns it suffered a serious online incident, which disrupted its IT systems and online operations, including email and the Logbook of the World. ARRL is the national association for amateur radio in the United States, representing amateur radio interests to government regulatory bodies, providing technical advice, and promoting events and educational programs for enthusiasts around the country. On Thursday, the ARRL announced that it suffered a cyberattack that disrupted its network and systems, including various online services hosted by the organization. “We are in the process of responding to a serious incident involving access to our network and headquarters-based systems. Several services, such as Logbook of The World and the ARRL Learning Center, are affected,” explained ARRL in a press release. Logbook of The World is an online database that allows amateur radio enthusiasts to submit electronic logs of successful contacts (QSO) and confirmations (QSL) between other users.
TX5S Clipperton Island QSL cards have been mailed at 8am Monday 13th May 2024.
The mail has been country sorted and bagged up and sent to Heathrow International airport for onward shipping.
Please leave enough time for the QSL cards to arrive at your home.
Thank you for your patience.
More beautiful QSL cards to preview. H40WA Temotu Province. Thank you to Max ON5UR for his design work. We expect to get the QSL cards posted out in early June.
H40WA OQRS open.
Delighted to show you the J38R Grenada DXpedition QSL Preview. Design by ON5UR Max. The QSL is now in the print room. I expect that QSL cards will be posted out around the end of May. Posting date will be released when known.
M0URX.com Bespoke OQRS shows “QSL Sent” that means the labels have been printed and we are waiting for the 5,000 cards we ordered to arrive in the UK.
The TX5S Clipperton Island DXpedition QSL cards were designed by Dave K3EL and are currently at the printer, ON5UR Print Services. There are three different cards:
– TX5S Full color, double sided
– TX5S Full color single card for buro and overflow contacts
A full color N6WM/MM card single card
The cards will be mailed from the United Kingdom on Monday 13th May by our QSL manager, Tim M0URX.
M0URX.com OQRS shows “QSL Sent” that means the labels have been printed and we are waiting for the 10,000 cards we ordered to arrive in the UK.
Questions to: [email protected] 73, TX5S Team
It is with regret that i report that the Spanish URE Bureau Box failed to get through customs for the second time. Endorsed “Missing Customs Declaration”
We are currently working with URE to establish what needs to be done.
One of the two Bureau parcels that we posted to DARC German QSL Bureau back in February has been returned endorsed as “Non Reclaimed”
We are currently working with DARC to have this shipped back to Germany soon. Sorry for the delay this has caused.
As the 2023 – 2024 financial tax year comes to an end, it is time to take a look at how our mailing facility has worked over the last year. Overall 28,936 items of mail were posted at a cost of £26,359.90. We post QSL Direct cards, bureau parcels and magazines using the various products as shown in the table below. With 13,751 more items posted this year, with Solar Cycle 25 this last 12 months providing much increased propagation on HF.
DX’pedition QSL costs are very competitive as always and we welcome talking to DX teams about mailing your QSL cards in the future.
The past 12 months though have been financially very challenging, postage costs up 10%, pulp paper costs up 15% and Customs charges across the board on QSL bulk shipments in and out through customs have hit us very heavily. We have tried to keep our QSL charges down to the lowest we can.
Standard postal rates have increased significantly in most countries worldwide due to the dwindling number of letters posted globally as people use electronic technology which has largely replaced the postal system in recent years. This means that the postal costs are spread over much lower volumes both nationally and worldwide and THIS is the driver of increased postal costs. In our hobby we still use the mail system to ship our QSL cards and therefore we must expect that increase to hit us. As an example, Royal Mail letter volumes in the last 12 years have dropped from 14.3 bn down to 7.3 bn per year.
While most people use OQRS (Thank you) we still get a number of incoming direct letters. The problem being is that most of the incoming letters do not include the correct QSL costs, because most fail to read either my QSL policy or the DXpedition QSL policy. This increases our costs further and also costs us time as we have to email to let people know that they failed to QSL correctly. My advice is use OQRS ONLY!
More customs charges on Bureau shipments outgoing continue, many Bureaus refuse to accept the shipments and we will not guarantee any cards requested using the IARU Bureau system. Customs demand a recipient name on these shipments but the IARU refuse to provide this for GDPR reasons. Well, this will inevitably close the Bureau system as we know it going forward. Someone has to take responsibility for this if the Bureau cards are to be securely sent and received by the IARU Bureaus. It is now completely out of our hands. If you want a QSL card use the direct option on OQRS is the only advice i can give.
Enjoy your DX! We as a team promise to provide you with a QSL service that works for both the DX’er and the DXpedition Team.
