Tag Archives: QSL

Ken’s favorite QSL card

Regarding memorable QSL cards, SWLing Post reader, Ken Carr comments:

“I received my favorite QSL card many years ago as a result of a random contact. I was just starting out in ham radio when I logged a QSO [contact] with a ham from Montana. I was thrilled because I knew how sparsely populated the state was. I once lived there for 8 weeks while studying at the biological station on Flathead Lake.

The very friendly and helpful ham from Montana was Bob Leo, W7LR. I promptly sent him a card and soon thereafter received one from Bob. Years later I was reading an article in QST. It was about a massive Dxpedition of 1947 sponsored in part by Hallicrafters. Hams from all over the country competed for the two coveted positions on what was called the Gatti Expedition. One of the hams chosen was Bob Leo!”

A photo of the card superimposed on the QST article along with more details are found on my Flickr site: http://bit.ly/1sxnL06“

Thanks so much for sharing this memory, Ken!

Readers: you can follow Ken on his blog, KE1RI – A New England Ham.

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QSL cards: STF Radio International sets a benchmark

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[STF Radio QSL card front (above) back (below). Original scans by Steve Yothment]

SWLing Post reader, Steve Yothment (WD0HGB), writes:

“I received an “audio QSL” card from STF Radio International a few days ago. Have you heard about it? [The QSL] actually has grooves on the card that you can play on a phonograph. I had a friend play the audio on his phonograph and he converted the audio to MP3 format. Then, I decoded the digital info in the file.”

Click here to download or listen below:

Steve decoded the digital data from the audio QSL card and documented the contents on a PDF document. Click here to download.

Steve: this is brilliant! Thank you not only for sharing the QSL card images, but for the audio and your excellent documentation of the digital decode!

Readers: What’s the most interesting QSL card you’ve ever received?

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QSL: International Radio for Disaster Relief (IRDR)

The Juno Earth Flyby QSL card

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Happiness is receiving the Juno Earth Flyby QSL card in the mail:

Many thanks to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for making the Juno Flyby such a fun experiment. To read more about the flyby, check out our post from last year.

Were any readers able to “work” the Juno spacecraft?

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Mike’s QSL card from KVOH

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My good buddy and SWLing Post reader, Mike, recently mailed the QSL card he received from KVOH after one of their test broadcasts. I’m glad he sent it to share–I love the front of the QSL card, which shows the footprint of their signal:

(Click to enlarge)

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Radio Paisano QSL

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Last week, I listened to and recorded the pirate radio station, Radio Paisano. Three days ago, I received this message along with a QSL card:

Radio Paisano is a novelty shortwave pirate station that celebrates Columbus Day, and features the music of Lou Monte and the comedy of Pat Cooper. This was the eighth year that we were on the air.

Attached is your e-QSL.

Grazie,
Luigi

Many thanks for the note and QSL card, Luigi!

I look forward to catching Radio Paisano next year.

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Work the NASA Spacecraft Juno (and get a QSL card)!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Troy, who emailed us about a really fun and unique opportunity for amateur radio operators: to send the NASA spacecraft Juno a Morse Code greeting [specifically, “HI”] when it passes over Earth tomorrow, starting around 18:00 UTC.

The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains:

“NASA’s Juno spacecraft will fly past Earth on October 9, 2013, to receive a gravity assist from our planet, putting it on course for Jupiter. To celebrate this event, the Juno mission is inviting amateur radio operators around the world to say “HI” to Juno in a coordinated Morse Code message. Juno’s radio & plasma wave experiment, called Waves, should be able to detect the message if enough people participate. So please join in, and help spread the word to fellow amateur radio enthusiasts!

This page will be updated with additional information as the event approaches. In addition, we have created a Facebook event page where you are welcome to a discuss[ion of] this activity.”

To be clear, this is a coordinated and unified message to the Juno craft; there will be no opportunity to hear a response from it. Rather, the Waves instrument data containing the message will be shared by the Juno team after the flyby. But still, what fun!

If you’re a licensed ham, and this sounds like something that you’d like to be part of, please check out the the NASA JPL page dedicated to this event. It has all of the information you’ll need to transmit to Juno, including a countdown clock–or to simply listen to everyone who does. Be sure to check out Juno’s Technical FAQ (click on the FAQ link) which answers a lot of the questions participants have already asked.

I’ll certainly do my best to be a part of the unified greeting to Juno.

I should note that I’m pleased to see the JPL page is running despite the US government shutdown. Many other NASA web pages have been affected.

Hi, Juno; we send our greetings!