A New Electronic eQSL Service
by webmaster Paul VE3SY

www.eQSL.CC
Recently a new eQSL service - not affiliated with the league - has surfaced and is generating attention amoungst those hams interested in supporting a move to electronic QSLs. The author has NOT stopped using the conventional system however I do feel this new service has a good start on a secure system and should be reviewed.

Dave Morris, N5UP is the founder and webmaster for this new eQSL service that went on-line in April of last year. As of this writing over 3 million cards are on line waiting for retrieval. I was first made aware of the service by Don, VE3BUC and when I visited the site I found almost 100 cards waiting for me.

How It Works
When you first visit the home page at www.eQSL.cc  you are only able to enter a callsign and see what cards are waiting for the callsign you entered. Until you register as a user you are unable to view any of the QSO info associated with the cards. As a security precaution to prevent people from retrieving eQSLs that are not their own, you are unable to get a listing of the eQSLs that have been sent to you. However Even if you choose not to register, you can still download the QSO info and print a QSL card if you enter the band, date and time of the QSO. (only you and the DX station would know that info) Of course the easiest method is to register which only takes a few moments. You are then sent a confirming e-mail with a temporary authorization code that allows you to complete your registration. Now this step could be forged by anyone registering with your call however they would not have much use for cards with your callsign. Part of the registration allows you to set a personal profile where you can choose to be notified by e-mail when new cards arrive. If a person does not wish to receive e-mail notifications, then they can uncheck the box in their profile to avoid excessive amounts of e-mail.

As part of the registration process you create a custom QSL from templates provided or you can upload an image of your own. This image is stored on the eQSL server and is only extracted to produce a view or printout. This means the actual card is created dynamically and is not floating around in an image format.

The In-Box Log Screen
When you log on and check your inbox you receive the following screen.  These cards arrived one day after I cleaned out my inbox. Note that the sample Display/Print buttons below are NOT active.

The first thing to do is confirm the QSO is in YOUR log.  I found several cards for which no QSO could be found. If this is the case you can either send an e-mail by clicking the link in the CALL column and send the chap a query message or click reject which gives you several clickable choices which are displayed here on the right.   (NOTE: the destination email address and your e-mail address is never revealed so you don't need to worry about your address being revealed here)

Display and Print the card
The printout routine for the cards is quite good allowing you to print two cards per page by placing the paper back in your printer after printing the first card. The card shown here was from Boris 9A2GA who had initially submitted a confirmation with the incorrect time. When I rejected the card Boris found his error (local vs GMT) and resubmitted the correct info within a few hours of my initial rejection. We all know how frustrating the wait would be to handle this problem by mail.    NOTE:  As part of the registration process you create a custom QSL from templates provided or you can upload an image of your own.  This image is stored and is only extracted to produce a view or printout.  This means the actual card is created dynamically and is not floating around in an image format.

Confirming the QSO
When you click the confirm button a window pops up allowing you to return the RST info along with a comment line.  When you click send you are provided the choice to send an e-mail notice to the other ham or just send the card info.  As indicated above only the QSO info and not your image is transmitted.  

Originating Cards - Uploading Your Logs
You generate QSL requests by uploading your log to the eQSL web site.  You must take your log and convert it to ADIF format (Amateur Data Interchange Format) before uploading to the web site.  Most log programs provide for an ADIF export utility.   If you have a large number of Qs to upload, you are asked to break the upload into increments of 1,000 Qs.   As soon as the log is uploaded, eQSL then sends a QSO notice to everyone in your uploaded log so it is important to only upload log entries for which you wish to generate a QSL card.  You can appreciate this comment by looking below at the Stats for Top Senders. VO1MP would have generated over 80,000 QSO confirmations when he uploaded.

On Security and Faked Cards
With new scanners, image software and colour printers even our money is not secure. The eQSL founder sums it up as follows.

Don't be fooled by people wildly dismissing eQSLs as being too easy to falsify. Anybody with a color inkjet printer can create any QSL card he wants to nowadays. The difference is that the eQSL.cc system is more secure and less easy to "fake", because every card can be verified.  The way we "verify" the card is a). by letting you upload a scanned copy of your license to prove who you are, and b). by allowing organizations to check our database to verify any paper QSL cards they receive.

73,
Dave Morris, N5UP
Founder and Webmaster, eQSL.cc

There is also a white paper on the eQSL web site that does a good job of addressing the issue

Some Interesting Statistics!
( source eQSL web site as of Feb 18, 2001)

E-mail from Boris 9A2GA
During my eQSL exchanging I received the following e-mail which Boris has consented for publication.   

Authors Comments
The only downside I can see with his service is the lack of caution to first time users that a QSO confirmation is generated to everyone in their log as well as duplicates for each callsign. The ability to fake a card is probably more secure than traditional methods. eQSL provides an extensive white-paper on their web site about this subject.

While I will still continue to use the RAC QSL bureau as well as sending new DXCC contacts direct, I applaud the tremendous efforts exhibited by Dave Morris, N5UP with this service. He should not be discouraged by the current lack of support from the mainstream award managers but consider he may just be a bit ahead of his time. I only hope that a universal specification can be adopted and eQSLing can move forward with eCards being equally accepted for awards.

Check out the site at www.eQSL.cc  and see if you have any cards waiting and remember Dave is happy to hear your comments.
(yes - .cc is a valid top level domain along with .com etc)

73 de Paul Cassel VE3SY

Source Info:
  eQSL web site:  www.eqsl.cc
  eQSL Webmaster: Dave Morris N5UP
  RAC Web Site: www.rac.ca
  ARRL web site: www.arrl.org