Stuart Underwood wrote:
Very anxious, I sent out seven QSL cards. Waiting to get some back. I received only one. My questions is, is there a protocol for sending and receiving QSL cards for satellite work?
Wayne replies:
The satellite QSL protocol is essentially the same as for terrestrial contacts, except we put slightly different information on the QSL card.
Did you send a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with the QSL cards? In my experience, about 20% will send a card back to me if I don't include a SASE. The response rate is about 80% when I include a SASE. This is very different from when I was a novice in the 1970's. I had a high response rate then, and I never sent SASE's.
I assume you were referring to domestic contacts because the ISS has a small footprint. For international contacts you need to send either an IRC or dollar bills for return postage. This gets expensive. A dollar is sufficient for a reply from Canada or Mexico, but you need to send 3 dollars to get a reply from Germany. It's difficult to buy IRC's in the United States. The U.S. signed a treaty that requires post offices to stock IRC's, but most U.S. post offices don't stock them.
Wayne Estes W9AE Oakland, Oregon, USA, CN83ik