Good afternoon from #hamr alternative shackadelic as we are getting ready to watch the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. I've been busy with other things as of late mainly because of good weather. You can't sit in the chair when the sky is perfect blue with a temperature pushing into the mid-seventies for about a week straight. Instead, at the end of the day, my attention turned to a three inch stack of bureau QSL cards.
As I have read, the final courtesy after the QSO goes into the log is a QSL card. I can say, as many of our seasoned operators already know, the return traditional QSL card is labor intensive by today's standards. I appreciate the speed of LoTW and eQSL from its award management to contact confirmation. The efficiency of each delivery and confirmation system speaks volumes about #hamr modernity.
The bureau QSL is something entirely different that speaks to a day when pen and paper ruled our hobby and, perhaps, a time of greater reflection?
My process included the following first filling out the self addressed stamped envelope sent to the appropriate ARRL sanctioned incoming bureau. The second step involved waiting for the first then second and a third envelope in rapid succession hence three inch stack. My third step was ripping into each envelope with its paper contents filled out by other human beings from different points on our planet.
Unlike LoTW or eQSL, I need to go into my computer log then verify each QSL card, prior to filling out the confirming card. Likewise, I chose pen ink to that of a computer label because of fading, does it seem to you that modern ink has little staying power that is a decade or better? I really don't think a card checker is going to accept a faded card as award acceptable.
Admittedly, my index finger and thumb bulked up because of my self inflicted printing exercise as my fingers look like Popeye sized biceps on a can of spinach.
The remarkable piece of my process was the speed or the lack of instead I focused on each card, each movement of the pen, stack sorting either Japan or Europe, and taking a minute or two to think about the other person. I found and still find the process as very relaxing despite its byzantine like qualities.
A half inch of cards remain and I'm looking forward to finishing it then begin mailing a few pounds of traditional cards. I recommend instead of engaging the process in the shack look for a favorite spot in the house perhaps one with a view. I've learned that filling out my bureau cards is less like a chore and more like a time of reflection especially as delivery and confirmation moves at the speed of electrons delivered by copper cable.
73 from the shackadelic near the beach.