What is a QSL?

It is a confirmation that a QSO or contact was made. This can be a physical card or an accepted electronic confirmation. Since the introduction of electronic confirmations the popularity of physical cards has waned but there are still some awards that require physical cards and some operators in rare locations who insist on card confirmations. If you are not sure about some of the jargon used in this article please check the Glossary at the end.

Why do we need them? The main reason is for those chasing DX awards, such as DXCC. DXCC is the DX Century Club and is an award bestowed on an operator who can provide evidence of QSOs with 100 DX “Entities”. This award was established by the ARRL in the late 1940’s. You can still apply to the ARRL for your DXCC or the WIA is also running a DXCC
program. The WIA system is easier to navigate and is free to WIA members.

Here we will look firstly at physical cards then at electronic confirmations.

Physical Cards

Should I send QSL Cards?

Some say that sending a QSL is the final courtesy to a QSO. Unless you have made it absolutely obvious on your QRZ.com page that you will never QSL then I believe that you should respond to every QSL request you receive. But there is no need to be out of pocket above the cost of the card.

What details should be on the card?

The info on the card should include, the Callsign you used for the QSO, the callsign of the station you worked, The UTC Date and Time of the QSO and the band and mode used. You should also include your Maidenhead locator, CQ and ITU Zones, IOTA No (if applicable – Australia is OC-001). I also include the “Shire” for those chasing VK Shires. You must also have “Confirming QSO” or similar somewhere on the card. NOTE: For IOTA QSOs the Island name and IOTA number must be printed on the card, not hand written!

Card size

There is a standard size, make sure your cards are this size!! If they are not it can make life difficult for everyone!! The standard is 140mm X 90mm (5.5in X 3.5in), which fits in a standard 11B envelope. You will find some DX stations have bigger cards which quickly become “dog eared” after being handled by numerous people in the delivery process, it also makes stacking card very difficult.

Who prints cards?

There are various card suppliers one of the best is: UX5UO Print, See http://www.ux5uoqsl.com/index.php?lang=en&page=products&cur=wrd Price for luxury Cards US$84 per 1000 cards posted. Note this is in Ukraine, so we are not sure if
still operating during the war. You may need to set your location on this site before the prices show.

Others include:

QSL Concept see https://qslconcept.com/australia/index.php/product/qslcards/ Cost is AU$242 per thousand cards free postage in Australia.

NYQSL see http://www.nyqsl.com/ Cost is US$94 per thousand plus postage (ask postage cost before ordering!)

This is just a short list, do some research or chat to other operators to make a choice.

Sending and receiving cards

There are three ways of sending cards

• Bureau – do this if you don’t need the confirmation, or to reply to a bureau card.
• Direct post – do this if you want to get the confirmation reasonable quickly.
• Via A QSL Manager – If you are a high volume user this would be the best solution.

What is the bureau?

As you can imagine the cost of posting individual cards as confirmation for each QSO can become very expensive, amateur organisations around the world have established “QSL Bureaus”. The way this works is amateurs in a particular country send all their, sorted by destination country, “outgoing” cards to a single location. Volunteers at this “Outward Bureau” place the cards into piles to go to each location and when the pile reaches the minimum cost per card they pack and send them to the destination. In Australia the WIA runs the QSL Bureau and it is a WIA membership benefit.
The “incoming Bureau” for a destination receives packages from around the world and sorts them by callsign and either at fixed intervals or minimum cost per card send them to their destination. In Victoria the QSL Bureau send cards to distribution points such as radio clubs and they distribute them to their members. The NERG is a distribution point in Victoria. You need to register with the VK3 Inwards Bureau and nominate your distribution point as NERG.

Once you are registered for the bureau you should be prepared to respond to any QSLs you receive, provided the QSO is in your log!

Direct QSL’s

Receiving cards can be great fun and brings lots of satisfaction to many operators. When you first start chasing new countries for DXCC you will find some operators only QSL by card and require them sent “direct”. This means they want you to send them your card in the post and you should include a self addressed envelope (SAE), often they will ask for a number of “green stamps” a term for American Dollar bills. This is to cover the cost of return postage and QSL card printing, the dollars and envelope are all included with the card.

Another version of receiving a “direct card” is to use a facility called OQRS. This is available on clublog.org and via some other sites run by QSL Managers. The DX station uploads their log to clublog which provides a facility for users to confirm they made the contact and order a QSL card. Cards can be ordered via the bureau, usually for free, or direct for a fee and payment is made by paypal. You do not need to send a card to these stations, unless they specifically ask for one.

If the operator has expended considerable funds in making a special trip or DXPedition then it is common to include a donation in the amount paid for the QSL.

If you receive a direct QSL request containing some green stamps and an SAE then it is common courtesy to send a return card as soon as possible, obviously the sender is very keen to get your card.

With the cost of postage today it’s reasonable to ask for US$4 for a direct card. If you sign up to clublog’s OQRS service AU$5 is reasonable as paypal take a fee and you have to provide the envelope, card and stamp.

QSL Managers

A number of amateurs offer themselves as QSL managers for other amateurs, particularly those in rare DX entities and DXPeditions. As you can imagine if you live in or visit a rare DX entity and make thousands of QSOs the QSLing task could take up hours which could be better spent making more QSOs. Many QSL managers arrange for the card printing and take all the worry out of Qsling. If you plan on making thousands of QSOs then it could be advantageous to find a QSL manager.

