[HN Gopher] QSL Card
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QSL Card
Author : 1970-01-01
Score : 74 points
Date : 2023-04-08 02:17 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
| elahieh wrote:
| Radio Biafra must be one of the rarest QSLs in existence. It was
| very dangerous to get mail in and out during the civil war.
|
| https://swling.com/blog/2018/08/guest-post-possible-last-rem...
| jhoechtl wrote:
| Just asked IRRS Nexus to send me a QSL card for receiving AM on
| 1323 in Eastern Austria from Milano/Italy.
|
| https://www.nexus.org/member-services/radio-and-tv/schedules...
| resters wrote:
| As others have pointed out, QSLing is alive and well in digital
| form.
| junon wrote:
| The article has been defaced with Paul Graham/dang slander :/
| garbage people.
|
| EDIT: vandal has been banned.
| 2kwatts wrote:
| It seems like the user was banned from Wikipedia [1], and they
| have a history of screwing with pages that were on the HN front
| page. Probably just trolls.
|
| [1]:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/96.234.1...
| j4nek wrote:
| being not active in ham radio since leaving school, but always an
| nice feeling when some qsl cards from other continents coming in
| after some years :)
| pugworthy wrote:
| QSL cards bring back a lot of memories for me. My dad (W7AAI) has
| been a ham since the 50s and as a kid I always enjoyed all the
| QSL cards he had hanging on the wall in his shack. They were from
| all over the world which lead to a lot of time looking at our
| globe to see where these strange places were.
|
| QSL cards are right up there with the HAM license plates and an
| antenna poll in the back yard for iconic elements of old school
| HAM radio operators.
| rmason wrote:
| I've been a ham since the sixties and of course love QSL cards.
| But one thing not mentioned here are the stamps. I used to also
| be a stamp collector as a kid. I have QSL cards with stamps on
| them from countries that no longer exist, or no longer have the
| same country name since their independence. Because they're
| cancelled they are probably worthless in value but nevertheless I
| like looking at them as much or more than the cards themselves.
| curiousfab wrote:
| Some hams take this very seriously: http://g3txf.com/QSL-
| Office/QSL-Off.html
|
| Great collection, constantly updated:
| http://hamgallery.com/whatsnew/
| klinquist wrote:
| These days, most just use LoTW (Logbook Of The World) for ham
| radio contact confirmations.
|
| You even have to sign your confirmation upload with a public key
| they assign to keep everyone honest! (There are "contact
| contests" that people want to win...)
|
| Ham radio is fun. So many ways to enjoy the hobby. Short-distance
| communications, long distance communications, antenna theory...
| location beaconing, 2-way text messaging over radio, etc.
|
| Not many other communication methods out there that don't require
| a million dollars in infrastructure.
| tuugkbc wrote:
| Just in case this raised the eyebrows of anyone else who knows
| a bit about public key cryptography, you don't, in fact, "sign
| your confirmation upload with a public key they assign", you
| sign with the _private_ key they give you, from the key pair
| they assign.
|
| https://lotw.arrl.org/lotw-help/certreq/?lang=en
| guestbest wrote:
| Why was this posted? It is just a Wikipedia article
| throw0101c wrote:
| This often happens:
|
| * https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=wikipedia.org
|
| Some other entries that got a bit of discussion:
|
| * Avoidance Speech:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35479757
|
| * Purkinje effect:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35462091
|
| * 2001: A Space Odyssey:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35425537
|
| * Wronger Than Wrong:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35420863
|
| * Rational Dress Society:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35418320
|
| * International Orange:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35413385
|
| And that's in just the last week.
| detaro wrote:
| presumably the submitter thought it was interesting
| Tunecrew wrote:
| This is cool to me!
|
| KJ8T but I've never made my own QSL card...
| gorkish wrote:
| Your call minded me that I had a nice QSO once with KJ2U. Will
| let anyone curious look that one up...
