Guys,
As a little background, I have been a ham for over 50 years and QSL'ing has been a big part of my activities since they are required for awards. And I just plain like QSL cards! I respond to every card that comes to me.
There are so many messages from people who say they don't have time to QSL, etc. When I was a QSL manager (see below) I was working full-time, had a 2 hour each way commute, was married with 2 kids to raise.
I was one of the QSL managers for the YASME DXpeditions of the 1970's. W6KG and W6QL went to many countries during that period and made between 8000 and 10,000 QSO's at each place. The logs were all hand-written and in 3 ring binders for each location.
QSL cards would come in the mail in big bundles with rubber bands around them daily, and the bureau cards would come in cardboard boxes of maybe 25-30 pounds via UPS!
I found LOTS of people who were NOT in the log! And I really tried to help them by looking at different days, different times because they put the wrong time/date on them, etc. And I was able to find a lot of them that way.
Some people have not yet learned to use UTC time/date. This is a must. If I couldn't find them anywhere in the log, I'd just write "Sorry, not in the log" on their card and send it back. That way they would know that their card made it to the manager and didn't get lost in the mail.
Of course good logging is a must also. I have every logbook from day one of my ham career. They are archived in boxes but I can pull one out and check for something if I need to. And I have received cards 10 years or more after the QSO. I keep about 5 year's logs handy, as well as having a log in the computer which I back up at least monthly.
If you work somebody and you don't get the call or don't think you have it correct, by all means ask the person to give it again (slowly or in phonetics, whatever it takes)! A legal QSO should contain the time and date, other station's callsign and some other bit of information such as a signal report, grid locator, name, QTH, etc.
What did we do before E-mail? We copied everything down correctly ! We did not write to somebody asking for their callsign or wondering if we
made a QSO.
Regarding E-QSL and LOTW, with E-QSL, if the QSO information matches, you get a confirmation. You can "fudge" and confirm a contact that is not in the log. This is not good. With LOTW you can't. If the information does not match.
If you are new to QSL'ing or new to ham radio, I hope this helps you.
73, John K6YK
then there is no confirmation. That's the way it should be. ____________________________________________________________ Free information on Digital Photography. Click Now! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTDvmQzkOdsfjz315gMfwcMZqYg...