To QSL or not to QSL?

This is not the first time that someone has written about contests and QSL cards, and I'm sure it will not be the last. The topic mixes contesting and DX. Contesters cannot reject it completely, as they are fully involved. This is really an open dilemma, as many among the so-called "real contesters" absolutely dislike to QSL . They seem to consider this practice as something impure that may corrupt the noble art of contesting. More practically, it means that making so many QSOs during the year may bring several thousands of cards and all of them will carry that horrible, terrifying, inhuman inscription: PSE QSL. Argh! for pity's sake!

If you would visit one of our radio clubs (in Italy) after the major contests, you could listen to guys complaining because they've logged several DX stations that probably will never answer their QSLs. In an American radio club, you can probably listen to the same discussions regarding Europeans.

Being a contester myself, I've discussed this problem with many top-class operators, and we have never been able to agree with each other, except with a very few like DJ6QT and OH2BH.

Reading the National Contest Journal (NCJ), I learned that QSLs received after a contest are something to be answered when you're in bed with the flu. I was very surprised by this comment from someone I know is a world-class contester. He must have been a young newcomer once. Well, I hope that this guy will always be in good health, because he never took my frequency in a contest. But looking at the situation from the point of view of one of those poor guys still waiting for his card, I should wish him at least a couple flu germs each winter. Later, I was listening to another very important contester who often used to be active from different countries questioning someone who inquired about a bureau QSL: "Do you really need my QSL?" That word -really -sounded almost like a threat.

I'm a contester, but I'm also a DXer, a QSL collector, and I work for the Italian QSL bureau, so I can look at this problem from several points of view. It seems that everyone is right. So, who's wrong?

The contester is, usually, not very interested in exchanging QSL cards, because his objectives are not DXCC or WPX but CQWW and ARRL DX. If the contester operates from some semi-rare or exotic place, his troubles with incoming QSLs increase. If the contester lives in the US, the incoming QSLs can become an economic problem, too, because the bureau asks for money to deliver all those cards. You know the operator spends thousands of dollars building a contest station on that remote island, then he spends many more thousands of dollars to buy and bring there the most sophisticated gear, more thousands of dollars are used to fly there four to five times a year, so he cannot afford to pay few more bucks to get his cards from the bureau. It sounds reasonable. Also, the real contester spends his free time trying to improve. Improve what? He must improve everything: antennas, software, speed, sleep times, tools, strategy, and everything else. He has no time to answer all those cards. For all these reasons, the contester is right when he doesn't answer the bureau QSLs.

The DXer, the award hunter, and the newcomer are usually very interested in getting a card from almost all the stations they log. They wait for the major contests, because they know that during those events the possibilities of finding a new one on a given band or a new prefix/zone/ state are much higher. Those are hunting days for them. Of course, they cannot QSL direct to all those stations, as it will be much too expensive, but they need those cards for some reason. So, they QSL via the bureau and hope to find, on the other side, a kind, sympathetic, available person. For all these reasons, the DXer, the award hunter, and the newcomer are right when they send a QSL through the bureau to the contester.

The QSL collector doesn't hunt for a particular award. He likes those colorful pieces of paper. He keeps all of them in strict alphabetical order in many tidy boxes all alike labeled and well piled-up. The time he spends hunting on the air is as great as the time he spends checking off on his log the incoming cards, and as much as the time he spends stacking the checked cards into the boxes. For the QSL collector, each QSO is a source of a possible new card so, because he sends out so many cards, he cannot QSL direct to all the QSOs he makes. He, too, is hoping to find a well-disposed correspondent. For these reasons, the QSL collector is right when he QSLs through the bureau to the contesters.

So, everyone is right, even if their opinions are opposite. It seems impossible, but that's the truth. Jokes apart, I guess the contesters should understand that one of the reasons for their success is that a lot of DXers, award hunters, newcomers, and QSL collectors are calling them. Get the best operator, put him in the best shack with best antennas, at the right contest location, and ask him to win without the support of those who are not really interested in the contest. I'm surprised that someone who stays alive by eating bread and statistics has never calculated the percentage of those who are not directly interested in the contest among the stations worked by a big gun in a major competition.

In the WPX contest, you can easily see this data by working on the received serial numbers. In the last WPX CW (1995), I2VXJ and I went back to Vatican City to air HV4NAC. I guess we ended with a good score, as we logged 4828 QSOs and 815 multis. Table 1 shows the results of my statistics regarding the received serial numbers.

