Re: [IRCA] QSL archival -was- Re: [NRC-AM] More on mergers

[James Renfrew <jim.renfrew@xxxxxxxxx>]

Excellent question, Bob.  I was happily registered with CPRV,  but then I
got the same letter.  I've got a few interesting ones, XERB signed by
Wolfman Jack, WCBS signed by Robert Foxworth, but the vast majority are
letters and my own prepared cards.  Not too many actual qsl cards since the
early seventies.  They hold no value to my wife or my son.  I suppose I
could scan them for a personal Web site, but what happens to web sites
after we're gone?  Do they float in cyberspace for eternity?  At some point
the web will hold so much data that world won't know what do with it.
They mean something to me, but how much would anyone really enjoy viewing
my vacation photos years from now? And will today's digital formats even
exist down the road?  For example I once had a chance to get my mom's old
78's but what would I play them on?

And then there are all of my logbooks, recordings and sound clips!

A very good question, Bob.  Deeply philosophical.   What essential part of
our life and loves remains after we're gone?  What value will the artifacts
of our lives hold to anyone further down the road.

At the Rochester convention Paul brought a car load of Kermit's stuff and
we auctioned it by the box load or gave it away to all takers.  Those old
boxes represented the labors of his life.

The one set of qsls I will really try to preserve are my TAs.  They fit in
one album.

Jim Renfrew
On Mar 15, 2014 8:15 AM, <rfoxwor1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I'd like to start a thread about verification archival, if I may,
> which I suppose is somewhat distantly related to the merger thread.
> I was around in the 1960's and actually still have some of the
> material that circulated by mail back then. But that's not why
> I write now.
>
> Any of us who were around in the 60's realize the age issues that
> we face. I had registered my QSL collection with the CPRV archival
> service in 1989, but still have my QSL's today. They fairly comfortably
> fit into two standard briefcases. The "good ones" along with the mundane.
>
> On August 15 of last year I got a letter from CPRV saying in effect that
> was no more interest in acquiring new collections because of so much
> overlap with existing material. I can understand this, it's a hard
> argument to refute.
>
> In my own case I'd estimate that I have maybe 20 to 30 verifications
> that have significant archival interest. The rest of them (hundreds)
> are just like the 1 kw daytimers 500 miles away I used to hear at 6 AM
> sign-on with regularity.
>
> The consequence of this is there is no longer any means for me to seek
> archival of the maybe 20 verifications I really care about as they are
> regarded the same as the 1 kw daytimer sign-on from 500 miles away
> verie that already has been submitted and 'registered' by others.
>
> As I see it, I no longer have any means to archive _any_ of the QSL's I
> have.
> This includes such as the 2-page letter I got from VSZ-1 Tarawa in 1971
> which I really think has archival value. Or correspondence from Radio Swan
> on 1160 in 1960.
>
> No one I know would have any interest in spending all the time it would
> take
> to parse them out onto eBay. As it stands, on my passing (I am 71) all
> this material would be thrown out, unless I can find a recipient during
> my lifetime.
>
> Is anyone thinking about this?
>
> - Bob Foxworth
>
>
>
> ---- Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > In an earlier post, I had made mention that I didn't see that a merger
> would happen except out of necessity
>
>
>
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