QSL Cards

[K9STH]

I posted on my http://home.attbi.com/~k9sth website some of the older QSL cards that I have used over the years. #Included is the card that Cowan Publishing furnished to staff members of CQ Magazine and the one that Collins Radio Company issued to employees who were licensed amateur radio operators in the mid 1960s. Also shown is the plastic (heavy plastic!) QSL cards that W5YI produced before he got into the licensing business.

The "link" is near the bottom of the list if anyone is interested.

Glen, K9STH

[WA2ZDY]

Yes, I remember seeing one or two of the Collins cards, and the W5YI card too. That was some years ago!

I like your comment about the Collins gear you were "supposed" to be using!!! It was mighty nice of them to supply the cards, but since you were "supposed" to be using Collins gear, did they supply that too?!

As always Glen, a pleasure to enjoy some of your collection. Thanks for sharing.

[K9STH]

That particular Collins QSL wasn't one of their "prettier" ones. During the late 1950s and well into the 1960s, they used a high gloss card with the winged emblem that took up most of the face of the card.

As for equipment: I got my first Heath SB-Line about 7 months after going to work for the company. The only piece of Collins equipment that I had was 75A1 s/n 4 that had been a basket case and was given to me in late 1966. I traded it off during the mid-1970s when you almost had to pay the gas for someone to haul off the old "boat anchors". Sure wish I had it back! Collins' director of international sales also was running the Heath SB-301 / SB-401 instead of the S-Line. He would come over to my building to find out what I was doing to modify the equipment to make it a little better. I wasn't the "lowest" on the totem pole, but being a "new hire" right out of college it really impressed some of my co-workers to have him come over to see me!

Art Collins wasn't that particular about the equipment that the employees used. He did have a pretty good employee's purchase plan for buying the S-Line. The price was well below that of retail. In fact, it may have been even a little below wholesale. However, I couldn't afford to buy the equipment on my salary! I was doing pretty good in terms of payscale (was making $750 a month back in 1967, right out of college) but my first daughter was born on 20 November 1967 and we certainly couldn't afford Collins. I bought the Heath gear "on time" and paid it off in a year.

I need to look around and find the plastic map of the United States QSL that W5YI made with my call on it. Frankly, I never bought any! Fred came to the Richardson Wireless Klub meeting one evening and handed out packages of samples. Since he had used local calls (actually without our permission!) everyone started handing those of us who's calls were there the "cards" with our calls on them. I got around 25 of the State of Texas and about 10 of the US cards. Not every call was in every package. I sent out very few of these and only to those persons who knew about them and specifically asked for one. Most of them are somewhere in a drawer or a box around the shack. Fred made these around 1974 or 1975, don't remember exactly when.

Glen, K9STH

[W8FAX]

Anybody remeber the cards that WRL used to give out free to new hams??? Wish I had kept a few. Thanks for a look at your fine collection Glen............Al/W8FAX

[K9STH]

Actually, the WRL, and the Walter Ashe, cards weren't free, but they were the cheapest of those that were available. #The WRL cards had an arrow pointing on a map of the US to wherever you indicated on the order form with the notation "My QTH". #The Walter Ashe cards had a reddish orange ink used for your call sign. #I have many cards of those two designs from the first year of operating. #I couldn't afford even the $5 that those cards cost so I made my own from 3X5 card stock and an old Royal portable typewritter that my father had bought before World War II. #I would like to find one of those old cards to at least scan and put into my files.

The "Little Print Shop" in, I believe, Austin, Texas, was probably the largest of the companies (and there were many back in the late 1950s and early 1960s) that provided QSL cards. #Back then you had to wait to get your license from the FCC before you could transmit. #However, the QSL card printers told you your new call at least a week before you got the license from the FCC. #They got the daily reports from the FCC and mailed out their advertisements before the licenses were even in the envelopes to send.

Mosley Antenna Company did give every new amateur a free plastic stand with your call letters on it. #Actually, they shipped the little stand with the letters and numbers that comprised your call separate and you just "plugged" them into the stand. #These were "ivory" in color ("off white"). #I got one from them when I got my novice license and then another one six months later when I upgraded to General. #Don't have any idea as to where they got off to, but I would like to find either one for nostalgia. #I know that I took out the "N" from the stand when I received my General and handed it to K9LHC when we passed in the hallway in high school. #He stopped, then said that I obviously had passed my examination! #After school, he brought over a WRL 755 VFO and a WRL SM-90 screen modulator for the Globe Chief 90A that I had bought from him to use as a novice so that I could get on AM phone.

