QSL card
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By sending a QSL card , radio amateurs confirm a successful radio connection, shortwave listeners confirm the receipt of broadcasts from a station or broadcasting stations confirm the accuracy of a received hearing report. In addition to radio amateurs, radio stations also broadcast, especially those that broadcast long , medium and v. a. Operate the shortwave range as confirmation for received reports of QSL cards. In addition, various operators of other transmission systems with a long range, such as B. Time signal transmitter , incoming reception reports with QSL cards. In addition, QSL cards are occasionally exchanged in CB radio , especially for radio connections abroad.
The letter combination "QSL" is a Q-key from Morse code and means "I will give a confirmation of receipt."
The earliest known confirmation of the receipt of radio signals on a postcard is proven from 1916 in the USA .
purpose
QSL cards were originally used to provide a broadcasting station with information about the reception of their broadcasts, in particular about the reception quality (signal strength, intelligibility, sound quality, interference) and thus the geographical spread of a broadcast signal.
Today they are mainly used as evidence of amateur radio connections and are required when applying for amateur radio diplomas.
Besides the exchange of QSL cards by licensed radio amateurs and shortwave listeners (SWL, Eng. Can Shortwave listeners ) their reception reports to radio amateurs or broadcasters to send out and receive a QSL card of the transmission station.
The varied design of the cards makes them popular collector's items among shortwave listeners and broadcast amateurs.
description
In amateur radio, according to the agreement, a QSL card should not be smaller than approx. 8.5 cm × 13.5 cm and no larger than the German postcard format ( DIN -A6: 10.5 cm × 14 , 8 cm). Their grammage should be around 190 g / m². In 1984 the IARU decided that QSL cards should be 9 cm × 14 cm in size and 170 to 220 g / m² thick.
A QSL card must contain at least the following information: amateur radio callsign of the own station, callsign of the opposite station, date and time of the radio connection, frequency and operating mode and the evaluation of the received signal (report) according to the RST system . The operator's signature is not mandatory, but is required when applying for some amateur radio diplomas. A report does not have to be given when confirming hearing reports.
In addition, the map usually contains information about the operator of the radio station (name, address), the ITU zone , the country or province, part of the country, local branch of the amateur radio organization or other information about the location of the own station such as the QTH locator , which is often used for the acquisition of amateur radio diplomas are relevant. The description of your own radio station (equipment, transmission power and antenna ) is also a frequent part of the map.
The QSL card is also the calling card of a radio amateur and is therefore often designed in an imaginative and complex manner.
The following content should be taken into account when writing a reception report:
- Call sign or ID of the sending station and (if available) the receiving station
- Frequency of the received transmitter (in kHz or MHz)
- Received date and time in UTC
- Reception quality according to the RST or SINPO code
- the receiving device used and the antenna used
- Receipt location (including country details)
shipping
QSL cards are often sent to the amateur radio associations in the recipient's country via their own amateur radio association. For this purpose, they are collected in so-called QSL offices and, depending on the volume, sent to offices in other countries for distribution. This method is therefore relatively slow, but inexpensive and reliable. In Germany, the cards are only accepted for members of the DARC and the VFDB by the QSL manager in the local association and forwarded to the QSL office or distributed, non-members are excluded from this QSL service of the DARC. In the UK and USA , amateurs send their QSL cards directly to the Amateur Radio Association (RSGB or ARRL ) and receive the incoming cards from voluntary distributors (so-called incoming managers ).
Broadcast amateurs with a high volume of incoming QSL cards and / or in areas with an unreliable postal connection like to use so-called QSL managers. These are people who take on the task of answering incoming cards instead of the recipients whose logbooks are available to them.
If a station does not use the services of a QSL office or if the sender wants a faster response, QSL cards are also sent directly to the mailing address of the recipient or the responsible QSL manager. The postal addresses of many amateur radio operators are in so-called Call Books published based on call sign lists the telecommunications administrations and contributions of amateurs themselves. In some countries like the USA the publication of the address is compulsory, in others like Germany or the UK one can object to the publication. The national amateur radio administrations often publish a call book that contains the nationally assigned call signs. There is also an international call book, the data of which is compiled by the national amateur radio associations.
From amateur radio portals on the WWW , for example QRZ.com or QRZCQ.com, one can also find out the addresses of many radio amateurs and further information about the stations.
In order to save the recipient the cost of replying when sending the mail directly, radio stations and occasionally radio amateurs ask for return postage to be enclosed, for example in the form of so-called "Greenstamps" (1 dollar notes) or international reply coupons .
Alternatives
With the spread of the WWW , possibilities arose to avoid the organizational and logistical problems felt by many amateurs when sending paper QSL cards. With eQSL.cc, an electronic system was created from a private initiative in 1998 that records the data from radio connections in a database, compares them with one another and enables users to secure and print out QSL cards in the form of graphic files. Since the physical presentation of QSL cards is no longer necessary when comparing them in a database, newer systems such as Club Log, DCL or LotW do without such graphic files. What they have in common is that users have to register in order to be able to apply for amateur radio diplomas using these services. The help of the user in data maintenance is necessary to different degrees depending on the design. However, the variety of amateur radio diplomas and the information required to acquire them can only be covered with difficulty by such online services for programming reasons.
Web links
- QSL cards with ship views ( Memento from April 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- QSL card gallery of the Funk documentation archive
- Shortwave receiving station , examples of QSL cards from broadcasting stations
- QSL cards from radio and amateur radio stations
Individual evidence
- ^ Edward C. Andrews: QSL . (PDF; 48 kB) In: QST . June 1916.
- ↑ a b Dietmar Austermühl: The QSL card (PDF; 298 kB) March 2002. Accessed on December 25, 2018.
- ↑ Anja Schünemann: The QSL mediation. In: The office of DARC eV introduces itself. CQ-DL, November 2001 (PDF; 177 kB), accessed on December 25, 2018.
- ↑ Dietmar Austermühl: This is how the QSL office works. In: CQ-DL, December 2014 (PDF; 220 kB), accessed on December 25, 2018.
- ↑ Callsign Database by QRZ Ham Radio . Retrieved December 25, 2018.
- ↑ QRZCQ - The database for Radio Hams . Retrieved December 25, 2018.
- ↑ eQSL.cc - The electronic QSL Card Center . Retrieved September 16, 2015.
- ^ Club Log: Amateur Radio League Tables, Most Wanted Lists and Expedition Log Search Tools . Retrieved September 16, 2015.
- ↑ DARC: DARC Community Logbook . Retrieved September 16, 2015.
- ↑ ARRL: Logbook of the World . Retrieved September 16, 2015.