QSL cards

This was the Technical talk given by AC4HH during the YL Net of Monday Jan 28, 2019

THE HISTORY OF HAM RADIO AS TOLD BY QSL CARDS

A couple of weeks ago, the apartment complex where Ben and I live had a Hobby Day and invited residents to display and tell about their hobbies. So, Ben and I set up a table with two of our radios, a power supply, and some other accoutrements, and behind the table, we hung three plastic holders of QSL cards. And the cards drew more attention than the radios. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to see what I could find about QSL cards from the past.

When I first earned by amateur radio license, I worked a lot of contests and sent and received QSL cards documenting those contacts. But for the most part, QSL cards have been replaced by computerized logs or digital acknowledgements.

On the ARRL website, I found the following article:

Radio History: New Website Offers Treasure Trove of Vintage Ham Radio Photos, QSL Cards

It tells of Donald Retzlaff, grandson of a ham, Tom Gentry, W5RG, who was active from the early 1920s until his death in 1979. "He collected QSL cards from other amateur operators all through his life," Donald said "In recent years I became interested in those cards and my grandfather's hobby.” -- and he studied and got his own license.

With the help of his father, Donald located all the QSLs -- some 5,700 in all -- as well as other items documenting his grandfather's ham radio activities. He painstakingly scanned both sides of each card along with dozens of photos of now-vintage stations -- many with operators -- that his grandfather had collected and posted them all on a website dedicated to his grandfather and his life as an Amateur Radio operator. His grandfather believed that at the conclusion of a radio contact, the final courtesy was to send a QSL.

As a result, Donald inherited a shoebox full of QSL cards from the 1930s, '40s and '50s which a mini-education in ham radio history. An interesting thing he learned was that a ham had lived five doors down from his parents’ house when he was growing up, and he recognized the name on the card as the grandfather of one of his boyhood pals.

Donald also wondered if the QSLs had any value, so he looked them up on the internet and was shocked to find that a 1940 QSL from China had sold to the highest of seven bidders for $1,225, and one dated f938 QSL from Howland Island went for $777. Those were exceptional, as most of the others ranged between $28 to $179.

As an aside, you’re probably wondering where Howland Island is. I Googled it and found that is an uninhabited coral island in the Pacific Ocean. This island was the destination of Amelia Earhart when she disappeared.

Anyway, back to Donald and his grandfather’s QSL cards. He also searched the internet for who invented the QSL cards and found that it is believed to have been 8VX of Buffalo, New York, issued the first QSL card in 1916. The article also lists several internet sites and museums that display QSL cards. If you are interested, look up some of these websites: K8CX QSL Card Gallery, QSLs from ARRL Deleted DXCC Entities, Old QSL Cards from Bob Green, W8JYZ, the SWL QSL Card Museum featuring QSLs from 234 countries and 904 unique shortwave stations, and finally, the QSL Card Gallery of the Medium Wave Circle Gallery. I will ask Harriet, KK4EAO, to add a link for these on our website YLHams.rivercity.net.

This story inspired me to look more closely at some of our own QSL cards, of which I found about 300. Some of the cards had photos of the ham operators and most told what kind of rig they had, how much power they were running and descriptions of their antennas, many of the homebrew variety.

We had cards from almost all states, including Alaska before it was granted statehood, and from Columbia, Argentina, Brazil, Finland, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, the Marshall Islands, Pitcairn Island, Tahiti, Barbados, and Japan. One had quite a letter handwritten on the back. It was from a minister in Oregon. He told his and his wife’s names and ages, where his wife worked, how many children they had, their names, and what grades they were in. He said he had finally passed his code test at 13 wpm and had started toward 20 wpm. He ended by saying he had over 1000 contacts in his logbook including 67 different countries. Since that one was dated in 1990, I wonder how many contacts he has made by now?

This is AC4HH, returning to net control.