A “QSL” is a telegrapher’s shorthand for “I acknowledge receipt of your message or transmission.” A QSL Card is a postcard that is written confirmation
or acknowledgement of a radio contact. The reason “hams” would want a QSL card falls into several categories:
Courtesy: Sending a QSL card signifies the final handshake of a contact.
Awards: QSL cards serve as proof of a two-way contact needed for certain awards.
Tradition: Exchanging QSL cards has been a long tradition in ham radio world and it is fun to get cards from other contacted hams.
The information normally on most QSL cards is:
Call Sign: The radio station that you made connection with.
Frequency: The radio frequency the connection was made on.
Location: The geographic location of the contact. It usually includes street address, city, state, country, and grid square.
Mode of Transmission: The 2-way communication mode that was made with the station (i.e. smoke signals, amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), single side band (SSB),
continuous wave (CW) and/or the best radio teletype (RTTY).
Time & Date: The time and date of the contact. Normally the time is stated in universal time: (UTC) or Greenwich time (GMT). The date is represented in the usual way (dd-mm-yyyy).
Signal Report: This is a report of what power level was heard by the receiving station. Normally this is a three-digit code with a high signal strength indicated with (599).
Usually QSL cards will have a spot on the card to circle one of the following:
PSE/ QSL/ TNX
You would normally circle the following terms:
Circle “QSL TNX” to indicate that you are answering a QSL: “Thanks for the QSL”
Circle “PSE QSL” to indicate you are requesting a QSL: “Please QSL”
Other information you may see on a QSL card:
Rig: The type of radio equipment used in the contact.
Power Level: The amount of radio output power that was used in the contact.
Antenna: The type and height of the antenna used in the contact.
Hams like to know how well their equipment performed. It is nice to hear that your station equipment was working well enough to make this contact, whether it is around the corner or across the world.
Sending your QSL Card
There are normally three ways to send out your card:
QSL Bureau, QSL Manager and Direct Mail
QSL Bureau
The QSL bureau is used for cards heading to foreign countries (non-USA). The cost of sending QSL cards to a foreign country can be very expensive.
There are many QSL bureau organizations around the world that provide a service of collecting QSL cards and then forwarding them to a local bureau
in that call sign area. Here you would mail the card to a local bureau (i.e., ARRL); that organization would collect QSL cards in their local collection
station and then pass them on to the respective country bureau in that call sign area. The local bureau would hold these cards until they have a quantity
of cards for that call sign area and then send them along to a bureau in that call sign area at a bulk rate. The advantage of this method in that the cost of
sending the card is the least expensive and the return rate is good. The disadvantage is that it’s not time sensitive and not all foreign stations use the bureau.
QSL Manager
Some United States operators and foreign operators have local United States hams that will collect QSL Cards for their station and forward them to the foreign station.
This method is not very expensive but you have to pay the postage both ways. It has an excellent rate of return and fairly good turnaround time. Some foreign operators
have foreign QSL Managers that have excellent return rates and are faster than QSL Bureau. But this method can be very expensive: you have to pay postage both ways.
Direct Mail
This is where you post the card yourself. This method has an approximate 99% return rate. It is the most expensive way to
QSL: you pay postage both ways, both local postage and foreign, if heading overseas. The best way for direct mail to a foreign country is to send along a
self-addressed and stamped envelope (SASE) for the best return rate.
My QSL Card