KV1J on W1 QSL Bureau, New England Sci-Tech, April 23, 2019

Eric Williams, KV1J, Co-manager of the W1 QSL Bureau, is the featured guest speaker at New England Sci-Tech on April 23, 2019 at 7 PM. Eric will explain how the QSL card sorting works, and encourage attendees to do some actual card sorting.
 
Prior to the meeting, at 6 PM the club offers training on how to operate the HF station in the radio room (tours for visitors); at 6:30, everyone is encouraged to check into the net on 449.125 (CTCSS 146.2 Hz).  After the meeting and presentation is the Planetarium show and public telescope night, weather permitting.
 
New England Sci-Tech is located at 16 Tech Circle, Natick MA. Directions
 
 
 

ARRL Rolls Back Outgoing QSL Bureau Rates to 2011 Prices

ARRL flagvia ARRL Web:

ARRL is rolling back Outgoing QSL Bureau rates to 2011 levels. Effective May 15, 2019, the new rates will be:

  • $2 for 10 or fewer cards in one envelope.
  • $3 for 11 – 20 cards in one envelope, or
  • 75 cents per ounce for packages with 21 or more cards. For example, a package containing 1.5 pounds of cards — 24 ounces, or about 225 cards — will cost $18.

No transaction service fees.

Any cards received before May 15 will be charged the current rate. There will be no adjustments for cards received before May 15.

More information is on the ARRL website.

W1 QSL Card Sorting Session at Algonquin ARC, August 9, 2018

rare dx qsl cardEric Williams, KV1J, writes on the Algonquin ARC mailing list:

The Algonquin Club will be holding a QSL card sorting session on  Thursday August 9th, 7:30 PM at the Marlborough Fire Station.  We will  be in the classroom/EOC where we hold Field Day. 

The Bureau receives QSL cards from DXers all over the world, sort them and then  send them to the New England area hams.  We processed about 100,000 QSL  cards each year.  To do this, we are grateful for the team of over 40  volunteers and several area clubs that help make this happen.  Our  Algonquin club is one of the clubs that helps with the presorting step in our process. 

Our part is easy and fun.  You get to see QSL cards from all around the  globe.  Maybe catch a card that is for you!  We will have boxes of cards  from the country national organizations that are for W1 call area hams.  For our session we will have about 13,000 cards. Our mission is to sort  those cards into stacks for each first letter of the call sign suffix.  So there will be a stack for all the call signs the a suffix the starts  with A and one for those starting with B and so forth.  It goes quick  especially with lots of people doing it on several separate tables. 

When we are done, those stacks will be sent to our individual letter  sorters who will then sort them by the individual recipient hams. 

Our web site is – www.w1qsl.org  If you want to see the details of our processes –  http://www.w1qsl.org/qslsort/docs.htm 

Thank you and hope to see you next month. 

73,

Eric, KV1J
W1 QSL Bureau Co-Manager