Bob's thoughtful and detailed reply is one more reason to be grateful
for this reflector. There are some great ideas here that I had not
considered. While I've been a ham for decades, I've never been a "paper
chaser". The few awards I have are largely based on going through my old
logs and suddenly realizing, "Oh, I guess I could put in for _________".
VUCC became a goal for me as means to keep me motivated for something
that I knew would be a difficult and time consuming challenge. I was
afraid that I would lose my motivation to stay active on VHF/UHF if I
simply worked people when the band was open or during contests. VUCC
gave me the motivation to sit through an hour and half long WSJT
attempt---and when it failed, to be willing to try again the next night.
Or to switch off the 6 Meter rig when E skip was blowing up and contacts
were easy, forcing myself instead to start calling on 2 Meters and 222.
I really wanted to prove that VUCC was possible to earn even with indoor
antennas. A couple of years ago, I managed to 6 Meter VUCC in a single
contest weekend (107 grids) using only 100 watts and a three element
beam inside my attic. That was fun!
Bob-- I'm on LoTW, but will start doing as you suggest and reaching out
via e-mail to check on missing cards. Not ready to publicly name anyone
who is slow in QSLing, but I'm make inquires. I didn't think about
people being ill, etc. Good points there.
73,
Les Rayburn, N1LF
EM63nf
On 10/16/2013 9:18 AM, Bill Ockert - ND0B wrote:
Hi Les,
First off let me congratulate you on what you have done so far....
just short of amazing.
I am chasing FFMA myself so know all about trying to get QSL cards.
There have been some good articles written on getting cards and I have
learned a few tricks of my own. I have attached an article by W5WVO
on the subject.
Always check QRZ. We have a ham here in ND who has one thing on his
QRZ page and that is "I do not QSL." Do not get me started on that.
Being as you have sent out cards and SASEs you really should attach
calls to the grids you listed. We do that occasionally on the FFMA
reflector and USUALLY someone has some information that is helpful...
the person is a known slow QSLer, the person never QSLs, the person
has been sick, the person is a SK, the person has moved, the person is
the north end of a south bound horse, I have not got a QSL form him
either, oh, I see him at coffee, I will remind him, etc. What are
the calls associated with the grids you listed? I would not be shy
about putting that information in.
Are you on LOTW? Experience has shown that about 1/3 of the time you
will get a confirmation on LOTW and I have found at least some folks
who are on LOTW will not paper QSL regardless of what you send them.
With the list you gave most of the 9 you need could be sitting there
just waiting to be confirmed.
After 6 months of no reply unless I have reason to believe the person
is normally slower than that I start attempting to contact the person
by other means but always just to check if they got my card. That is
a benign way of making sure they got the card and if so reminding them
to send one. I usually email first and if I do not get a response I
use white pages and any other means to track down a phone number. I
look for hams located nearby and contact them. I look for clubs they
might be in. Anything to get them the message "Did you get my card?..."
Sometimes, but not often, it is the post office. Trying to get a
card from DN05 I sent a card/SASE, no response so after 6 months I
sent an email. I had an immediate email back that no card was
received. I sent another card/SASE and after 2 months of no response
I sent another email. Again I had an immediate email back that no
card was received. I was convinced I was being jerked around so I
sent another card/SASE via priority mail which has a tracking
number. That got there and I had an email that my card was in the
mail. After two weeks of nothing I sent a fairly blunt email asking
if the gent and his buddies were having a good laugh at my expense.
The reply I got was no way, I worked 16 station the day I worked you
which was my first day on 6m and am very proud of that, I do not know
what is going on... "what do you want me to do?" I asked him to send
his card to me priority mail and I would reimburse him through
paypal. He did, I got it, I paid him with some extra to cover his
gas and figure I had at least 25 bucks into that card before it was
all said and done just because the post office had an issue between us.
Always use forever stamp on SASEs. If the person is slow in
responding that in and of itself may keep your card out of file 13.
I have had two instances now where the person has been major sick.
In one instance when I called the guy he had been sick for two years
and had a shoebox full of cards, some with old (not enough) postage,
etc he was trying to deal with. While we were on the phone he
started looking through to find my card. I stopped him and thanked
him and told him that was not a good use of either of our time that I
would just send another card/SASE. I did and had his card and my
unused SASE back in less than a week. As recently as yesterday it
came out on FFMA that one of the grids I had confirmed on LOTW that
others were waiting for on paper the gent had been very sick and had
just hired someone to process the 2k+ cards he had backed up. While I
do not need it because of LOTW I should get one from there eventually.
One trick a lot of us use is to generate a reverse QSL and send it
along with your card and SASE. The reverse QSL is a card from the
station in question to you with all of the particulars filled in and a
place for the other station to sign it as being valid. I have had this
work maybe 3 of the 10 times I have tried it.
The key point is be persistent but do not be a pest. With some folks
the gentle reminder that is given by asking if they got your card,
with some folks it takes a phone call.
And some folks you never will get a QSL from. When I work the
contests I delete their calls out of my submittal log before sending
it. I figure if they do not QSL they must not really exist.
73 de Bill ND0B
--
--
73,
Les Rayburn, N1LF
121 Mayfair Park
Maylene, AL 35114
EM63nf
6M VUCC #1712
AMSAT #38965
Grid Bandits #222
Southeastern VHF Society
Central States VHF Society Life Member
Six Club #2484
Active on 6 Meters thru 1296, 10GHz & Light
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