Last Month's Meeting  April 2001 by Bill VE3ETK

The QSL - - Then and Now

Our guest speaker for the evening was Paul VE3SY, who spoke on the topic of QSLing.

Paul provided an excellent and brief history of the QSL card, showing us some examples of early cards and a couple that got lost for more than half a century.  His introduction led up to the subject of QSL bureaus.

At this point Gord VE3RGG took over the microphone to describe the details of a Bureau operation.  We owe a lot of thanks to the hams who volunteer to do bureau work.  Some of the numbers that Gord provided are startling as to the volume of cards that pass through Canadian bureaus.  For example, it took over two days to sort through just the VE3 calls last month.  The RAC bureau reports that the volume and mass of cards they deal with is now overwhelming and they expect it will be important to transfer operations to electronic QSLs within two years.

Bill Graham VE3ETK (l) trying out the eQSL web site as Paul VE3SY looks on

Paul picked it up again and moved into electronic QSLs, and gave us a practical demonstration of the www.eqsl.cc website and system.  We saw how to get onto the site, look for cards sent to you, get registered (free), retrieve your cards, and how to send cards.  The site allows you to use generic cards, or upload your own design.  Following a busy night “on the air” you can simply upload your electronic log and all of your outgoing QSLs are on their way, with the option of sending an automatic e-mail to the recipient to alert them that their card is waiting at eQSL.  A practical demo was also given of how instantaneous the sending and receiving of cards is.

The audience asked a good range of valuable questions, and Paul provided informative answers to all.  It looks like this is the way of the future folks….. time to think about joining the eQSL crowd.