Thank you to the Wavescan staff for sharing this feature on QSLing. A special thank you to Ray Robinson, who commented that this week's program was "mainly thanks to
Adrian Peterson, who researched most of it many moons ago."
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| A "Non QSL Card" from RAE Argentina |
Jeff: It is probable that every international radio DX-er of long standing anywhere in the world has experienced the personal embarrassment of receiving notification from a distant medium wave or shortwave station somewhere that his or her reception report cannot be verified, due to a mistake in the reception report. But, this situation can lead to some interesting communications. Ray Robinson in Los Angeles has more.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. In actual reality, sometimes the listener has made a mistake like specifying an incorrect frequency or sending the report to the wrong station, sometimes it is a mistake on the part of the staff at the radio station, and sometimes there’s no mistake, just insufficient information from the listener about the program contents to enable verification. Nevertheless, the receipt of a non-verification, whether by email or a non-QSL card or letter, is indeed a disappointment to the listener.
In order to cope with this type of circumstance, several of the large international shortwave broadcasting stations used to print special cards that outlined the likely problem, and those were posted to the listener, rather than the desired QSL card.
For example, Radio Netherlands in Hilversum, Holland, printed a special card back some fifty years ago that was a non-QSL card. On one side was a world map in two colors, and on the text side was a statement indicating appreciation for the communication from the listener, but stating that the reception details were incorrect. The listener was invited to write in again.
At least two forms of this card are known, the only difference between the two is a variation in the colors on the map. Interestingly, Radio Netherlands also used this exact same design as a genuine QSL card.
In addition, on other occasions, Radio Netherlands used another non-QSL card which was plain on both sides. On the text side, were small boxes which could be marked with an X indicating the information that was considered to be incorrect in the listener's reception report.
Many years ago, Radio Canada International also prepared a non-QSL card for similar usage, printed in English and French on a green card.
More common though, were QSL cards which could be used in both ways; that is, to verify the report, or to point out that the report contained inaccuracies. The earliest card of this nature in the Heritage Collection now in Australia was issued by the medium wave station KGU in Honolulu back in the 1930’s. An X could be placed against a line of type thus verifying the report, or against another line of type stating that the report was inaccurate. Interestingly, a third line of type on this same card indicated that the programming of KGU was also heard on shortwave from the RCA communication station located at Kahuku on the northern tip of the island of Oahu.
The major Gospel station, HCJB in Quito, Ecuador, also followed the same concept with many of their QSL cards. For example, a series of QSL cards issued in the 1970’s contained the twin options; either verifying the reception report, or stating that it was incorrect. Interestingly, these cards were signed by Roger Stubbe who was at the time the Director of Engineering for shortwave station HCJB.
In the 1960’s, the BBC Far Eastern Relay station in Singapore issued a plain text card with four possibilities, only the first of which was good:-
• The report is in accordance with their schedules.
• The listener's information does not seem to be correct.
• The report was probably for a rebroadcast of the BBC over another station.
• The listener's report does not agree with any known BBC transmission.
With this BBC card from Singapore, X marked the spot that was most appropriate. It should be stated though, that seldom in its entire history has the BBC ever officially acknowledged listener reception reports with a valid QSL card.
Of real interest are the QSL cards issued by the New Zealand Broadcasting Service for its network of medium wave relay stations throughout both islands. In the Heritage Collection there are more than eighty QSL cards in this style, black text printed on bright pink card stock. These cards do not give any specific information about the station that is verified in this way and they were in use for a period of some 20 years, running from 1936 to the mid-1950’s
.
A careful examination of these cards indicates at least nine different printings, in almost the exact same style. Specific cards, identifying the actual station with its callsign and location, were printed for the main stations in the YA network, which were:
• 1YA Auckland
• 2YA Wellington
• 3YA Christchurch
• 4YA Dunedin
All of the other cards in this same bright pink style were generic and could be used to verify the reception of any of the multitude of medium wave stations that were on the air in this government broadcasting network. This same card was also used to verify the reception of the news broadcasts from shortwave station ZLT7 in 1945 and 1946, and also for station 2AP at Apia in New Zealand Samoa.
The interesting thing about these particular QSL cards is that they could also deny valid reception. One line stated that the reception report is verified, and the line below stated that the report did not contain sufficient information for verification. The station secretary who checked the listener reception report simply Xed out the line that did not apply with a typewriter, thus leaving open the line that did apply.
Now, I have to say that for the Voice of Hope stations in California, Zambia and Israel, for which I was the verrie signer our cards were only sent for verification purposes, not for non-verification. Most reception reports were received by email, so for incorrect or insufficient reports, we just replied the same way, by email. For correct reports, we sent an actual QSL card.
But there you have it. Even non-QSL cards over a period of time contained really interesting radio history.
So, Jeff, what’s your practice at WRMI?
Jeff: Well, actually, Ray, most of our reports nowadays come via email, rather than printed correspondence through the postal service. So if we get an email with incorrect or incomplete or questionable information, we can contact that person and ask them, for example, which frequency they were listening to. Recently, we had a report from someone mentioning a frequency that we don’t even use, and I could see from the details that it was for a program they heard on another shortwave station. So I was able to email that person and tell them that they were listening to a different station – not WRMI. But if we get a report that we’re just not able to identify, sometimes we will send them a blank QSL card for their collection.
(Wavescan Archives)
