Last updated 2010-01-12

Direct QSLs

After an major delay due to pressure of work, I used my December vacation to answer all outstanding mail. The status is as shown:

Notes:
1. The problems with the 5H9IR logs have been resolved. Part of the log was missing, but has now been found.
2. Mail received up to 2009-12-26 has been processed.
3. It appears that a few letters (perhaps a dozen) may have ended up in a batch of business correspondence. These letters will be dealt with in February.

Comment about processing dates: If you sent a combined request (i.e. multiple callsigns per envelope) your replies will obviously only be mailed when the last callsign on your list is processed.

Direct postage

The minimum postage rate for overseas countries is now R 5,40, which is under US$ 1,00. The IRC still does not cover overseas postage, as it is redeemable for the postage rate to other African countries only.

While we can include several QSL cards per envelope to overseas destinations, large envelopes are a problem. Any envelope with a length of over 235 mm or a width of over 120 mm now costs something like R 15,00 (around US$ 2,00) to mail. If you use standard envelopes, you're in luck. If you prefer large envelopes, you're probably not.

Our currency is in a gradual decline against most major currencies. Consequently, we have regular postage increases. Annual increases are all but guaranteed, but we also have intermittent increases in between. For this reason, SASEs are not recommended. DX stamp services often do not keep up with postage rates. They also often provide "Standard Postage" stamps, which are not useable for international mail. You may get the letter if you're lucky, but you probably won't. If for some reason you insist on using SASEs rather than some other form of return postage, you must include either enough marked stamps to the amount required, or an "International Standard Letter Rate" stamp. These standard stamps are few and far between, though. They cannot be bought from normal post offices, and I have seldom seen them provided by DX Stamp Services.

Bureau QSLing

All bureau QSLing is up to date, except for a few 5H9IR QSOs made during 2003. The last big bureau batch was dispatched in January 2003. Only a few dozen QSOs have been made since then.

Unfortunately, the SARL is in such a shambles that no cards went out in the first half of 2003. The SARL held on to all the ZS6EZ and ZD9IR cards, refusing to send them out while a tinpot dictator with no comprehension of QSLing wrote a new set of rules for the bureau and insisted on applying them retro-actively. The situation was not resolved until the middle of 2005, when an anonymous donor offered to pay the SARL to send the cards out. The buck-grabbing Council finally agreed on this basis. The cards were finally released in June 2005, and mostly seem to have found their way to the rightful owners.

Almost all incoming QSL cards were disposed of by the SARL's incoming QSL bureau between 2006 and 2009. I received less than 100 cards during this period.

No incoming bureau requests are now being answered. That situation will change once more QSOs are made.

Electronic QSLs

With help from the ARRL staff, notably Wayne Mills N7NG, all recent logs that I manage were added to Logbook of the World around 2004. This fact means that you can now get DXCC credit for all those QSOs, even if you do not have a paper QSL card. Around 165 000 QSOs are included in these electronic logs. At one stage, these logs constituted almost 10% of the total content of LotW.

Email requests

I have decided to stop answering email enquiries about QSLs. During the early part of 2000, I wasted much time on this practice, as a few individuals who boorishly demanded information continued to harrass me. One individual, whose card had been sent but did not get to him, had the audacity to complain about the fact that he'd sent 23 emails over a period of a few weeks; as if that fact somehow reflected badly on me. Given that I'd answered all his questions without delay, I really didn't think that I had been the problem child in this story!

In the past, I had incidents where the volume of work contributed to an error or two in replying to email requests. I had to put up with invective that peeled the paint off my walls. In the end, I decided that I'd much rather spend the energy answering the heaps of snail-mail that arrive.

So: Sorry about this, but if you have a problem with a QSL, please resort to the time-proven technique of snail mail. As I do not routinely have problems with mail loss, no more than a handful of people will be inconvenienced.

Questions?

If you have more questions, you might want to check out my QSLing policy or a list of Frequently Asked Questions elsewhere on this Web site.

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