A couple months ago at my local ham radio club meeting (the NCDXCC), my buddy Paul Greaves (W4FC) mentioned that his passion for amateur radio DXing originated with shortwave broadcaster DXing. He told me:
“When I was a teen I could hardly wait to check the PO Box to see what treasures were awaiting me. After getting a QSL card many times there were many more mailings with program schedules and propaganda. I even got Chairman Mao’s little Red Book.”
Paul noted that he had quite a few SWL QSL cards, so naturally I asked if he’d share a few of his favorites with the SWLing Post. He kindly obliged.
Click on the images below to enlarge.
Wow–thank you so much for sharing these, Paul! What a beautiful QSL collection!
Post readers: If you also have some classic SWL QSL cards you’d like to share here on the SWLing Post, please contact me!
What makes a QSL card rare, desirable, or valuable?
-Jon
I’m sure Dan Robinson could give you a great answer as he’s the owner of a number of rare cards. I can say that rare cards were often issued in very low numbers.
Thomas
Dear Paul Sir – please make a archive gallery so that we can see more gems you have with you !
My collection:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alcue/albums/72157600060750841
This item may/should cause me to go ferreting through some boxes at the back of the loft. I’d say about half of those I have or had somewhere in the past. About the same dates and earlier.
Wow, what a great collection. I really love the older QSL cards, they had such a different look to them compared to the modern ones. But sadly all these cards were long before my time! Anyway, I still love to collect QSL cards from broadcasters nowadays. Right now I have a collection of 21 cards, all from broadcast/utility stations. I plan to keep adding more to my collection!
(Also, if a QSL card section was to be added to the archive I would be more than happy to share some of mine!)
Best regards!
Hi. After I send a Reception Report to a station like Radio Ukraine Intl, for the return postage on the QSL, what do you recommend??
Thanks
Gene
Have a few of those myself along with many others. Great memories!
What a collection! Thank you for sharing these treasures with us. I wonder if it would be worthwhile having a QSL archive to go along with the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive?
Actually, Marty, I’ve been thinking about setting up a section of the archive dedicated to QSL Cards. I’m certainly happy to set that up!
-Thomas