Hi John,
You're right about the costs. I just looked at the costs for a big HF mailing. I bought 25 - 98 cent air mail stamps for $24.50. Ordered $65 dollars in return postage stamps from Bill Plum. (IRC's don't seem to get a good return rate compared to return postage stamps. Plus the P.O. always seems to screw up the stamping of the IRC so it becomes invalid.) So for about $90 one can get 35 QSL's returned, if the other party co-operates.
That's why I've been stressing the use of LoTW and it makes much more sense to pay 17.5 cents per QSO than pay nearly $3.00 for a piece of paper via the mail.
73,
Jeff WB3JFS
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Papay" john@papays.com To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 6:36 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: VUCC Costs
The new fee schedule has brought forth a lot of comments. Twenty cents a card seems like a lot of money but consider how much you spent to get that card.
An SASE with a stamp on it plus the stamp for sending it here in the US costs you $.88. If you send for a DX card to countries other than Canada and Europe, it's $.98 for the postage and an IRC costs $2.10. If you are lucky, you will get a DX card back for $3.08. If you're not lucky, you'll send for it again hoping to get a reply.
Then there's the cost of the cards to add in, maybe $.10 each, and the envelopes, hopefully self seal so the other guy doesn't have to spend time moistening and sealing it. Maybv
So after you spent all that money to get the card, spending another $.20 to submit it for VUCC doesn't seem all that bad.
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb