[IRCA] Confirmed DX'er (Semi-Monthly QSL Rant)

["Les Rayburn" <les@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All QSL requests for the KMTI 650khz test have been answered. If you 
submitted yours
via e-mail, you should have received a response by now. If not, please 
re-send your
recordings and/or reports to:

les@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Subject Line: KMTI 650Khz QSL Request

RANT: This was another popular tests, with over 100 reports received via 
both e-mail and Postal. In general, everyone followed the instructions. But 
some problems remain.

The instructions clearly said: "E-mail was the first choice". Some who have 
e-mail access (you're on these lists) insist on sending reports via Postal 
service? Why? It's more time consuming, expensive, etc. for me to verify. 
Please use e-mail if you can.

If you're sending out a Postal request, please enclose an SASE! No engineer, 
station owner, or test coordinator has time to address envelopes, purchase 
stamps, etc. Enclosing a dollar bill is not an acceptable alternative to an 
SASE. I always send money back to the DX'er, along with a polite note 
requesting an SASE.

Also, try to get QSL requests in quickly. Many who did this time were 
rewarded with QSL's being sent back within an hour or less. Many DX'ers 
received their QSL's on the first day. But Postal reports will trickle in 
for days, weeks, even months to come. Yesterday's mail brought a QSL request 
for the Montana tests that we had months ago!

Handwriting? Please---either type or print your letters. I get detailed QSL 
reports in cursive handwriting that are almost unreadable. Why should anyone 
be expected to decode your chicken-scratch?

Lastly, my favorite rant of all. Technology. Time marches forward---and the 
bulk of my Postal requests still come in on cassette tapes, often not cued 
to the spot of the best reception. Don't have time to wade through an hour 
of your DX...barely have time to listen to my own. If you must send 
cassettes, send them cued to the spot of the best reception.

If you're not considerate of the people you're sending QSL requests to, then 
I'm not surprised that return rates have dropped so low.

73,


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