A Shorthand Introduction to an Epidemic Form of Madness  

Joy and Sorrow   

Its Majesty, the QSL

Search Logs

"Everything seemed to be alright. He came back to my call - it was my callsign, no doubt - we exchanged a 5 by 9, he finally said 'ok, thank you, QRZ?'. I was absolutely sure about the contact; I didn't even consider another QSO with him on the same band, in the same mode. And now this: the DX returned my QSL with a 'Sorry, not in the log!'-remark. How can a thing like this happen? Did the DX simply forget to log me? Computer mistake?"

Not very probable but certainly possible. Even a rare DX, with an experienced operator at the microphone, morse key, or keyboard, besieged by hundreds of stations at the same time and for many, many hours of operation, is not immune to making mistakes.

But one should consider other, more probable reasons on the caller's side: insufficient CW-knowledge (if the QSO was in telegraphy), insufficient command of the foreign language or the spelling alphabet (if the QSO was in telephony), mistaken or misspelt callsigns, QRM, QSB in critical phases of the contact (in all modes), but also a wrong date or time on the QSL. To be on the safe side, wily operators would work the DX again - confronting the DX with one or more duplicate contacts and thus steeling them another 15 seconds which they could have invested in working others. Some DXpeditions therefore decide not to send QSLs to stations producing "dupes" in their logs. Be warned! The method of working a station again on the same band and in the same mode does not seem to be a clever decision.

In many cases there is a much better way out of the dilemma. Most DXpeditions, some residents of rare DX countries, and DX organisations have placed so-called search logs on their websites. You look them up, enter your callsign, and you'll be informed on which band and in which mode you have already worked them (see the screen shot from DL7DF's homepage below). In case your callsign is not found on a certain band and in a certain mode, you work the station again without the risk of being disqualified. The snag is: the log has to be updated regularly and without any delays.  A log file uploaded after the DXpedition has left the rare spot can be a nice feature but does not help in this respect. Look for the log-search corner on the websites of major DXpeditions, or consult the links given below in the Look-it-up-in-the-WEB box.

There even are possibilities to upload your own log as a search log for others - and for yourself.... A prominent example is by Michael Wells, G7VJR. If you upload your log at their website "you will receive

- personal DXCC reports and league tables

- detailed analysis of your log, using researched DXCC information

- zone charts for your log, again based on detailed research

- a personal timeline of your activity (DXCCs per year, band and mode info)

- your own log search tool, e. g. to link from your web page or QRZ profile                                      

- a filtered DX Cluster which only tells you about DX you still 'need'

- a say in the Club Log most wanted report: your log is part of the trend data

- access to propagation and activity predictions, using everyone's logs    

- QSL suggestions to help you send out just the cards you need <

- OQRS (Online QSL Requests) to make direct and bureau QSLing faster and easier

- satisfaction from taking part in and improving a free DXing resource"

It seems that this comes very close to something DXers were always dreaming about, doesn’ it? However, a bunch of problems remain: Do you agree with making your log open for the public? To make use of all promised features, is an oldtimer really crazy about keyboarding the thousands of radio contacts he has made since the very beginning of his radio-amateur career (in my case: more than sixty years ago)?  I myself was. After all, I did not regret investing weeks and days of typing. I never had a better documentation of my own DX life. 

Is  there a difference between a QSL for a DX-contact and a QSL for a ragchew contact? Radio Erevan would answer: "No, not in principle!" But there are a few things with DX-QSLs you should particularly take notice of:

- Your callsign and the official name of your DXCC-country (or "entity") should be printed (not handwritten!) on your card in a prominent position

- If your QSL has a printed front and back, do not forget to have your callsign repeated on the back of the card (where your QSO data are standing)

- For the date, use the DD-MM-YY format  (D=day, M=month, Y=year). Please avoid the MM-DD-YY or YY-MM-DD formats... You can use the usual three-letter abbreviations for month (JAN, FEB, etc)

- For the time, use the hhmm or hh:mm format; all times must be in UT(C) (Greenwich time) (h=hours 00-23, m=minutes 00-59)   If you have to "manually" convert your local time to UTC, please note that in some cases the local date has to be converted, too!

