I have been a amateur radio operator and have been collecting QSL cards for over 50 years. Most of the paper cards I have received have ended up in the "circular file", although a few have been stored away.
I have only been a member of eQSL for about a year. In the past year I have logged over 6000 QSO's with eQSL and have had 1000 confirmations, AG and non-AG. I think eQSL is a great idea and operation but what do you do with the eQSL or any QSL card. Having a wall full of cards is a little tacky, and it can get costly to print every eQSL that comes in my "In Box".
All my eQSLs are stored in a computer file on a CD. I keep one card from each state and one card from each DXCC entity in a photo album for 4x6 inch pictures. I rotate the cards as new ones come are received. That way I always have some current cards to show to visitors.
Last "Mothers Day" I bought the XYL a digital picture frame for her family pictures. The light bulb went on !! I could load my eQSL cards and display them in the digital picture frame. I have over 1500 cards on a 128Mb photo chip. Each card is about 30-40Kb in size. Visitors seem to like watching the eQSL slide show.
What do you do with your cards

Bruce, K0ARY/VP9

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K0ARY/VP9 Bruce B Quayle Jr

Make copies and cover your most important place at your house!

Of course visitors will aks a few questions about it. After they will comment: he's crasy! hihi. 73!

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CT2IFT Sergio Oliveira

I print the nicest one I have from each country and state that I have worked and hang them on my wall in plastic hanging files. I have two walls covered with them. When visitors come in to my shack they look at my award certificates and yawn. Then they look at the cards and are impressed.

Tacky? Well maybe for your living room but I think quite appropriate for a ham shack. I really enjoy them and the fact that my visitors look at them in astonishment.

Indeed we are all a little bit crazy :-)

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73, Rich - W3ZJ

My preference is to copy all my eQSL cards to a CD and them print them. All of my QSL cards, eQSL and otherwise are in a notebook in plastic pages. When this one is full I will start another. The same gaoes for my special event station certificates, they are in the same notebook.

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K1PAR Philip A Roberts

If you have a website then Post them up to the website....

http://users.tpg.com.au/adslsymb/VK6AAL/

I use this on SSTV to confirm with the staions that they have been EQSL logged...

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VK6AAL Peter Tomsett

EQSLS ARE KIND OF NICE. I'M NEW TO THIS BUT I WILL CONTINUE TO USE IT.COST WISE
A GOOD IDEA! 73 DE KC8KVT

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KC8KVT THOMAS C. LUTZ

eQSL would be the perfect solution if only ARRL and the CQ Magazine would recognize them as a valid confirmation. I surely wish they would give up the "NIH" (Not Invented Here) attitude. Hams have been big sponsors to the worlds post offices for long enough.

Because of the above, I do not actively verify by eQSL but I reply to all cards I get that way. The incoming cards are kept in the eQSL archive, which I believe is the most secure place. I assume that eQSL has good back-up routines.

The paper QSL's are kept for the time being. I produce my own cards through my home built logger. That means I do not have to fill in all cards but I do have to sign them and also use a paper cutter to cut them into shape. I get 4 QSL cards out of each A4 sheet. Last week I received about 500 cards through the bureau and it took me a good day to produce the replies. The Portuguese incoming bureau, which we must rely on, is very slow and we get shipments about once a year from Lisbon. Being as active as I am, it means bundles of cards once a year.

LoTW is nice, since the verifications are good for DXCC and WAS but if you are a county hunter as I am, they are not good for USA-CA. The NIH syndrom again. The problem with LoTW is that it is hard to get the certificate and the signing and upload procedures are quite cumbersome.

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CU2JT Gary Wikstrom

I post them up in the house so all can see them!!

