HFU HF Underground
General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: ChrisSmolinski on September 21, 2017, 0039 UTC
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While I'm an avid collector of pirate QSLs and eQSLs, I have not written for any QSLs from SWBC stations in ages, probably 20 years? I used to do this when I first started SWLing back in the late 70s, but slowly stopped. I'm considering getting back into that part of the hobby again. Before they all disappear.
What's the current protocols for getting QSLs? Do SWBC stations still send them, or have they switched to eQSLs? Do you still send a letter or can you email reports? I assume for the smaller (private, not government run stations) you still send a letter so you can include return postage. IRCs are gone now IIRC, so do you send a dollar or two?
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Most of the national broadcasters who still send cards can be contacted by email. I've gotten paper QSL's in the past year from VOT, RRI, NHK, AIR, Radio Prague, and KBS this way. I also got a paper QSL from Reach Beyond Australia and RWM Moscow after emailing them. VOG and RNZI can also be emailed but they only do eQSL's now.
I haven't tried many others. I emailed Rádio Voz Missionária but never heard back. I haven't tried RHC but know that they QSL, as does VOV even if you catch their WHRI relay. WRMI QSL's.
The contact info for everyone is in the 2017 WRTH. If you don't have one, shoot me a private message if you need something.
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Likewise Chris, over 25 years since I actually sent off a SWL report to an international shortwave station. As mentioned by MDK2 the WRTH is the SWLers bible to have on hand, a wealth of information, sadly my WRTH is dated 1999 so a wee bit dated.
I sent an email reception to All India Radio earlier this year in Hindi language as there was a documentary series they aired that I really liked, heard nothing back until around five weeks later when a huge envelope arriving in my post office box.
In it was an All India Radio t-shirt, stickers and signed photo from the people that done the documentary I reported on plus a 2018 calendar with scenes of India each month. Funny enough, no QSL card!
Didn't expect that at all... ;D
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Chris -
I have found VoT, RRI, KBS, Radio Ukraine, Radio Slovakia, RCI, Radio Prague, Radio Havana, DW all very receptive to email. Some of my reception comes via WRMI relays. I have found they will "sweeten the pot" if you share a story about yourself/listening hobby that they can share on mailbag program. My last name is the Italian greeting for "Happy New Year", I share that information with them around the holidays. That is always read on mailbag holiday programs and they have sent items in appreciation.
Two asides - Many of these stations run competitions where they will giveaway promotional items from qsl cards to knick knacks to radios to trips to their country.
Second - KBS publishes a wall calendar yearly. Ask to receive one with a reception report in the near future, they are probably putting the mailing lists together now. The calendar is generally a work of art with a single Korean related theme - Korean films, Natural Parks, K-Pop, Food, etc - I hang it in my office every year. At this point in my correspondence with them, I don't even have to send a reception report/request any longer, they simply mail one annually.
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I sent an email reception to All India Radio earlier this year in Hindi language as there was a documentary series they aired that I really liked, heard nothing back until around five weeks later when a huge envelope arriving in my post office box.
In it was an All India Radio t-shirt, stickers and signed photo from the people that done the documentary I reported on plus a 2018 calendar with scenes of India each month. Funny enough, no QSL card!
Didn't expect that at all... ;D
Obviously they appreciate the extra effort! Funny about the card being absent.
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Adding my voice to those who know stations still send out paper QSLS, and thank goodness for it! If I can get a physical QSL rather than just an e-mail, I will. I'm old-fashioned that way, despite having just turned 33--eek!
India, Turkey, Vietnam, CRI, RHC out of Cuba, Radio Prague, KBS, AWR, South Africa's Sonder Grense, Radio Itatiaia, Radio Central Goiania, Observatorio Nacional (the time station), and Radio Nove de Julho from Brazil, Radio Austria, CHU from Canada, Auckland's volmet, and Taiwan all QSL. What's more, at one point, RTI sent the dollar I'd included in my letter *back* with my QSL, along with a polite post-it note saying please keep your money. Wow!
DW also physically QSLs if you e-mail and ask, but their English e-mail - the info (at) dw (dot) de address - has bounced back twice over the past two weeks or so, siting network issues. Anybody know what the flip to do in this situation? They have not been nearly as reliable with responses when I've written to their physical address, as in nothing at all came back.
