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| A contact from 23 years ago |
A QSL card arrived Friday not an usual thing for me but this one was almost a quarter century in coming!! The card was in an envelope on it's own most of the time QSL cards arrive in a stack of 50 or so from the buro. The card was from Louis N8LA and on the back of the card he apologized for the delay in sending me his QSL up to this point all was normal, then he thanked me for my QSL card. WHAT a QSL card I
have not sent out QSL cards (all electronic cards now) for over 10 years. Now I was just a bit confused...maybe this was a mistake....he must had copied a call wrong and sent me a card......Then I look a closer look at the front of the card..... this card was from 1989!!! To say the
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| The back of the card |
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| The station 23 years ago |
least I was shocked. On the back of the card Louis told me he no longer lives in Michigan but St.Louis now. At the time he was running the
Ten Tec argonaut 515 QRP at 3 watts. The antenna was 80m inverted V at 40 ft. I looked up Louis on QRZ.com and he still has the same rig the 515. He is an avid QRPer with memberships with MI QRP # M-0078; QRP ARCI # 4508; GQRP # 5048; NAQCC # 2358; Flying Pigs
# 1974; SKCC # 4327; Fists # 13757; 10-10 # 16161, VP # 868; Member of
St. Louis QRP Society, Morse Telegraph Club, and ARCH Radio Club. I had hoped I kept my logbook from back then as I wanted to find N8LA in the log. I did find the log and he was my 26th contact in my ham radio adventures. I had been licensed for just over a month at the time. My code would have been around 5-8 WPM as nerves would had play a roll in my coping. My rig was the
Icom 735 the antenna was the Cushcraft R4, Bencher paddle along side the Kenwood AT-230 tuner. Now how cool is that!!
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| The log (N8LA at top of log) and QSL |
A QSL card that was almost a quarter century in coming!!
28 January 2012 | by 
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Pretty neat surprise. I wonder if Louis can tell why the delay occurred. I’ve heard of a Tibetan (1930s DXpedition) card that took about 7 years to arrive–I think World War 2 intervened–and a recently received Ukranian card that was 18 or so years late, but this might be a record of sorts. Glad you got it.
Good afternoon Richard, Yes it was a surprise once I realized how old the card was. I get the understanding from Louis that he is just catching up on getting QSL cards out. I would imagine there are more ham’s out there that are getting some old cards from Louis. Thanks for your input Richard and have a nice what’s left of it weekend.