These are the QSL cards that I have sent over the years. Hover your mouse over any QSL card thumbnail to see a larger image.
WN1UHA
After I passed the amateur radio Novice class license exam, I received the callsign WN1UHA. It was issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) effective November 26, 1974. This was about one month before my 11th birthday. I did not make my first QSO until December 14, 1974. Some of that gap must have been processing and postal delay.
Over 40 years later, I'm a little surprised (and disappointed) that I never had any QSL cards printed by The Little Print Shop.
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Printed by SAMCARDS, Pittsburgh, PA My first QSL card! |
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Printed by 73 Magazine, Peterborough, NH |
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Provided by: Massachusett [sic] Bicentennial Commission As a Novice, I could have used the callsign AK1UHA during 1976, but I never did. |
WA1UHA
The callsign change was not the result of upgrading to a General Class license. Rather, sometime during October 1976, I was issued the callsign WA1UHA with the following note: "Your former station call sign is superseded. Novice class licensees will no longer hold distinctive call sign prefixes". So I received a callsign which at the time would have been from the General/Technician class "pool".
Due to my inability to pass the theory component of the General class license exam, my callsign expired after two years. Finally, on the third try, after having made three trips to the Custom House Tower in Boston where the FCC office was located, I finally passed! My Amateur General class license was effective March 25, 1977, and I was able to retain my original callsign.
I passed my Amateur Advanced class exam on May 5, 1978. I did not change my callsign at that time.
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Printed by W9SKR, Chicago, IL My mother did not approve of the color choice. She said it made me look "old". |
AD1C - Massachusetts
I passed my Amateur Extra class exam on August 9, 1978. I opted to be be assigned a 2x1 callsign from the new Extra class pool, and thus received AD1C on September 5, 1978.
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Printed by W9SKR, Chicago, IL There is no mention of Grid Square on the card. The ARRL VHF-UHF Century Club (VUCC) Award did not start until 1983. My father Joe W1JR received the very first VUCC award, regardless of band. He made his QSOs on 432 MHz (70cm). |
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Printed by "The QSL MAN®" Wayne Carroll, W4MPY, Aiken, SC This would be my first QSL printed by W4MPY, but not the last. This card was used for QSOs made with QRP (very low power). |
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Printed by "The QSL MAN®" Carol and I married in April 1997. We bought our first house and moved in early September 1997. I made my first QSO from the new house on October 1, 1997. This is the first QSL card for that QTH. |
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Printed by "The QSL MAN®" I didn't like the look of the callsign in the card above, so I changed it. I also added my newly-acquired URL to the address block. By the time this card was printed, I had achieved DXCC on 6 bands. |
Yankee Clipper Contest Club series
The Yankee Clipper Contest Club (YCCC) was formed in 1977 in the greater New England area. As members, we were able to have QSL cards printed with the club logo, and at a completive price.
After I graduated from college in 1986, I did not have any kind of station where I lived for the next 11 years or so. I often operated contests from the stations of Fred K1VR and Matt KC1XX, as well as working a little DX on the side. I made DX QSOs from my parents' homes in Chelmsford, MA and Amherst, NH. I operated a little from the MIT Radio Society station in Cambridge, MA. And my callsign was used from Derry, NH in the 1992 CQWW DX CW contest. So there was really no "one card fits all" scenario.
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This QSL card was for contacts made using QRP (very low power). It has my parents' address in Massachusetts. |
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This QSL card had check-boxes depending on where I operated from. It has my parents' address in New Hampshire. |
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This QSL card has my mailing address at the time, instead of my parents' address. |
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This QSL card was printed for the 1992 CQWW DX CW contest from Derry, NH. We used my callsign in the the multi-operator, multi-transmitter category. We finished in 4th place behind K1AR, N2RM and W3LPL, respectively. |
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This QSL card was printed for a few ARRL DX contests in the early 1990s from KC1XX's station in Tewksbury, MA. |
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This QSL card was used for our house in Massachusetts, from 1997 until 2007. |
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This QSL card is very similar to the one above. The fonts are slightly different. The Address block shows my URL at the time. |
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This QSL QSL card was printed on Canary stock. Compared to the card above, the font used for the address block is a little larger. The URL is also slightly different. |
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Printed by Tony LZ1JZ This is the last YCCC QSL card that I had printed. At least as of early 2022, YCCC QSL cards are printed by UX5UO. |
AD1C - Colorado
We moved from Massachusetts to Colorado in mid-2007. I didn't actually get back "on the air" until August 2008, when I strung my old G5RV antenna along the ceiling joists in the basement. It's a miracle that anyone could hear me. It's also a miracle that the house didn't light up each time I transmitted! That only lasted a couple of weeks, until I was able to install a half-size G5RV antenna in the attic, while complying with CC&R in our housing development.
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Printed by "The QSL MAN®" This was the first QSL card printed for our house in Colorado. I thought I had ordered it in green ink, but it was printed in blue ink. |
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Printed by "The QSL MAN®" This is the same card as above, but in the desired green ink. |
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Printed by "The QSL MAN®" This is similar to the last QSL card from Massachusetts, except with the callsign in green ink. Notice that PSE/THX QSL has been moved to the QSO data area. This may be the last QSL card that W4MPY ever printed for me. Wayne passed away in July 2019. Thank you for over 30 years of service! |
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Printed by Cheap QSL Cards, Oakdale, CA I have used these QSL cards primarily for QSOs made on the 6 meter (50 MHz) band. |