Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara who shares the following article from the SolderSmoke Podcast:
Some Short-Wave Listener QSL Cards
I haven’t received many, but I always like QSL cards from shortwave listeners. Someone out there is listening!
The top one is from recent contact. It arrives from Hungary via the W2 QSL bureau. Here is Tamas HA00001:
https://www.qrzcq.com/call/HA0002SWL
https://www.c3.hu/~ha0khw/ha00001.html
The middle one is from my youth. in 1975 Nick in Moscow USSR heard my contact with OD5IO. I didn’t remember the contact with Lebanon. It turns out that the operator was K4NYY (who is now a silent key. See https://www.qrz.com/db/K4NYY/?mlab=).
The bottom one pre-dates me by more than twenty years. It comes from Berlin in 1936. W5AIR was heard working EI7F. on 20 meter CW. Does anyone have any info on this SWL?
Years ago Martha Stewart had an article about shabby chic decorating. One example was wallpapering with QSL cards. Of course, the article didn’t describe what they are.
Thanks Bill for the vintage QSL card photos and thanks Thomas for posting this.
Back in the day any ham sending a QSL to the USSR had to mail it to Box 88, Moscow, remember? Not sure what’s done now.
Interestingly, Used QSL cards can be found for auction on EBay. Would be interesting to see if they’re desirable by collectors.
In a decade+ as an active ham, I still haven’t gotten a QSL from a SW listener. I swear, if I ever do get one I’ll be so surprised that I’ll send back one of my cards with a $20 bill in the envelope! Not exactly holding my breath here though.
It is probably also true the other way around : 🙂
As a shortwave listener, I have written a number of reception reports to official and listed radio amateur station beacons.
After many years, I just got my first QSL, as a SWL from a radio amateur 🙂
And I have been SWLing since 1990.
DE 2518 /F was Willi Stolp, the DE number popped up in listener contest lists in “CQ” 1936 and 1944. There is an Excel spreadsheet that lists him as DE 2518 /G (/F stands for Berlin, /G for Silesia) with a (inaccessible) link to the DARC district Chemnitz, which may indicate that he survived the war and became a regular ham. That’s all there is to find out so far, there is a ham with the same name but since the name isn’t that rare it may not be the same guy.
On the German SWL card, it would probably need some serious digging into records.
Consider, it’s dated 1936, about 3 years before the nazis started WW2 (which included tough restrictions on all radio listeners, including death penalties for listening to and spreading enemy news).
The name STOLP is fairly common in Germany.
Interesting, the Bernauer Strasse in Berlin was well known during the cold war as there was a border crossing to East Berlin used for exchanging spies (I believe).