More on QSL Card Progress

I got a card from Belgium the other day.  That was cool, as I don't have any from that country.  It is sort of nice, being able to check the mailbox every day, knowing that a card will be there every couple of days.  I got two in one day this past week!

This endeavor has taught me 3 things:  1) Keep caught up in your log book r/t who you want send a QSL card to.  2) Decide when it's time to use the Buro and who you want to send that way.  I'm getting poor and IRCs and the concern of if the other ham will send his card can weigh on a person's mind. 3) Send out a few cards frequently, rather than having 50-60 to try and get written, envelopes prepared for, and mailed.

I've worked on deciding if I want to accept eQSL cards for my collection for some time.  I discovered the printer will do a great job of printing them on photo 4x6" paper, however the edges are chopped off.  It is really cool getting a hardcopy card, with the hand-written QSO facts, and the envelope, with foreign stamps to look at.  But, it is definitely easy, and free to use electronic cards.  I think this medium will work once a person gets a confirmed contact for a country or state.  Duplicates then won't count for any awards anyway.

I do find it frustrating that when you work a special event station with a cool theme, that either the QSL card is a generic one from the club or trustee, or it turns out they don't accept QSLs for the exchange.  I worked a station, S52OSV in Slovenia, that commemorated 20 years of the signal branch of their armed forces.  That would be a cool card to have.  They don't QSL...  Crap.  I do understand that everybody can't afford event cards, or cards at all in some instances.  I read an article about the value of cards.  An example was a fellow who took a long time to get a card back to the sender, and it was all handwritten on a 3x5" card.  He thanked him for the contact and apologized that his income and family size wouldn't allow him to purchase cards.  I got a card back earlier this year from a maritime mobile station I worked.  He was on his boat off MA.  The card was self-printed with a drawing of a boat and his name/address on one side of a 3x5" index card, with the contact hand-written on the other side in cursive.  There were even the blue lines on the card.  At first, I didn't like it and hoped he would send me a nicer one (when his new stack came in), but then I realized how much time it took him to hand write all the info with the nice note, and now it's one of my favorite cards.

My own cards from cheapqsls.com have a nice, but generic format, with the template already there to put the info.  It's specialized a bit with some clip art from SKYWARN and ARES, but no photos.  I hope to do photos some day.  I'm considering learning how to make my own.  I'm interested to learn about your own experiences with cards.