Re: [IRCA] QSLs

["Bob Foxworth" <rfoxwor1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Ernie's when to the NRC I believe. But they are protected. Too bad
there
> is no museum in the U.S.for QSLs, old receivers, etc. I will probably
> leave mine to that committee to preserve them.


The CPRV was originally begun by Jerry Berg (and perhaps others).
Jerry is a lawyer in Massachusetts, and understands questions of
estate like this. I believe the NRC plan was started a few years later.
Jerry is one of the top SWBC DXers in the world and has a lot of his
own QSL's.

To me each idea has benefits and issues. I think the CPRV idea
is better on balance, as the idea of permanent archival of QSLs
seems to be more reliable, as the entire process is institutionally
administered, and does not depend on the goodwill or cooperation
of any one person. This means the conservation of, and access
to, the items will survive the lifetimes of the people who participate.

My understanding of the NRC concept is that the collections they
have are under the control of an individual. These are dependable,
well-intentioned people AFAIK, but to be sure, the idea of
survivor's conservatorship is just one step removed from the idea
of keeping  _your_own_  collection, as it depends on someone else
being able to retrieve the collections from the effects of the then
guardian, should s/he become deceased/incapacitated/disinterested.
Then you have the risk that the survivor of the then conservator
will himself be disinterested, unavailable, or possibly hold the
collections for ransom.

Physical safety of the collections is probably better in an
institutional
building, than in what is probably someone's home, though I am now
just speculating on how they are actually being stored.

For any club (though they consider themselves as a publishing
business with subscribers) that, in the final analysis, is still a
cooperative association of individuals. there is still the longer term
issue of what happens to the collections when the present
conservator is no longer able to conserve them. I believe the
present conservator is about my age, so this is not an idle
question.

The only value any of these QSLs have, is that someone else
can later look at them. Otherwise, they have no reason to
be kept.  At least at the UMD site, one can arrange a time to
see them or have them imaged. I hope I am wrong but
AFAIK at the other site, this option is either nonexistent, or
is substantially less available. Comments from others ??

For most people, this is an issue of "gee whiz, look at this"
and may not go much beyond that.  Probably, eventually
the concept of entropy will apply and all QSL collections will
dissipate beyond practical retrieval. See the comparison
to ERoEI as it concerns world oil production, something that
today very few people pay attention to. What is the value of
increased conservation efforts compared to reduced longer
term interest of the future audience, who may not even care
about DXing any longer?

I have not seen any of this discussed for a long time.

The ultimate answer is to create an accessible image
archive, but no one is going to donate the huge amount
of time and resources to make that happen. (just writing
this posting takes the greater part of an hour).


> I
> don't know what ever happened to Ric Heald's QSLs either.


In 1973 when Ric gave up on the idea of making a life in the
NYC area and returned to California, I kept his QSLs for him
for about a half year and when he got settled in CA I shipped
them back to him. They filled several 3-ring binders. I had
xero-copied a couple hundred of the really good ones, but
long ago gave the copies to others as well.

I have some letters from him dated 1974 when he lived on
Rolando Ave in Castro Valley. I can;t help with the other
address (Santa Rosa?) someone asked about recently.

I, myself, have to worry about the eventual disposition of
such things as well as my 2 briefcases full of veries from
long ago. I have no idea of what happened to Ric's
veries. He had some really nice Aust/NZ cards. I have
CPRV stickers on my briefcases.

It has always annoyed me that the IRCA has a "Ric Heald award"
but says nothing about him as a DXer, where there is such a
mention for the Ted Vasilopoulos award


> Chuck
> Boehnke's when to the Committe to Preserve them back East. But they
did
> not want Chuck's originial CB QSLs from the 40s. Ginny sent those to
me.
> I have no idea where I should send them, but there probably is some
> outfit to handle that too. I did not not want those in the trash. With
> 3500+ QSLs and counting, by the time I pass on, the QSLs alone will
> weigh a fair amount and will cost to have them shipped. Some DXers
send
> them on to preserve them before they pass on.
> But you are right, it would be a real shame for them to go into the
> trash.
>
> 73,
>
> Patrick
>
> Patrick Martin


- Bob



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