Received serial number		QSOs
from	to	QSOs
0001	0005	683
0006	0010	329
0011	0020	509
0021	0030	310
0031	0040	261
0041	0050	234
0051	0100	684
0101	0200	721
0201	0300	331
0301	0400	192
0401	0500	134
0501	1000	270
1001	2000	152
2001	3000	16
3001	4000	2

Table 1. Percentage of operators not directly interested in working the 1995 WPX CW contest among those who worked HV4NAC.

As you can see, the 62.34 percent (3010 QSOs among 4828) are within the 001 -100 mark. It's easy to understand that those stations were not trying to win the contest. They were just jumping from one pileup to the next, following PacketClus-ter© spots and trying to improve their band score, their WPX, and their WAZ score. More simply, they were trying to work a few, selected callsigns that - on their papers - were DX. Most of them will send a QSL card for those QSOs and, probably, they will QSL direct for an all-time new one, and through the bureau for other kinds of new ones. Can you say how many answers they will get? Probably no more than 25 percent, maybe 30.

We know that if we made 4828 QSOs, using just a 3-element triband and a TL-922, it is because all those guys answered our CQs. Of course we were in Vatican City, and that is quite a rare one on CW. But we went there for that reason: show up from a rare country/prefix to attract the DXers, the award hunters, the newcomers, and the QSL collectors. With their help we ended number 1 in Europe and number 3 in the world in 1994; with their help this year we improved our score by 10 percent. So we'll send out a QSL for each one of them, through the bureau, without waiting for their requests.

It's not a secret that most of the callsigns aired in a contest are logging no more than 50 QSOs, and those guys are the fuel that allows some extraordinary contest machines to work. You cannot call them little pistols, as they are not interested in the contest at all, but they expect to get a QSL.

There are no countries where postal rates are low except, maybe, some eastern Europe countries. Everywhere else an airmail QSL may easily cost over $2 calculating in stamps and envelope. It's not easy to imagine that someone would send all those cards direct.

But contesters object: "why should I answer them?" Well, you need them at least as much as they need you. Here we say: "You wanted the bicycle, did you? Now you've got to cycle."

The contester wants everyone to send a fast callsign and exchange; he wants everyone to work him on more bands; he wants everyone to remember his callsign when he stays 5+ minutes without an ID. Most of the time, his correspondents want him to answer their bureau cards in a reasonable time. All they ask is to get an answer to their bureau cards, without having to wish anyone the flu.

Of course, those who decide to send out all the cards first, without waiting for the requests, are real Sirs. The ham population must admire some guys like N6AA, N6ZZ, K3LR, the many Japanese operators, and most of the Finns, to name a few.

As I said earlier, I work for the Italian QSL bureau, and I see some big stacks of cards coming from these Sirs. Within one year the cards are at their destination. Today, everyone manages his log with the help of computers, so it's no longer a problem printing labels. Whoever is waiting for a QSL doesn't care if he gets a colorful picture or just a common card. That card may be a new one for something and it's much more important getting the card than how it looks. Sending a card can mean courtesy, kindness, and understanding.

Of course it may take some time, and we well know that free time is really precious for the true contester. But, there are so many young guys who would love being volunteer QSL managers, that you cannot imagine their numbers. You can find them everywhere, in the USA or in Europe. Why don't they make themselves useful? There are several countries where QSL bureau facilities are free with an unlimited quantity of incoming and outgoing cards. In some other countries the bureau is available by paying a subscription to the local association. Then you can receive and send as many cards as you like. For instance, in Italy, a yearly subscription to A.R.I. costs about $55 and there are no limits to the QSLs you can send and receive. Choosing a volunteer QSL manager in one of these countries would help to keep costs low.

There are many ways to come to a reasonable agreement. Contesters need to maintain high QSO rates and possibly improve them. They do this by operating from exotic locations with "enough" power and always better antennas. Using all this sophisticated equipment, the contesters must realize that often they are the first and only station from that given country/state/prefix/zone that can be worked by another operator. It doesn't matter if there are other stations active from the same country, others probably were not so loud or so easily worked even with low power or poor antennas. So that type of QSO is good for both the contester and his correspondent. Why doesn't he make them satisfied and happy. Don't think that people are stupid, they remember the callsigns of those guys who answer bureau cards, and the callsigns of those who don't. For instance, K3LR is now sending a lot of cards through the bureau. On his labels he comments: "Please call K3LR in every contest." You bet, Tim, many will follow your request! This is a good example of how nice and clever a big contester can be. In this way, he will probably gain QSOs in the future contests, he will make a lot of guys who were looking for a simple K3 card happy, and he will never get the flu!