- Clearly state whether you are using band or frequency ("worked on 10" is ambivalent: 10 metres or 10 MHz?; clearly divide between 1.8 and 18 MHz)

- When filling in the mode, clearly state that it has been a two-way contact

- Do not forget to check if the DX-station makes use of a QSL-manager (via...)

- After having completed the QSL, check all data carefully! If using electronic logging with or without printed labels (see below), be confident and/or trust the Almighty...

- Finally verify the QSL by your signature or initials

Some programmes for electronic logging provide utilities for printing QSL labels which contain the above-mentioned QSO data in a versatile, user-defined format. Even printing the data on the card itself is possible. Labels can be very helpful and time-saving. If your logging software does not offer a printing facility like that - no problem: there are special label-printing programmes with a very high comfort as to label design and filtering out the station(s) you decide to send a QSL to. The famous BV7 program by DF3CB is one of them. Labeling QSLs instead of filling them in manually is nearly a must for stations with high QSO-rates, especially for DXpeditions.

Nearly all national radio associations offer their members the inestimable service of one or more QSL bureaus which can be used for sending QSLs to a foreign country or to a regional radio club and receiving them from there. In Germany and other countries, you hand over your outgoing QSLs to the local club's QSL-manager who sends them to the national bureau, and he will provide you with the incoming cards he is receiving from there.

As QSL bureaus everywhere in the world work together and form sort of a network, this seems to be a perfect system. However, as all bureaus, mainly for cost reasons, collect cards that have to be sent to a certain other national QSL bureau until a certain number of cards have been accumulated, this tends to be a time-consuming procedure. It very likely will take (much) more than a year, sometimes several years, before a "badly needed" DX-QSL will show up. What is more, many (DX-)stations only send cards in reply to your card which causes another delay, and there are stations which cannot (no bureau available) or do not want to use the bureau at all. In most of  these cases, it would be a waste of time sending them a card "via the bureau". So exchanging cards with the help of bureaus is not considered one and the only alternative.

DX-QSLs, the pride of every ambitioned DXer - here more than you'd need for the basic DXCC. But two of them not valid for the award, one has even contributed to the bad-boy stories of DX history... Do you find them?

A very straightforward alternative is sending the QSLs direct by (air) mail. This can probably not apply to all of your cards, as, even for moderately acitive hams, this would cost a fortune and could not be afforded by everyone for a long time. That's why you have to take your own, individual decision which cards to send via the bureau and which ones direct, probably depending on which QSL you really would like to have without delay for DXCC, WAZ or another award and which you can easily wait for a year or more.

According to my experience as a DXpeditionist and a QSL-manager, people make a lot of  mistakes when sending direct cards. To avoid them, here is a check list for handling direct QSLs on the sender's side:

- Check if the DX-addressee uses a QSL-manager. Only choose a reliable source (see below)! That's where to send your QSL

- Copy-and-paste or write the address on an envelope (there is provision for that on every QRZ.COM page...)

- Prepare another envelope with your own address (SAE = self-addressed envelope). Stick an air-mail label on it if necessary

- Enclose your SAE, your (carefully checked) QSL(s), and sufficient return postage (in US-Dollars or IRCs). Donations are mostly welcome...

- Post your letter with sufficient postage

- Make a note as to which address and when you have sent your letter (I use a separate list for this purpose)

Please note that a one US-Dollar note ("Greenstamp") does not cover postage for an air-mail letter in most countries. One IRC should be alright for an air-mail letter if IRCs are accepted at all in the country concerned. In a few countries receiving US-Dollars is strictly forbidden. Sending money or its equivalent in "simple" letters always involves the risk of being stolen; mail theft has become an international problem these days, even in so-called civilised countries. If you want to be on a relatively safe side, make use of registered mail which is cheaper than sending the letter twice or even more times. If in doubt or if you do not get a card in return within a certain space of time, ask active DXers what experience they have made with the DX-station in question or with mail to the country concerned. By the way: even getting a direct DX-QSL can take time; be patient!

