Comments on: QSL Cards ahoy!

QSL Cards ahoy!

mathowie — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:44:31 -0800

QSL cards were like business cards for ham radio and CB nuts. They'd hand them out and trade them with other operators and featured their location and contact info. Bighappyfunhouse bought a boatload at a swapmeet and scanned them in. Great, crude, amusing, folksy art from a bygone era. [via projects]

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:59:44 -0800

Excellent. My dad is a CB nut and he's got bundles and bundles of QSL cards. The phenomenon at the surface seems so incredibly anachronistic but when you see all these simple postcards from literally every country and territory in the world it really is very cool. I'd do it, but I'm young and cynical and I grew up with the internet, so I just converse with semi-strangers on a little blue website, maybe swap mix CDs with them, etc.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:03:55 -0800

bygone era? just because you don't know any ham operators doesn't make them anachronisms.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:09:10 -0800

ahhh. cb'er postcards. cute.

By: sociolibrarian

sociolibrarian — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:10:29 -0800

Coolness! It makes me want to replace all my Chance and Community Chest Cards in Monopoly with decks of these. Second Prize in a Beauty Contest - $10. Advance Token to the Nearest Utility. Life Insurance Matures – collect $100.

By: Jess the Mess

Jess the Mess — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:24:41 -0800

How much cooler would the world be if everyone had business cards like these?

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:00:21 -0800

They're like pre-internet sig logos.

By: mrbill

mrbill — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:24:58 -0800

By no means are QSL cards from a "bygone era" - they're just not as common as they used to be. I'm looking forward to my first QSL when I finish learning Morse. It's not required for the test any longer, but its a personal goal.

By: Brittanie

Brittanie — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:55:44 -0800

YEA BHFH!

By: Kadin2048

Kadin2048 — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:04:09 -0800

I don't know about CBers and QSL cards, but they're still alive and kicking with Amateurs. They're mostly a DX thing; you don't send them (usually) to the guy down the street. The ARRL (sort of to Amateur Radio what the NRA is to shooting sports) has a whole bureau devoted to handling QSL cards. To save on international postage, you can send international QSL cards to the ARRL, who will bundle them together with other cards bound for the same country, and then forward them together to a radio organization in the destination country, who unbundles and mails them. It's a fairly interesting and low-tech way of avoiding the comparatively expensive per-piece airmail charges in favor of lower parcel post rates.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:12:33 -0800

This was one of the cool things about travelling with a CB. You'd exchange mailing addresses with people you talked to and when you got home there would be a stack of cards in your mailbox.

By: deCadmus

deCadmus — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:23:39 -0800

The coolest thing about amateur radio (back in the day) was to dial in that feeble signal skip-dashing across the sky in the wee hours of the morning, and tap out a conversation with somebody the other side of the world. A QSL card a week or two (or a month or two) later was icing on the cake. 73's.

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:49:49 -0800

They look like Tijuana Bibles, but without the porn.

By: mykescipark

mykescipark — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:39:17 -0800

More QSLs in coffee-table format in this awesome book.