Here is a story about my Hawaii Black Hole. I had worked Mike KH6ND ...I
have his card now :-) I was sending to many stations from there for my WAS
award. So I sent Mike a card and I got one back finally from nagging him a
bit everytime I worked him in a contest. Then I got his card. Plus I met
him at Daytonand thanked him. LOL Point is that I guess his card from
Hawaii is Rare DX, this is told to me by fellow Hawaiians. But I have it
and I am sure if you need Hawaii confirmed for IOTA or DXCC or WAS you can
QSL him and he will Reply.
Many QSLers don't understand the amount of QSO's we make on an average
weekend. Maybe we should meet in the middle. I go to K8CC's for a contest
and his mail looks like the letter bag of QSL cards for the David Letterman
show. I go into his basement where the station is and he has box after box
of cards. I know that we are not rare DX or IOTA but I am certain when most
people send you the card they need it or want it for some reason. If we were
to QSL after a contest to those people afterwards atleast the ones who sent
cards then I am sure that the K8CC station would need donations from fellow
MRRCers and so on for postage and also donations of time to fill out cards.
I am willing to fill out cards anytime. Keep in mind that it is even
easier with computer logging and printable labels.
In final words, The Contest stations should make an attempt to answer some
QSLs and if they are some huge multi multi as a club have it come out of the
club dues to get cards made up for that station along with a postage pool.
I am sure that others in the reflector might have better suggestions than I.
Sean K8KHZ
W.W.M.D.- What Would Marconi Do? . . _ _ ..
Who am I? www.k8khz.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nat Heatwole" <nat@ajheatwole.com>
To: <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 5:45 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] If You Don't QSL, LISTEN UP!
> I received a QSL card from AB1J a few days ago confirming a contact that
> we made in the IOTA contest along with a typed letter dated July 30,
> 2003. Here is an excerpt from that letter:
>
>
> "What I would like to get out of my participation [in contests] is QSL
> cards for the awards (WPX, IOTA, USA-CA, 5BWAS, etc) I'm working on, but
> I've found out that US contest stations seldom QSL. Even though I always
> send an SASE, few of them ever come back. I have no idea what happens to
> the SASEs since the self-adhesive stamps are tough to remove and reuse,
> so I guess they just get tossed. Whatever happens, I'm going broke and
> have little to show for it.
>
> So I've concluded that contesters are interested in contesting, not
> QSLing. And that makes sense, since it is a bother and has nothing to do
> with contesting itself. It's just an after the fact irritant. And some
> stations don't have QSLs or quest operators come and go and my QSL never
> gets to the contest op. On the other hand, I do like to get contacts
> confirmed and don't mind the sending cards and paying for their return.
> So what to do?"
>
>
> After reading this, it perplexes my why AB1J bothers to continue working
> contesters. It seems that most of the contesters he's been working are
> nothing but QSL Black Holes who care more about getting him into the log
> than doing him the simple favor of returning a QSL card. This is
> selfish, rude, and just plain poor amateur practice. For those of you
> who don't QSL, *YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA HOW MANY CONTACTS YOU'RE
> LOSING*. For instance, I am both a DXer/award chaser and a contester.
> When I send a QSL to a U.S. station with an SASE and I don't get one
> back, I make a note of that person's call sign and I simply don't call
> them in contests anymore. I don't care if they would be a multiplier for
> me or whatever, I simply continue tuning. This is the same method I use
> for dealing with other operators who I feel exhibit poor amateur
> practice: stations who go on FOREVER without identifying, those who
> intentionally transmit out of band, jammers, and the like - I just
> ignore them. Maybe when people stop paying attention to them they will
> realize that they need to change their amateur radio ethics. I would not
> hesitate to post a list of those contesters (many of whom are subscribed
> to this list), but I have a hunch that the list moderator would not let
> it though.
>
> Conversely, those operators who return my QSL card, I make every effort
> to work them whenever I hear them in all contests. Just off the top of
> my head, some stations who fit into this category are K1AR, W6EEN, KQ2M,
> K5TR, K4XS, K6LL, K3ZO, W4MYA, W0ETC, W3PP, and K4JA. If they ask me to
> move to another band, I'm far more likely to say yes. If I'm connected
> to the packet cluster, I'm far more likely to take the time to spot
> them. Because they sent that one QSL card to me, they netted dozens of
> QSOs and maybe even some mults in the long run. And I am not the only
> person this; I know of other contesters who do this and I'm sure there
> are thousands of casual ops who do it as well.
>
> If you don't QSL, think about who you're hurting: yourself and
> contesting as a whole. You're hurting yourself because most people will
> simply tune past you and never work you again. And who can blame them?
> They spent lots of money (and keep in mind that the annual salary of
> most people who QSL is *FAR* bellow that of most contesters who own
> superstations) and lots of effort sending you a card and you won't even
> dignify it when a response. Instead of spending all of your time,
> energy, and money putting up that new yagi, trying redirecting those
> assets to returning QSL cards. I will improve your rate much more than a
> yagi will! And in addition, you're hurting all other contesters and
> contesting as a whole. If enough contesters don't QSL, all contesters
> get stuck with the reputations of being "black holes" by the casual ops
> and we lose all of their QSOs. Have you ever worked SS full-time? Have
> you noticed how slow things get on Sunday? The United States has more
> hams per capita than the vast majority of all other countries in the
> world, yet we actually run out of stations to work towards the end of a
> big domestic contest like SS! I guarantee you that one reason for that
> fact is the poor QSLing habits on the part of contesters. The first
> contest I ever dabbled in was SS and it was appalling how few people
> returned my QSLs for that contest.
>
> If Hiram Percy Maxim was alive today, I can only imagine what he would
> have to say about people that religiously don't QSL. But regardless of
> what the OM would say, here's what I have to say: if you don't QSL, your
> hurting both yourself and contesting; you're killing your rate and
> you're slowing down mine simultaneously. If you think that what you're
> doing is OK, think again. To me, bad amateur practice is bad amateur
> practice - you're no different than a jammer. I hope that everyone who
> reads this who does not QSL thinks long and hard about what their doing
> and how it's affecting us all. And if anyone would like the list of
> stations that do not QSL, please e-mail me, I would be happy to send it
> to you.
>
> 73,
> Nat WZ3AR
> <nat@ajheatwole.com>
>
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