Electronic QSLs

There are currently 2 electronic QSL system that are accepted by the WIA for DXCC confirmations, in addition to physical cards. If you are chasing the ARRL’s DXCC award then they only accept LOTW and card confirmations.
LOTW (Logbook Of The World) from the ARRL, and eQSL – this is run by a volunteer group and allows for users to confirm contacts and gain eQSL awards.

LOTW

It is free To sign up for LOTW follow these steps: (See: https://lotw.arrl.org/lotw-help/getting-started/)

1. Download the TQSL application from the ARRL (www.arrl.org)
2. Request your callsign certificate and LOTW account password
3. Email a copy of both your radio licence and a government issued identification document such as a driver’s licence, passport etc to the ARRL
4. You will receive a callsign certificate, which you accept through TQSL and then you are ready to go.

Make sure you set your station locations correctly including grid square and CQ and ITU zones!!! A number of logging programs set the IARU Zone to 55 which is correct for QLD and NT, but Victoria, NSW, ACT, TAS and SA are in Zone 59. You can set up as many station locations as you want for all those SOTA etc activations. Ensure that your logging program can log the location. Log4OM and dxlabs do, I assume logger32 will too. They all will upload QSOs to LOTW and eQSL.

Once your log is uploaded, LOTW will compare your QSOs with those uploaded by other stations any matching QSOs will then be confirmed. Note once a QSO has been uploaded to LOTW it is there forever. You can check your progress towards DXCC and other awards such as WAS (Worked All States) by logging into your LOTW account. If you want to apply for an award there is a charge. Your logging software will also allow you to check on confirmed QSOs and indicate these in some way.

eQSL

The eQSL system is very similar except you can see when someone has claimed a contact with you, even if there is no matching QSO in your log. You do not see non-matching QSOs in LOTW.

eQSL have a number of fantastic awards and they have a system of ‘Authenticity Guaranteed’ you may find it easier to register with LOTW first and then use that to gain Authenticity Guaranteed on eQSL.

Chasing DX awards – WIA

The WIA has a fantastic system for verifying QSOs for their DX awards. This is only available to WIA members and is well worth the cost of membership.

1. You log on and upload your log to their website.
2. Check the validity of QSOs using clublog.org
3. Check for confirmed QSOs using eQSL
4. Check for confirmed QSOs using LOTW
5. Physical cards can also be checked and confirmed
6. You can then check all the various award status and claim awards
7. Once an award has been approved you can download a .pdf file of the certificate

Note: when asked to supply your eQSL and LOTW passwords DO NOT click the update password option in your web browser!

Clublog.org

This is a free system provided by volunteers, that allows users to check other station’s logs to see if they are “in the log” and in some cases request a QSL either direct or via the bureau. see www.clublog.org

It is used by most Dxpeditions, and also provides for “leaderboards” and propagation indicators. Originally designed to provide a facility for clubs to run DX tally competitions etc and the NERG is one of these. Once you have registered for clublog click on “Settings” then “Clubs” and then find NERG and request membership (only if you are a NERG Member!).
All the previous mentioned logging programs will upload your log to clublog and usually have settings to allow contacts to be uploaded as they are made or as a batch at the end of operating session.

You can check your DXCC progress etc on clublog and also marathon progress and this can help you see where QSLs are required. Your logging program will also do this as well as the WIA awards website!

Glossary

ARRL The American Radio Relay League – The organisation representing radio amateurs in the USA.

CQ and ITU Zones – These are boundaries drawn on a world map that divide the world into a number of zones. ITU (International Telecommunication Union – part of the United Nations) zones are based on those used for broadcasting and there are 85 zones. CQ zones are defined by CQ magazine and are used for a number awards and contests. There is no relation between the two for example Victoria is in CQ 30 and ITU 59 while Queensland is in CQ 30 and ITU 55.

DX – This is the term used for distant contacts and indicates that the other operator is in another DX Entity. DX Entities are often called countries but they do not have to be as there are several criteria including distance from another entity as well as political control. There are currently 340 entities on the DXCC list.

DXCC – DXCC is the DX Century Club and is an award bestowed on an operator who can provide evidence of QSOs with 100 DX “Entities” endorsements are given for the more entities worked culminating in the “Honour Roll”.

IOTA – Islands On The Air This is an award based on contacting stations on islands. Each Island group is given a unique identifier made up of two letters indicating the continent and then three numbers indicating the group. For example Australia is an island and has the identifier of OC-001 while AF-013 identifies Madagascar.

Maidenhead locator – A method of recording where you are on the earth that is determined by you lat and long. In the form of two letters followed by two numbers and a further two letters these are called “Grid squares” QF22nh for example.

QRZ.com – A web site that provides details concerning amateur radio operators who maintain there own information on the system.

QSO – A contact between two radio amateurs conducted via radio UTC Universal Coordinated Time (initials from the french version) in the past known as GMT, now known as Z or Zulu time.

VK Shires – This is an award where operators try to have a QSO with or from each of the 560 odd local government areas in Australia.

WIA Wireless Institute of Australia – The organisation representing radio amateurs in Australia