New Zealand only sends e-mails now? Darn, boogers, and darn! I'll treasure the delightful pair of QSL cards I have from them all the more, now.
I also have it on reliable authority that Iran VOIRI QSLs, but I have yet to dare test that one. One of these years, I will! I'm probably on a watchlist already. I won't touch North Korea, even though they've been known to reply to other DXers who've written them... Some things transcend radio nerdery and besides, that's terrifying.
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In my early days, starting in 1988, I used to collect them. One of my early ones was to Radio Moscow in 1989. I'm sure that got me on a list back then.
A few years ago, I sent reception report to RRI and they sent a nice QSL card. Also sent one to Radio Taiwan from their last transmission from WYFR.
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,12313.0.html
For the reporting, I did it the same I used to do it, gave report on signal and what I heard. And if I recorded it, uploaded it somewhere and gave them a URL to grab it. I sent KBC Radio a few reception reports via email along with recordings.
Reception report URL for RRI:
http://rri.ro/en_gb/pages/receptie
The QSL they're sending back:
http://rri.ro/en_gb/RadioRomaniaInternational/QSL-2
Oooo... Romanian castles. I'm going to start sending RRI reception reports, I like castles.
They're one of my favorite stations, the only thing I wish they'd have far more hours of Romanian music over here. Can usually find a decent selection of music on a remote receiver in Europe.
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Adding my voice to those who know stations still send out paper QSLS, and thank goodness for it! If I can get a physical QSL rather than just an e-mail, I will. I'm old-fashioned that way, despite having just turned 33--eek!
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New Zealand only sends e-mails now? Darn, boogers, and darn! I'll treasure the delightful pair of QSL cards I have from them all the more, now.
First, Happy Birthday kid. ;D
Second, it's worse than that. RNZI sends a link to a temporary page with your info. The link expires after a couple of months. So no actual document attached to your email that you can save, and no, you can't just save the image to your drive either. You just have to either take a screen shot or print the page.
I'm new to the hobby and don't mind eQSL's at all. Given the fact that in this age, when the station personnel can just get on a remote SDR and see how their signal is reaching their target, reception reports are obsolete, it's nice that they have people who still bother with them and send anything in return. I'm sure that they still value feedback about the programming, but from their perspective, a bunch of collectors wanting a souvenir is probably more of a burden than a benefit. So if they give me something at all, I'm happy with that.
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A big thank you for all the comments and suggestions.
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Re: RNZI: Well, that is a bummer and a gosh darn drag! I'm deliberately keeping it radio friendly here, because otherwise I'd be cursing up a storm! :(
Re: Romania: I'm actually waiting on a Romania QSL... maybe time to tune in (never a hardship, that station's excellent) and write them again.
Re: KBC: Aha! I forgot, shame on me! Eric at KBC will always answer an e-mail, and do it personally; no form letters for him, ever. He'll send an actual card as well, if you ask for one. So will the folks at both WBCQ and WRMI, now I think of it, and Radio Free Asia makes a point of not only QSLing, but announcing their new card designs every so often.
Anyone ever have any luck getting Shannon or Gander volmets to answer back via post, or through the post after an e-mail? I ask because those two would be treasures for yours truly!
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I never thought about the Shannon, Gander, or other VOLMETs.
But I did send NIST a reception report for WWV on 25 MHz and they sent me a nice QSL card that looked just like the one they sent me around 25 years ago for the reception report on WWV on one of the regular freqs. And the serial number wasn't all that far away. I thought it was only around 1000 away (went looking for the two cards and now can't find 'em. I know they're around here somewhere... that will be a winter project).
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Auckland's volmet QSLs, I know that much. The gentleman who handles their e-mail reception reports is delightful to correspond with; got a paper QSL letter on request, offered to pay postage and was told don't worry about it, the airway would take care of it. Wow! :) I'll have to try both Shannon and Gander when next I hear them.
I wonder. Could the similarity in serial numbers have to do with the 25mHz frequency? that *was* only recently reactivated, as opposed to 10, 15 or 5. Maybe they divide things up by freq?