A very straightforward alternative is sending the QSLs direct by (air) mail. This can probably not apply to all of your cards, as, even for moderately acitive hams, this would cost a fortune and could not be afforded by everyone for a long time. That's why you have to take your own, individual decision which cards to send via the bureau and which ones direct, probably depending on which QSL you really would like to have without delay for DXCC, WAZ or another award and which you can easily wait for a year or more.

Reliable Sources of DX addresses

A very important issue - if you want to be sure to receive the rare QSL and spare a lot of money! Experienced DXers use at least three sources: the universal weapon QRZ.COM, which is a must for every serious DXer, and the databases of IK3QAR and OZ7C. And if you want to be very sure you better use all the three of them! QRZ.COM (URL below) is the most important facility available as it not only delivers the postal address of the station itself or its QSL manager but plenty of additional information, pictures, etc. It goes without saying that you yourself should create your own QRZ.COM page. The basic page is free of charge, and the web-editing QRZ.COM uses is easy to handle.

Other Systems

Since a couple of years you can also make use of  an "Electronic QSL Card Centre" (eQSL.cc). Have a look on their website (URL below) to find out yourself whether that system suits your purposes or not. It would in no way suit mine, for many reasons, including some emotional ones which have to do with the foundations and ethics of our hobby. I feel, that with my strict rejection of electronic QSLing I'm not belonging to a rare species, measured against the constant requests during QSOs with hams all over the world not  to make use of eQSLs. For me, it belongs to the great new absurdities of amateur radio to download an unattractive, uniformed, ink- and time-consuming DX-QSL from a third-party server where I have to upload part of my privacy, my radio logs, producing further uniformed, sloppily designed QSLs with my callsign. Shooting a sixteenpointer and homebrew a plastic trophy - no, thank you! Fact is, that eQSLs are not valid for most, if not the more serious awards. Believe me, there is and there will be no substitute for genuine, individually designed and personally signed QSL paper cards, even if the system of exchanging QSLs can sometimes be a very troublesome and annoying business.

If you are mainly chasing ARRL awards like the famous DXCC and you do not want to wait for a "real" QSL from a certain DX-station to update your DXCC-standings for example, the Logbook of the World (LoTW) system of the American Radio Relay League could be of interest. This system "is a repository of log records submitted by users from around the world. When both participants in a QSO submit matching QSO records to LoTW, the result is a QSL that can be used for ARRL award credit". The QSO records must be digitally signed using a digital certificate obtained from the ARRL, and you need special software to take part. The procedure is not as unbureaucratic as it would be wishful, but a fascilitation compared to waiting for the DX-QSLs. The main disadvantage seems to be that the system is ARRL-owned (proprietary) and apt to monopolise the DX-scene as a whole, the consequence of which is the maximisation of profits on the part of ARRL. No doubt, the DX world produces a conspicuous and increasing cash flow. Aside from that, it encourages the elimination of paper QSLs which are one of the oldest and most important foundations of amateur radio. It doesn't go without notice, that this is an extremely painful subject and a threat for amateur radio as a whole.

Another system nowadays offered by most DXpeditions and Search Logs is OQRS (Online QSL Request Service) which can be used either for bureau or for direct QSLs. When having worked a rare DX station you simply enter their or a search-log website, look for an OQRS facility and fill in your respective log data there in the form provided. Decide if you want a bureau card or a QSL directly sent to you by mail. Of course, payment is obligatory if you request a direct card, and donations are also welcome. In many if not all cases, you can pay your debt by PayPal (mostly by not even having an account there). It is absolutely undesirable that you send them a paper QSL; they simply do not want all the many thousands of cards. Even this system encourages the elimination of paper QSLs, if only on the side of the DXer.

Example of the OQRS form for J87GU at the Club Log website. You fill in your callsign and receive the QSOs you have made with the DXpedition. Then you decide if you want bureau or direct cards.

Finally an example for a very nice QSL service offered for members of GDXF (German DX Foundation). GDXF financially supports DXpeditions only if they agree with sending their QSLs for GDXF-members directly to a special QSL manager of the association. The GDXF manager sends them to members who - via GDXF website - have requested the cards by sending or typing in their log extract for the respective station, and who have made an advance payment covering the (mostly inner-German) postage.

Screen shot: QSL service of the German DX Foundation (GDXF)