[IRCA] QSLing

[mwdxer@xxxxxxxxx (Patrick Martin)]

I was sitting here tonight going through some of the QSLs I have
received in the over 43 years I have been at it. Some years, I did very
little MW DXing and QSLing. Other years, that is all I did. So counting
the 43+ years and 2986 MW QSLs from 95 countries and 50 states (AK &
OR), it comes out to be about an average of 70 MW QSLs a year. Many
years I did much better with well over a hundred. Some months I got 70
QSLs, and others none. A few years I was into avid FM & TV DXing &
QSLing. Then other years a lot of SW DXing & QSLing. I am happy,  a DXer
in Elmont NY, Dave Listort got me interested in the hobby of QSLing in
late 64.  When I started DXing in 1962, I was only 13 and knew nothing
except a few things my father told me. I was on my way home from school
and saw an old Philco radio sitting on a garbage rack walking through
the alley between our house and the school. I picked up the radio and
brought it home. I remember my mother saw it and would not let me plug
it in. The cord looked okey, but I had to wait until my father got home
from work. Then he plugged it in and turned it on, and I knew it was a
pretty good radio as it was in the Summer and broad daylight and the
Anchorage stations all came in on it, including the little 1 KWer, KBYR,
then on 1270.  That night, the dial was loaded with stations from Canada
and the US.  By 1964, I was buying Popular Electronics and reporting my
DX to the columns from my QTH in Seward AK. I also had the WPE call
letters (KL7PE3W) listener I applied for. So I started exchanging the
cards with others. Many wanted an Alaskan card, so I got quite a few
requests. Dave Listort wrote me asking if I was into QSLing. I knew
nothing about it, so he explained to me in a letter all about the hobby.
My father knew about Ham QSLing, but not MW.  I sent two reports out,
KFBK-Sacramento CA and KPAY-Chico, also CA and within a couple weeks,
came back two QSL cards. That is all it took. I was hooked, line, and
sinker.I fell in love with the hobby and I still love it as much today.
With 3,000 MW QSL's right arund the corner, I now wonder if I can get to
4,000? Time will tell.

73,

Patrick

Patrick Martin
KGED QSL Manager


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