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KD8CGE Matthew Drezdzon

Sorry if I'm spamming right now... Won't happen again!
Edited by KD8CGE Matthew Drezdzon on Oct 21, 2006 at 11:19 AM

I put all my e-qsls in Archive. I don't print any of them. Too bad they are not good for DXCC, WAZ etc. I do respond to all those who send e-qsls to me, but do not generate any of my own. IMHO there isn't enough flexibility in the designs offered to be unique. So many of the e-qsls I get are pretty much the same. For me the whole idea is the variety and individuality of QSLs which unfortunately can't be accomplished very well via e-qsl. For paper QSLs I put them in photo albums, visitors can page through them and enjoy the variety. Just my $.02 worth.
Rich W3ACO

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W3ACO Richard S. Haendel

eQSL's can be used for awards offered by eQSL itself...that's what can be done with them for one.

I wanted to mention somewhere and maybe this isn't the right place but when I go into the Awards section I'm told that I don't qualify for any because I "Must upgrade my membership to Bronze, Silver or Gold." Well there are TWO reasons I don't qualify and the main reason I don't is that with over 6,000 QSO's entered I have only 68 countries confirmed and only 48 states confirmed. I think that NON-AG members should have limited ability to receive eQSL's until they become AG members.

I will upgrade my membership when I obtain enough valid eQSL's to be eligible for awards.

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W6ZF James J. Martin Jr.

Bruce, K0ARY/VP9 said "I could load my eQSL cards and display them in the digital picture frame.[i/]" Seems like a good idea to me, I have plenty of paper qsls on the wall of the shack, so a scrolling digital picture next to the eQsl wall clock in the shack would be neat.

Christmas greetings and a happy new year to everyone.


Mike G8VHB

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Michael Fitzgibbons G8VHB

W3ACO Wrote:
IMHO there isn't enough flexibility in the designs offered to be unique.

Actually, there is near infinite flexibility in design, since you can upload any picture you want that's of the appropriate size.

the only hard and fast rules are that you have to make a rectangular, landscape-oriented card, and that you must have the white info bar.

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VE3OIJ P. Darin Cowan

My wife takes all my EQSL Cards as I print them off and Laminates them for me with about a qty of 4 per page then they all go into a Nice Binder notebook for those that will desire to look through them...very neat and Nice. Merry Christmas and Happy new year and GOD BLESS DE N5JFJ

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N5JFJ Jerry F Johnson Jr.

so far ive been here a little over a month now. i think EQSL is a great way to sned and recieve them. so far i have 6 but have not been doing alot of dx'ing lately

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W1DPC dave carpenter

What do I do with them? I save the images to a folder on my hard disk, and set that folder as my photo screensaver on my hamshack PC. It makes a terrific screen saver, displaying my contacts from all around...

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KB5YLG David Johnson

I absolutly love sending and receiving qsl cards, by mail or eqsl. I print every one I get from eqsl. My wife takes the cards and displays them thru out or home, There are clusters of cards on each and every wall. When we get compant they ask "what are these" and I explain what a QSL card is, then we go to the "Shack" and make a QSO, then they are hooked. I have turn dozens of folks in ham nuts. What a blessing!!

73 !
Bob
KC9GMN
Clinton, Illinois

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KC9GMN Bob Henning

I sent a printed eQSL in for the ARRL WAC award and they did not question it. YMMV.

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KE5AQD Roger Banks
ke5aqd@ke5aqd.com

I'm very new to this entire procedure. Simply stated, I like the idea of a courtesy card for no other reason than to say how-do-you-do, it was nice meeting you, and I hope we meet again. No award chasing, no paper chasing. I don't care if e-QSLs count towards anything.

So, when I get back to the states next month and am active again, I look forward to e-QSLs in my inbox.

73 es cul
Rich W2RDD

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W2RDD Richard Downey

hI i PUT ALL MY QSL AND EQSL IN TO PHOTO ALBUMS THAT SIT NICELY ON THE SHELF EACH ALBUM HOLDS A HUNDRED QSL OE EQSL THIS IS A GREAT SERVICE JUST WISH MORE STATIONS WOULD USE IT BYE FOR KNOW

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GM7GTX Michael