WWVH is another reliable one, of course, in addition to WWV. Hmm. BPM in China *was*, but I've tried for an answer more recently and no joy. How the heck did someone get RWM in Moscow to answer? I am super impressed with that one and green with envy!
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I'm still waiting for my QSL from my QSO with space station MIR in January 1992. I'm sure it just got caught up in channels and should be here any day now.
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How the heck did someone get RWM in Moscow to answer? I am super impressed with that one and green with envy!
Last summer, I emailed a reception report to their advertised address, and got a response from an individual at that domain rejecting my report. (I was puzzled at first, but after I realized that I had no idea how RWM worked at the time, I realized that my report must have been pretty threadbare.)
This past May, I started hearing RWM with regularity, and figured out their system too. I wrote up a detailed report, sent it to the main email address... and it bounced.
I resubmitted it a couple of times, it bounced each time. And then, I looked up that rejection email. I sent my report to that person. (PM me if you'd like it. Since it's someone's actual work email, I don't want it just going anywhere it can be googled.) A few weeks later, I got this:
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Chris -
I have found VoT, RRI, KBS, Radio Ukraine, Radio Slovakia, RCI, Radio Prague, Radio Havana, DW all very receptive to email. Some of my reception comes via WRMI relays. I have found they will "sweeten the pot" if you share a story about yourself/listening hobby that they can share on mailbag program. My last name is the Italian greeting for "Happy New Year", I share that information with them around the holidays. That is always read on mailbag holiday programs and they have sent items in appreciation.
Two asides - Many of these stations run competitions where they will giveaway promotional items from qsl cards to knick knacks to radios to trips to their country.
Second - KBS publishes a wall calendar yearly. Ask to receive one with a reception report in the near future, they are probably putting the mailing lists together now. The calendar is generally a work of art with a single Korean related theme - Korean films, Natural Parks, K-Pop, Food, etc - I hang it in my office every year. At this point in my correspondence with them, I don't even have to send a reception report/request any longer, they simply mail one annually.
KBS, VOT and RRI are the easiest. Ive had every single VOT report I've ever sent verfied by turkey. Sent in so many reports over 2 months, they had to send me 2 cards, the first one ran out of room!!
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While I'm an avid collector of pirate QSLs and eQSLs, I have not written for any QSLs from SWBC stations in ages, probably 20 years? I used to do this when I first started SWLing back in the late 70s, but slowly stopped. I'm considering getting back into that part of the hobby again. Before they all disappear.
What's the current protocols for getting QSLs? Do SWBC stations still send them, or have they switched to eQSLs? Do you still send a letter or can you email reports? I assume for the smaller (private, not government run stations) you still send a letter so you can include return postage. IRCs are gone now IIRC, so do you send a dollar or two?
Chris, Now a days, including audio clips is a must. NO attachments to email, soundcloud/google drive/vimeo/youtube links work great. I have found this to be a MAJOR help with broadcasters who may broadcast in a language I don't understand. (I cant stress the no attachments enough... slow internet or over agressive spam filters could screw you)
If listening to a foreign language station thats broadcasting music, download Shazam on your phone.. it is GREAT at identifying foreign music. Include a few song titles. I've sent voice of turkey reports with song titles in them.
Some stations, for whatever reason, dont respond to email too well. Usually those in 3rd world nations.
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KBS, VOT and RRI are the easiest. Ive had every single VOT report I've ever sent verfied by turkey. Sent in so many reports over 2 months, they had to send me 2 cards, the first one ran out of room!!
Yep, I've already sent reports to all three. I know RRI got my report - they read it on the air earlier this week ;D
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fkradio: Thanks for the tip on no attachments. I always send attachments to pirates & wouldn't've thought not to include one to an SWBC station
Just a general comment: Aside from my first two or so years of SWLing, I've avoided writing reports to major stations & instead went after pirates & occasionally smaller & private SWBC stations. One year in the early 2000s, I think, I sent something like 40 reports to stations in Peru, Bolivia, & Venezuela. I think my success rate was about 5% or so. Now, most of the government stations are gone, so I guess I should've written to them instead! :P