When I was in Guam, I could understand the constant stream of QSL card requests. Guam is "semi rare" DXCC wise, I guess, and getting more rare all the time as everybody who can afford a plane ticket seems to be leaving in the last few years. After three years in Florida, I finally decided to bite the bullet and force myself to get active again on HF with my lousy antennas and low power, after resigning myself to the fact that this is all there is and that there ain't gonna be no more....

I've been active on PSK, CW, and in a few minor contests the last few months and I must say I'm amazed at the number of QSL cards I am getting. The people I work on the air are fully aware that I'm in Florida, and not in Guam, so I'm left wondering why somebody in Texas who's been a ham for 45 years would need or want a QSL card from Florida. The mailman has left me wondering if a lot of hams are just like my friends in Japan - they QSL because they think it's required or because of some unwritten rumor that somebody spread around that a "QSL is the final courtesy of a QSO".

If you have contacted me on the radio and are thinking about sending me a QSL card, please take a minute to read this page, which might help you get one by sending yours to the right place if you really do need one of mine, and might save you some stamps if you don't really need one of mine...

What you read on this page may sound a little harsh. It's not intended to be - it's intended to be honest. If you REALLY need a card from me, I'll be HAPPY to send you one, provided you help me in doing that by including an SASE so I don't have to address an envelope, and so I don't have to help pay for your awards.

I'm a nice guy, but I'm retired, and I don't get a pension from anybody, so I'd rather not buy a stamp every time I talk to someone on the radio. I worked 460 people in a contest last weekend. If everybody sends me a card, with no SASE, and I answer them all, that's $170.20 worth of stamps. Hams just can't seem to do the math, for some reason, why, I don't know. If you send ANYBODY a card because you want one back, then you should provide an SASE for the return card...

This page is intended to provide you with information on how to get a KH2D QSL card if you need one, for whatever reason. It is also intended to be a totally honest expression of my feelings about QSL cards.

QSL cards are great - if you collect QSL cards, and are working on awards. I don't collect QSL cards, never have been interested in collecting them, and I'm not working on any awards, nor do I ever plan on working on any awards. The fact that I log a contact after I make it is all the confirmation I've ever needed to decide who I've talked to on my radio.

I feel QSL cards are a waste of time and money. I think it's childish that organizations like the ARRL require paper QSL cards as confirmation for awards that mean nothing to anyone but the person who receives them. That opinion was probably not helped by the fact that I ran the KH2 QSL bureau for a number of years, and I've seen thousands of unwanted, unclaimed, sent to the wrong place QSL cards wind up in the dump, unanswered.

So to be perfectly honest, I don't want your QSL card. Not because your card isn't special to me, not because we didn't have a memorable QSO, but because I hate to see you waste your time, cards, envelopes, and stamps sending me a QSL card that I don't need or want, and that is eventually going to wind up in the trash.

If you REALLY NEED a card from me, I'll be happy to return one to you. But please don't send me cards on my account, or just for the sake of sending one. And if you need my card, for whatever reason, please remember I don't need yours, so please be gracious enough to provide an SASE for the card that YOU need for YOUR award.

I think we all need to look at the calender and notice that the year is 2004. It's no longer a feat of magic to have a contact on the amateur radio HF bands with all fifty states - it's something that a lot of people do in one weekend during a contest. It's asinine to ask someone to PROVE they did it with QSL cards.

There are a dozen electronic methods that can be used to "verify" radio contacts, should verification REALLY be necessary. I think it's high time we ALL start using them.

We should REFUSE to participate in any awards programs that won't accept electronic forms of QSL's. We should refuse to participate is kludged up schemes like the ARRL's Logbook of the The World (should be called "Window Into Your Credit Card"), and EQSL.CC - schemes that are designed to get your money instead of the postman getting it.

I think we should all donate a hundred bucks to Feed The Children every year instead of feeding the mailman and the ARRL with our prehistoric, idiotic system of sending post cards to each other....