[Boatanchors] OT - Sort Of, A DX Info List?

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Hi Jim,

Correct. Unfortunately many of the three character calls and temporary Club 
calls, can not be found anywhere.

On March 8th I worked V66F and 4B2S, but I can not find any such calls 
anywhere! Very frustrating.

Even worse is to work one of the very rare Iceland stations, send him a card 
and half of your lifes savings for return postage, then get an e-mail 
telling you that he is now 94 years old and has not operated in the past 
fifteen years!

I do not like the QSL Bureau, although I realize it does provide a service, 
because the cards I receive are four to five years old. Last month I got an 
envelope with fifteen cards, almost all of which were from 2004. Hey! Most 
of the "real" Hams, (real as in Hams as we remember when we were ten years 
old who did strange things with peculiar looking pieces of metal dangling 
from a tree and equipment that glowed and made the vertical and horizontal 
lines on the TV CRT reverse, we can't wait five years to get a QSL card!

Besides being SK and the mail forwarding time period having elapsed and our 
QSL cards are feeding the lost mail paper shredder in Minneapolis, MN ... We 
need to receive QSL cards before we are so old that we don't know what they 
are when they finally arrive!

I truly wish that 'qrz.com' would demand that each Ham clearly state that 
they do not QSL, that they only QSL via a bureau but never direct, they QSL 
only direct but no bureau etc. That would really help! Then I would know 
whether or not to send a card plus a SAE and four green stamps to these 
three stations I worked on March 29 in the Ukraine and Russia.

I have tried sending them a very short, very concise, simply and clearly 
worded e-mail asking if they did have me in their logs? If yes, did they QSL 
or not.

Frankly, a waste of time. About one out of fifteen ever reply. I even sent 
the same note to their QSL Manager, if they had one.

It would also really help if foreign Hams would indicate how much postage an 
American Ham should send them for a direct reply. I have seen some that say; 
USA send $2 or 2 IRC. That is VERY helpful! Different countries have 
different green stamp amounts. So putting how much you need to QSL right in 
the 'qrz.com' info is very helpful. At least to me it is.

Duane

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim" <jbrannig at optonline.net>
To: "Duane Fischer, W8DBF" <dfischer at usol.com>; 
<boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 5:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] OT - Sort Of, A DX Info List?


> Duane,
> DX prefixes change constantly and it seems that everyone has a special 
> event that requires another prefix variation.
> The "Allocation of International Call Signs" table in the back of the ARRL 
> logbook is really the only definitive listing.
>
> Jim
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Every once in a while the old blind Wizard gets the DX bug and does his
>> favorite "Hunt And Pounce" search routine in quest of a new country or
>> seldom heard one. It seems that I always come up with some call signs 
>> nobody
>> has ever heard of before! Now since I am totally blind, and can still 
>> hear a
>> Flea break wind at a thousand meters during traffic rush hour, I normally
>> get the call signs written down correctly! When in doubt, I do the 
>> Contest
>> unpardonable sin, I ask the operator to please give me his call sign in
>> phoenitics. Most do, but a few say words I have to go look up in my Flunk
>> And Wiggle Talking Dictionary! Some very colorful metaphors!
>>
>> Now is there a list among the 550+ 'qsl.net' lists that deals exclusively
>> with DX call questions? If so, please advise me of the link and I will go
>> subscribe.
>>
>> Thanks for your help.
>>
>>
>> Duane Fischer, W8DBF - WPE8CXO
>
>
>
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