[IRCA] Verie Collection

[John <johncallarman@xxxxxxx>]

Here is Jerry Berg's current status report on the CPRV program:
 
       Our website < http://www.ontheshortwaves.com/cprv.html> is part of www.ontheshortwaves.com. Since we went into the QSL preservation business in 1986 we have solicited some collections, and many others have come in over the transom.  Until recently we accepted most that came our way.  However, it was becoming clear that, because of the amount of material we had amassed, most collections that we were receiving, including even those from some of the best DXers, were duplicative of material that we already had.  This is a standard problem with archival projects--you can't keep accepting everything forever.  To keep adding duplicates doesn't add much historical value, and archival space is precious.  As a result, as our website says (and as I explained in a letter sent to all those who had registered their collections with us), we are no longer accepting collections on a general basis, but we are limiting our intake to collections that have special historical significance !
 and are not mainly duplicative of material already in the collection.  Our website invites DXers who feel that they have any such items to contact us.  So our door remains open.
         From the outset our priority has been to get original QSLs (as opposed to copies) "under roof" before they wind up on the curb or in the dumpster.  To us it is a matter of preserving radio history--in many cases QSLs are all that remains of a station.  We have a small number of QSLs posted on our website in the "CPRV QSL Gallery," but this was never meant to be more than an illustration of some of the material we have.  Display has never been our principal goal, in part because CPRV has always been a modest, hobby-based project, and strictly a volunteer effort (with me as the main volunteer).  More importantly, since there was no QSL repository when we started, it was important for us to "catch up" and save as much as we could.  That is basically what we have been doing
         On the other hand, we have always been hopeful that some day more of the collection might be available for general enjoyment and that someone might come along to take that on.  There was no internet when we started.  With today's technology it would certainly be feasible to have more of this material on the web.  It would really have to be a whole separate project, however, a kind of "CPRV 2.0" (an open question is how much effort could be justified for what would probably be a very small audience).  With yours truly having turned 70 last year, it definitely would have to be somebody else's initiative.  But the QSLs are there, and in the hands of the right person something good could surely be developed (and issues like what to display--common/rare, new/old--could be dealt with).  In the end, like most hobby-based projects, it would likely wind up being one person's "labor of love."
 

John Callarman, KA9SPA, Family Genealogist, Retired Newspaper Editor, DX-oyente, Krum TX (AKA Qal R. Mann, Krumudgeon)
 		 	   		  
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