Glen, K9STH

[W8FAX]

I think I'm gettin mind week as I get older. I was under the impression that I got a card from WRL and filled it out and they sent me about 25 or so cards. They were real cheapies, but great to me. I might have paid for them, not sure now that you mention it. Right after I was ticketed in '62 as a shiney new novice, a friend of mine took me to WRL. At the time I lived only about 80 miles from there. I wish I had paid more attention to what was going on, but I was 13 at the time and none any too smart. Well, not nearly as smart as I thought I was. Also went to Collins in Cedar Rapids once right before I went into the service in '66. I had a pile of stuff from there also. Unfortunately, all my ham stuff from the time I was licensed until when I went into the service, was later lost in a fire and no record remains. Logs, cards, all that stuff. And now as I grow older, most of the fellers I knew are gone also. Was sure a great time to be a ham tho'. Especially for a teenager who was also a radio nut.........Al/W8FAX

[K9STH]

By 1962 Leo may have started giving away cards. I know that he didn't back in May of 1959. By the way, Leo Meyerson, the owner of World Radio Laboratories, is still going strong. He is a good friend of a good friend of mine. I had a question about the Globe Champion 350A a while back and Leo was quite helpful in answering questions. He doesn't operate much any more due to a severe hearing loss. But, he is quite active on the Internet with E-Mails, etc.

I didn't live anywhere near WRL, but I did live about 60 miles from Allied (100 North Western Avenue in Chicago) and about 30 miles from the Heathkit plant in St. Joseph, Michigan (their mailing address was Benton Harbor but the plant was actually located on the south side of St. Joseph). K9LHC and I went into Chicago several times a year to visit Allied and also went up to the Heath plant. If you had a question about a piece of Heath equipment the receptionist would call out the engineer who designed it! Several times I left with a bag full of parts to modify my Heath transmitters at no charge! However, the "local" amateur radio store was Radio Distributing Company at 1212 High Street in South Bend, Indiana. This was about 26 miles away.

A fellow did open an amateur radio store in Michigan City, Indiana (12 miles away), but he got cancer and died less than a year after starting the store. I hadn't thought about that for years! This was in 1961. The owner of the Michigan City store was interested in ATV (amateur television) and gave me a 440 MHz "free running oscillator" (a 12AT7) transmitter for ATV that had a video modulator built on the chassis. It put out about a watt and, of course, wasn't the most stable in frequency. But, it stayed within the band and you could transmit about a mile or two using video.

Anyway, I am still looking for one of my hand made QSL cards! They had a traced "map" of the State of Indiana (I traced around a band medal) that was made to look like a face in the middle of the card, my call sign done with a stencil, and the other information typed in Pica type (10 letters to the inch). If anyone has one that I could even borrow long enough to scan I would be very appreciative.

Glen, K9STH

[K3UD]

Anyone remember Brownie (W3CJO?) When I was a Novice and asked for samples, he not only sent quite a few samples but an actual cut catalog and information on designing your own QSL. I think a lot of the more elaborate cards came from him in the 50s and 60s.


73
George
k3UD

[WA2ZDY]

Sure, I remember Brownie, the Little Print Shop, etc. I've only ever had QSLs printed commercially twice. I have never been into awards and as a teen, money was tight. I just never got into it.

A few of the "adult" hams (I was 16 or 17) in the area who I helped out with things technical (yes, I was a geek) got together and bought me a THOUSAND cards, in fact with this call on them! They were ok, I appreciated the effort and generosity, but they weren't really a big deal to me. I don't have any left.

One other time I had a card printed up by a custom shop with a picture of a submarine on it. Nice card, but I changed my call long before the supply of cards was exhausted.

Other than that, whenever I've needed to send a card, I've made one up. As a novice, I'd make them by hand on index cards. They were fun. Now I can do it on the computer, but I haven't had occassion to send any.

[K9STH]

I never dealt with Brownie, but I do remember getting the packages of QSL samples from him.

The last "professionally made" QSL cards that I had printed came from W5IDZ up at Sherman, Texas. He was retired from the FCC monitoring station that was located near there in the 1960s and started a garage shop with a small printing press. He printed custom cards for a lot of people in this part of the country.

Glen, K9STH

[K5CEY]

When I ordered my Novice cards from Walter Ashe in 1955, I'm pretty sure 100 cards cost $1.25.

# The only free cards I remember were furnished by G.E. through ham vendors. They were blank and you filled them in. Some guys had a rubber stamp made to stamp their call letters on the card.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #John #K5CEY