Well, I registered on their site and followed some of the directions and designed my own QSL card, then I ordered a “sample” pack. I wanted to make sure I liked the card before I went “all-in”. Total time? One hour.

I dig the concept. Create my own card, upload my log file and then THEY laser print the log info on the individual card, then mail out my custom QSL Cards to the DX stations respective Bureau. Huh? Say that again?

THEY print out the two-sided custom QSL Card with the QSO information laser printed on it (taken from my log file), then THEY send it to the respective DX Bureau for me.

That in itself saves me all the hassle of buying QSL cards, label ink or even worse - writing out the cards, then packing them all up and paying bank to send a box of a thousand cards to the ARRL Outbound Bureau. I haven’t thought out how much time and money this will save me, but it’s always too much time and too much money for a supposed “hobby”.

Well, I received my $5 “sample” pack of QSL cards from GlobalQSL.com in the mail today and I have to say – I am impressed.

Really impressed!

The actual QSL card is double side printed (glossy front) on heavy card stock and my custom picture and design came out absolutely perfect. I’ve been through several QSL Card companies for over 35 years in this hobby, and I’ve never seen anything this sharp and EXACTLY the way I’ve wanted. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve always ordered the “generic” style cards from several different companies throughout the years and they’ve always done good by me, but they’re always exactly what I’ve ordered  - “generic” QSL Cards.

Almost all my received QSL Cards (99.99) get thrown into a box and forgotten about until I need one for DXCC or something. I do keep a couple good looking ones in the shack so when visitors come by and see the mad scientist at play, I show them a good looking card from Scarborough Reef or China. Whoo hoo! I’m tryin’ to  show the absolutely clueless visitor about what Ham Radio is about, ya’ know?

Most Hams will display a wall rack or two of QSL Cards in their shack and they’ll usually include only their best looking ones. What visitor wants to see some simple green card or a picture of some fat-ass sitting in his leather chair with his truck driving call sign hat on and a pencil holder sticking out of his top shirt pocket? Do you really think your visitor cares about a freq/report/call sign QSL Card? Nawhhh… They may look at a really good looking picture card and say, ”hey that’s a nice one” (even though they have no idea of what it is they’re looking at), but nobody will ever say that stinkin’ lime green card looks good. And pictures of your radio and antenna? Remember, they already think you’re a spy for the FBI or something. They don’t know what it is you do anyway, why would they care to see your FT-1000 or 60′ boom monobander? That’s why I did my QSL Card a little different. I had a picture of a sunset I took from my QTH a couple years ago and I built my custom GlobalQSL.com Card from that photo. Maybe,  just maybe it will make somebody’s shack wall, who knows?

Anyway, back to GlobalQSL.com. For 1,000 two-sided custom QSL Cards, all with laser printed QSO information already on’m, and THEM sending  all cards to the DX Bureau is ready…?

$99.

You can’t beat that with a stick. In the old days… I’d have to buy 1,000 QSL Cards, then I’d burn through a couple cartridges just printing the labels, then I still have to “work” the card (label/write), then I have to give up my beer money to mail the damn things to the ARRL via the US Postal Service (that ain’t cheap). Oh, at $3 a gallon of gas - I have to get them to the Post Office too.

I almost forgot to mention that instead of having to buy more QSL cards if/when you move (or for any other card info you’d like to change), you just go online and change your custom design. Takes all of a couple minutes. No more having to buy another batch of  QSL Cards ever again. All outbound cards in the query will be your new ones.

It’s my honest opinion that this product and service is an absolute no-brainer. The QSL Cards look better than I’ve ever had, and the service they provide frees me up to do other things, like make more Q’s. All in all GlobalQSL.com is a perfect “10″. And perfect 10′s are getting hard to find. I just finished ordering another 1,000 for my ADIF log file and 100 blank QSL Cards to have around the shack. You can visit their website at GlobalQSL.com for more information.

73,

N0UN

It took a while but the time spent was well worth it.

The tower and antenna are up and working well. Thanks again to Keith KØKE who found the used A3S, lent a hand and his truck to pull it up.

A3S @ 60 ft. / 6,100 (and 60') Above Sea Level

In the last few hours of my latest foray into Ham Radio, my emotions have swung high to low to high again, all because of this DX.

The day started off great with news that KI4NR had fixed my FT-990 then proceeded to go into the dump quickly. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so humbled. I was minding my own business sitting on a 20 meter pileup listening to hundreds of Hams calling a station I couldn’t hear, when a local Ham just 3 miles from me threw in his call and worked the non-existent station on “one call”. Cool, right?

Nahhhh – after Keith (KØKE) work the “invisible” station, we jumped up the band and I asked him who it was. That’s when he broke my heart. Keith told me the “ordinary” Russian station was 10 over 9, then he played back the QSO from his recorder and I’ll be damned if he wasn’t LOUD over there.  Mind you, really loud. I couldn’t hear a peep from the Russian on my rooftop inverted-vee, but he was 10 over 9 on Keith’s KT34 at 100′. What a difference.

Emotions can only go “so low”, but this post has a good ending.

I heard another HUGE pileup on 14.180 this morning  (I could actually hear this DX station – 5B4AIF from the Island of Cyprus). And a pileup it was! LID operators, tuner-upers, and other idiot Hams in addition to hundreds of “good” Hams were pulling out all the stops trying to get Norman in their logs, and I really didn’t think I stood a chance against not only the US stations but also all the European stations that had propagation.  It took a hundred plus attempts, but then I realized why I sent in for a vanity call when I upgraded to Extra Class years ago. Seems that NØUN and my “United Nations” suffix can stick out from the DX masses occasionally! It was music to my ears to hear him come back and ask for my call again.  Maybe he just noticed the “noun” (think verb) he wrote down and had to verify, or maybe he heard the “United Nations” and thought he had some kinda’ special ops station on the hook, but whatever it was – he’s in the log.

73,

NØUN