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   Kilroy_Was_Here (kilroy_was_here@dobbs.town)'s status on Tuesday, 15-Oct-2024 21:12:02 JST Kilroy_Was_Here

   • erin sparling

   @everyplace

   I preferred direct QSL, so I sent them every day. Note that frequency of sending is not as useful a question to ask as it may seem. Operators who prefer to QSL via buro will not send them every day regardless of how many contacts they make. They'll generally wait until the box or large envelope to the appropriate buro is full and then mail them off.

   • Embed this notice
     Kit Rhett Aultman (roadriverrail@signs.codes)'s status on Tuesday, 15-Oct-2024 21:11:59 JST Kit Rhett Aultman

     in reply to

     • erin sparling

     @kilroy_was_here @everyplace indeed, electronic QSL (eQSL) is a thing, but it's not very common. Whereas a physical QSL card or an entry in Logbook Of The World (LotW) counts as confirmation of a contact, eQSL doesn't. So it doesn't confirm a contact for awards but also doesn't give the sense of romance that physical QSL aficionados (like me) look for.

     I do print the address labels for my cards, though. Writing addresses by hand is just too annoying.

   • Embed this notice
     erin sparling (everyplace@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 15-Oct-2024 21:12:00 JST erin sparling

     in reply to

     @kilroy_was_here that makes total sense. Full disclosure: I’ve made a weird app that sends postcards as one-offs, and have been talking to my ham friends for a year about whether or not I should make a fork of the app that is entirely QSL-focused. I’m trying to get a sense of if the mastodon community uses them, and are excited and/or do it frequently or not.

   • Embed this notice
     Kilroy_Was_Here (kilroy_was_here@dobbs.town)'s status on Tuesday, 15-Oct-2024 21:12:00 JST Kilroy_Was_Here

     in reply to

     • erin sparling

     @everyplace

     I don't think you'd get as many users as you think.

     For those of us who send them, the whole point is to write them out by hand. There are some people who use labels or direct printing to make them out, but I've only seen a very small handful. It's really an opportunity to say hello in addition to confirming the contact, and digital text isn't a very nice hello.

   • Embed this notice
     erin sparling (everyplace@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 15-Oct-2024 21:23:57 JST erin sparling

     in reply to

     • Kit Rhett Aultman

     @roadriverrail @kilroy_was_here my existing app prints and mails a real postcard, so if I were to do this it would be a real one, not eQSL. I have thought about whether or not I could also enter a sent postcard into LotW automatically though…

   • Embed this notice
     Kit Rhett Aultman (roadriverrail@signs.codes)'s status on Tuesday, 15-Oct-2024 21:23:57 JST Kit Rhett Aultman

     in reply to

     • erin sparling

     @everyplace @kilroy_was_here Oh. So, yeah, an easy print on demand thing would be more up my alley. Anything to avoid writing an address myself! 😅