|
| The nice thing about having even a simple card is that you can
| build up a pretty neat collection, even if you only send them
| selectively. I also felt bad when someone would mail me a card
| and stamped envelope before I had one to return, so I hand
| sketched a few responses on notecards. I always enjoy seeing
| hand sketched cards in the old timers' collections.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| In my teens, there was a blind man on our block who was a ham,
| with a great big tower in his backyard. He had braille markings
| on his equipment.
|
| Mr. Gannon was unfailingly helpful to me. Good memories.
| nlh wrote:
| ..DE K2KD..
|
| I had a wall full of QSL cards when I was a kiddo. I still
| remember all those contacts with foreign hams that ended with
| "QSL via the bureau!" Which, as TFA mentions, was this magical
| (to me) extra-postal service routing system that somehow managed
| to get QSLs internationally at super low cost. So much fun.
|
| I haven't really gotten back into ham stuff in ~30 years or so,
| but I sense the hobby is still alive, which is great. Every so
| often I'm tempted to buy a fancy SDR and see what the 2023
| version of ham radio is like compared to the 1993 version...
| themodelplumber wrote:
| Cool to hear about your wall :-)
|
| It's practically a labyrinth of hobbies within the ham world
| these days, from AREDN and mesh to QRP backpacking to Netflix &
| Chill & JS8...not to mention academia, space, etc.
|
| I was just chatting on the local repeater during a hike today
| and realized how many of those areas sound really interesting
| given the time...
| notadev wrote:
| INT ZBZ INT ZEV...K/NAD
|
| ...anyone?
| lb1lf wrote:
| Incidentally, I just took a break from getting my QSL duties up
| to date - only to find this article on everybody's favourite
| procrastination site.
|
| Oh well. Some 50-ish cards to go.
| lormayna wrote:
| I am a SWL and recently ham and I really enjoy receiving QSL
| cards from different countries. My dream would be to get one from
| Voice of Korea, but it seems they stopped the QSL sending. One of
| my side project (still in early stage) it's just a QSL focused
| social network :)
| osculum wrote:
| I got a box full of them. It's such a treat when you come home
| and they are waiting for you in your mailbox!
|
| One of my favorite ones is from the USS Hornet Museum [1]
|
| [1] https://www.qsl.net/nb6gc/QSL.htm
| lb1lf wrote:
| Oooh, favourites, let's see...
|
| 9K2ZZ, Bob, in Kuwait City, methinks. To my untrained ear, he
| sounded like a Texan expat and he was always 20dB over S9 when
| I heard him on the bands c.2000.
|
| Always kept the QSO rate up - a typical exchange would be
| 'LB1LF, 59, name is Bob. 9K2ZZ QRZ?' (where QRZ? means 'Anyone
| else?' and 59 is the signal report)
|
| Anyway, late one night I heard him calling without the usual
| pile-up of radio amateurs trying to get in contact with him. No
| replies. I gave him a call, and we chatted for all of 45
| seconds or so before he signed off and the band was quiet.
|
| When I got the card, it had a handwritten note on the back -
| 'Thanks for the rag chew!' (Ham radio lingo for a very long
| contact)
|
| Well, it sure was long by his usual standards, and I still get
| a chuckle every time I see it.
| zikduruqe wrote:
| My favorite was a station that was a sailboat off the coast
| of France. (PJ2HB if I remember correctly). Late one night he
| created a pile up. (A pile up is when a rare or unusual
| station is on the air and everyone is trying to contact him).
| I kept throwing my call in, over and over. And when he
| finally acknowledged, we exchanged info and when I said my
| QTH (my location), he stated, "oh yes, I stopped often by the
| restaurant in your town back when I was in school". We
| proceeded to have a conversation for a few minutes, while
| everyone was keying over us, throwing their callsigns in and
| just piling on. It was beautiful.
|
| Another I was on 6 meters simplex during a band opening,
| talking a guy at with Cape Canaveral when he was on his lunch
| break.
|
| Oh man, meteor scatter, ISS, satellite communications, SSTV,
| APRS... I forgot how much fun I used to have pre-internet
| days.
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(page generated 2023-04-08 23:00 UTC)