i've been a swl'er for almost 20 years - i have never sent for a qsl
card -
i have some great dx over the years and nothing to show for it but a
log. what is
the proper way to do it? what info is needed in the report and can i
write it and send it on a stamped index card etc. how long do they
take to receive
also where to get addresses? - i am anxious to here from some of the
dx'ers here.


thanks in advance, john

On Mar 28, 2:29 pm, "john" wrote:
i've been a swl'er for almost 20 years - i have never sent for a qsl
card -
i have some great dx over the years and nothing to show for it but a
log. what is
the proper way to do it? what info is needed in the report and can i
write it and send it on a stamped index card etc. how long do they
take to receive
also where to get addresses? - i am anxious to here from some of the
dx'ers here.

thanks in advance, john

Hi John: I can only tell you what worked for me back when I could
actually hear something interesting on the HF bands. I lived in the
country back then and I had no noise on the SW bands....I really miss
that.My "hay-days" were in the 80's and early 90's. Always include the
date and time of your reception. If you're reporting to a small
locally-geared station such as a Peruvian or Indonesian-be sure to
include the time not only in UTC but in their local time. State the
exact frequency you heard the station broadcasting on. Provide good
details of the programming you heard, being as specific as you can. A
good report will usually include the main details of what you heard
for at least 15 minutes if the opening lasted that long. Give the
station a description of the reception quality such as SINPO, but I
found it better to just describe the reception following the SINPO or
SINFO code. There's sources online to help you with this question
probably better than I could ever cover it. I always started my
reports out with a warm greeting clearly stating the reason for
writing them. After I covered all the basic information I mentioned
above, I would give them some personal information such as the type of
receiver I was using (NRD-515) and antenna type/length. I managed to
verify 202 countries during that time with best results from Indonesia-
bagging 42 or 43 different stations from that country alone. This is a
hard question to answer without writing an article on it. I DO NOT
recommend using a simple index card. Come on man, give the station
something that is pleasing to the eye and interesting to them. I
always included a photo of myself with my receiving and recording
equipment as well as a local postcard reflecting the culture or
scenery of my area, and return postage to cover their expense in
answering my reports and send it Air Mail inside an envelope. Gerry
Dexter put out some extremely useful guides to writing reports in
other languages which is so important to do if reporting to small low-
powered stations-many of these stations don't have personel that even
understand English. His series was called Language Labs-he had them
for Spanish, Indonesian, Portuguese, and French. But times have
changed since then, and I am not at all sure if you can find them
anywhere anymore. Ya might check with Universal Shortwave out of
Reynoldsburg, Ohio. It's a great place! (I've been there twice and
have ordered many items from them including the ever-faithful
NRD-515. Perhaps I have only just touched the surface on your
question, but am just relating what worked for me. OH, and if you
don't receive a response from the station in 3 or 4 months, don't be
afraid of sending a followup report or better yet, a NEW reception
report of a more recent reception if that's possible. It took me 15
tries to pry a reply out of one Bolivian station I was after for
several years! I hope this didn't just confuse the issue-just trying
to help. I had SO much fun in hearing new stations and I studied and
studied and studied some more to get my tactics refined to what
produced the best results. Let us know how it goes. Join a good DX
club and you'll learn a lot if you want to excel. The best to you from
Kirk-