Introduction
Sometimes you may get a letter in the mail from some far off state addressed from a person whose name sounds vaguely familiar. It has a call sign and other information presented in it. Somewhere near the bottom you see a note: "PSE QSL". What are you supposed to do?
Why do people send QSL cards?
Organizations such as the ARRL use QSL cards to verify your application for awards such as WAS, WAZ, VUCC, and DXCC. For people working towards these awards, confirmation of contacts with people in places such as Moscow, Idaho (DN16), may be useful - so they send us a QSL card. For us at the University of Idaho, confirmation of contacts with many people in other locations would be very useful towards earning these awards - so we may send a QSL card to confirm it.
What is on a QSL card?
The QSL card confirms a QSO, the 2 way communications with another amateur radio operator. At the very least it will list your call sign, your station address, the call sign of the other station, UTC date/time of communication, the frequency band of operation, the mode / modulation of communication, a signal report, and perhaps a personal message to the other operator. It may seem like a lot of information, but some cards may feature even more! Other pieces of information may be included such as the grid square, county, WAZ zone, and station equipment used in the communications! Many QSL cards also have a neat photograph or graphic to go with the call sign.
How do I fill one out?
It is recommended that you keep a station log to remember the following information. When you receive a QSL card, or want to send one you, you will often look through your log for the following information.
- Confirming QSO with
- This is the call sign of the station you are confirming communications with.
- Date D/M/Y
- This should be the UTC date due to the global nature of radio communications.
- UTC (or Time)
- The UTC time of communications. Often communications take place between different time zones.
- MHz
- You may write the frequency band in use (ie, 20m) or the actual frequency used in communications.
- RST
- This is the Readability, S-level, Tone (RST) signal report and is exchanged on the air during a QSO. It is represented by 3 digits. Tone is only valid for CW modes, so phone modes only have RS information - ie, 2 digits. Readability is rated from 1 to 5. S-level and Tone are rated from 1 to 9. S-level can be read from the radio's meter. In some cases the station may be over-9 (ie, the radio shows S9+10), but this will be reported simply as 9. Tone can be rated by listening to CW conversations. So, for morse code the highest RST report is 599, and for phone it is 59.
- 2-Way
- Here you will write the mode of operation to confirm that communications were indeed 2-way radio communications with the other station.
- Pse QSL Tnx
- You should circle 2 adjacent words to show that you want the other station to respond to your request for their QSL card (Pse QSL) or that you are responding to their request for your QSL card and appreciate that they sent you theirs first (QSL Tnx).
Where do I send these?
With the call sign of the other station, you can look up their address in databases such as QRZ.com. These databases often show the other station's preferred method of receiving cards - either direct or through a specific card bureau. This information should be used to determine where to address your card, and if you should include a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope).
Find out more
Visit the Station Info -> QSL Cards / Address page for more information.
