Ever since I got back on the air, I’ve had envelopes at the ARRL Incoming QSL Bureau. Over the years I’ve received a few envelopes, perhaps 25 DX cards, and a couple dozen from the W1AW/x operations during the 100th anniversary. I had used Forever stamps on the envelopes and had clipped extra stamps to each one. But I hadn’t received any envelopes in years. I just figured QSLing was a thing of the past.
About a week ago, I received an email from Paul W4FC, who informed me he had recently taken over the part of the bureau responsible for my call, and that he had received hundreds of pounds of cards that were unsorted when he took things over. His preliminary sorting indicated that there were a few ounces of cards for me, and he wanted to know if I was interested in receiving them, or if he should just recycle them. Of course I said yes, and we made arrangements to cover any shipping fees.
A few days ago, he emailed again and said he actually had almost two pounds of cards, and was sending them to me via Media Mail. I was shocked when they showed up yesterday. A quick count indicated there were over 250 cards! Many dated back to 2012, about the time I started to get serious about DXing.
While I haven’t been able to verify everything yet, I did notice a card from Tasmania, Jim, VK7SM. This is of significance because I have 55 of the required 60 WPX prefixes for Oceania, and with this card I now only need 4 more Oceania prefixes to qualify for the rare CQ WPX Award of Excellence.
I am absolutely stunned at how quickly Paul has handled all of this. I can’t even imagine how many cards must have passed through his fingers!
