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Re: [CQ-Contest] Logging question

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Logging question
From: Jim Brown <k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: k9yc@arrl.net
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2015 01:14:56 -0700
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
On Sat,8/8/2015 9:24 AM, Oliver Dröse wrote:
To my mind it's plain theft, sri. I've done quite a number of projects myself, published in magazines and on the web, etc. I do this for my own pleasure (remember, it's a hobby), not to get paid via QSL contributions and people sending QSLs in good faith not even knowing they get robbed

My qrz.com page has plainly stated my position for two years. If you do not put your log on LOTW, I will not send you a card. Period. If you ignore that and send me a card and money, that's YOUR choice. I have not "stolen" your money. From 2006 to 2011, I have sent many hundreds of cards via the Bureau and not received a card in response, and I NEEDED those cards for an award.

I have taken an even more extreme position with JA cards. If you contest from the west coast, you receive many hundreds of JA cards 18-21 months after every contest. More than a few stations send a card for every contest with 3-6 QSOs, some even send a card for every QSO. There are MANY JA stations from whom I have received 50-100 QSLs listing 3-6 QSOs. DL5AXX sends me several QSLs every year -- I have dozens of them. I no longer bother to log any of this crap.

Until about three years ago, I responded to all these stations, sending thousands of cards. I pay about $100 per thousand to print them, a day or so to print address labels and put on cards, another day to record the QSLs as I received them. More dollars to buy the labels. Because I'm a member of a fine DX club, NCDXC, they send my cards to ARRL no charge, as part of my dues to them.

I'm in CA, a VERY big state, with LOTS of active hams. They don't need my card for any mainstream award. Plainly, these stations are abusing the Bureau system, flooding it with cards that they generate automatically on cheap paper, spit out of their computers. And the objective, for the JAs, at least, is some award based on the sheer volume of cards they receive. THAT'S a big part of why the Bureau system is broken! Because I'm a 9 call living in CA, the 9-bureau gets blown away by my cards. You guys on the east coast and EU don't get that onslaught, but in CA, we do.

Until about three years ago, I was a sucker, sending my cards to DX stations and their QSL managers via the Bureau, many of whom make good money on the green stamps they receive. My cards sent through the Bureau yielded ZERO response. When i sent them green stamps via the mail, often for more than their postal costs, I got cards. FROM THE SAME MANAGERS. That stinks, and is a big part of why I have taken the position I have stated.

I can show you dozens of QSL manager websites and websites from DX stations who say that the Bureau is useless, takes forever, and so on This includes some QSL managers in G, EA, I. As a DXer and contester, all I know is that I am getting taken advantage of.

I am quite happy to send dollars to DXpeditions via PayPal to support their efforts. Indeed, the statistics I have seen for many major DXpeditions show that the overwhelming amount of their support comes from US hams by ratios on the order of 4:1 as compared to EU, and ratios that are much worse from the rest of the world. And yet those EU stations demand the QSOs. Here's but one example. http://www.intrepid-dx.com/vp8/donors.php I've also contributed to one DXpedition by negotiating the purchase of very high quality coax at a large discount, and building their cables from that coax from Amphenol connectors that I soldered. I spent several days doing that.

73, Jim K9YC
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