QSL - How many non-members of the RSGB know about this change?

Radio society benefits

I see your negotiation point on joining the RSGB John, but blowing £200K of the members money on a shed in Milton Keynes isn't going to encourage long term membership of the society.

As for your statement about "todays society, take take take", well that's what's happened with the foundation licence.
Most of the FL licencees can't be arsed to upgrade to intermediate or full because they have what they want now - FULL access to all amateur bands and no-one regulates what power they run. Many openly admit this on the air.

I feel strongly too that all amateurs should belong to their societies, but as the RSGB has a policy of promoting radio to the lazy, the inept and children then it is sowing the seeds of it's own destruction.

Unless it wakes up.

73 John G8KHS

 

I kinda of figured that you guys/gals are as crazy as we are..Opine..Opine .....oPINE wELL wE SOMEHOW HAVE FUN

 

I also feel the same as you about FL's but I think it was instigated by the makers of the black boxes who were seeing their sales figures falling and thought if we give licenses away like green shield stamps, our bottom line will rocket and we can continue flogging our gear. Jap business developement depends on "built in obsolesence" The radios they sell today were designed 3 or 4 years ago, like their cameras, cars, tv's and every other damn thing.
Maybe I'm becoming a cynic in my old age!
John G4PKP

 

I used to be employed designing and running big distribution systems for organisations employing thousands of staff. All of these and similar distribution systems (postal, courier, etc) work on two principles:-
1) If you want your (unsolicited) item to arrive, the sender has to pay.
2) If you want to receiver to accept it, they must not have to pay to receive it.
Think about it, the post office, FedEx, etc., they all work on the "sender pays" idea. This is based on simple research which shows:-
a) The sender is the one with the need to ensure that it arrives and (crucially)
b) The recipient usually does not pay (so when an unexpected letter turns up with underpaid postage to pay, the recipient usually refuses to take it from the postie).

Human nature. The person with the need to send pays, and the recipient won't take it in if they have to pay for it (cos they probably don't need a packet full of QSL cards).

Now, all those guys who have wondered all these years why the RSGB did not charge people who are not memebrs to receive cards now know why - because if you do that, it just does not work. Sure, those who are already RSGB members can feel grand, and rubbish those who get a service but do not pay. But once you introduce the idea that some people can get cards and some can't, then you are on the road to ruin.

If you are a DXer, and an RSGB member, just remember that as this practice spreads, the chance of YOUR outgoing card reaching the other end will be severely reduced by this. I hope you feel happy about that.

What the RSGB does today, the other societies will do tomorrow. Goodbye paper cards (which might be time enough really). I paid my donation to eQSL, and I have no problem at all if some people get their eQSLs without joining. It is in my interests for the system to work, so I pay my share for it. It is always in the interests of the SENDERS of the cards to pay, and never in their interests for the RECIPIENTS to decide whether to participate or not. Still, if it makes you feel good to say things about the old system along the lines that it was a "free" service to non-members, good enough. The senders will lose out in the long run.

Just think, you put a stamp on a letter before you send it. If the payer has to pay anything to receive it, generally they refuse to accept the item. Do not blame me for telling you this, it is already common knowledge amongst all mail systems everywhere.

Progress thanks to the modern RSGB. Brilliant.

Jim
GM4FVM

 

QSL Bureau

"Progress thanks to the modern RSGB. Brilliant."

Thoughtful post Jim, this is part of what they call "marketing", turning the RSGB into a one stop shop for amateur radio, their words not mine.
Just one of the reasons I terminated my subscription last month.
£240K is spent on the NRC "shed" plus solicitors bills and then they penny pinch on the qsl bureau.

eQSL is the way forward, the bureau has been given it's death sentence.

73 John G8KHS eQSL donator

 

John
You terminated last month? I terminated two months ago. It is now cheaper for me to pay to be a receiving member of the bureau and therefore I do stopped paying my full RSGB membership which is much more expensive. In the past of course I would have stayed a member to receive the cards, but they introduced a cheaper method. It was the RSGB who made it possible for me to leave the RSGB and still get the cards. They did that using their own judgement and self-acclaimed business expertise, I just took advantage of it. They even gave me an extra discount for paying for two years at once. Why pay the membership in that situation?

Before someone posts a comment that people should join their national society - yes, but only if it is the sort of thing you would want to join. Spending a fortune on a shed as a "national" centre (how national is it when it is 350 miles from me, and much further from others?), and many other things caused me not to want to join again. THEY need to make it attractive to me, and they need to stop trying to rope me into standing orders and stop milking me for money all the time. Yes I do have an alternative, but when I tried to interact with them (and I did) I was treated like a lunatic. Maybe I am a lunatic so I have to leave. Either way it was clear that my view was not welcome.

By the way I give hours of my time volunteering and running Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced courses here. I am not one of those who takes from the hobby and does not give back.

And in any case, I can not be blamed for not paying for the bureau, and it was the RSGB who allowed me to do it. I pay what they asked. Thanks folks.

However, to stay on or near the thread ... thanks RSGB for making it cheaper for me to receive my paper cards. In any case eQSL is the way forward. 'nuff said.

Jim
GM4FVM

 

If I had to pay to receive mail, I would not accept any bills. Common sense I think.

 

QSL Bureau

Hi Jim GM4FVM

I rarely exchange printed cards the exception being contacts that are not run-of-the-mill which are sent direct, so won't miss the bureau.

Re: your comment on the society.
My view is when I took an interest in radio during the late 60's was that it was a semi professional organisation.
Radcom / Bulletin was mandatory reading for me together with Wireless World.
The most impressive publication was the American Ham Radio magazine, it was excellent
Nowdays Dubus fills that gap for me.
Apart from the few good technical articles in todays Radcom, the rest is mainly tripe.
The RSGB has for a long time ignored promoting amateur radio to aspiring professional people and continues to do so.
I urge them to reverse this situation.

As for your treatment by the society, you are definitely 100% not alone.
Last year I suffered totally unwarranted verbal abuse in front of a witness by a member of a regional team, they are now blacklisted by me.
Quite a few of the regional reps have a very poor attitude to anyone who offers a different view to the society dogma.
I was also threatened by a member of Raynet at a rally a few years ago, the person was quite unhinged and full of his so called "authority".
He scuttled away when I stood up to him.
I put it down to lack of self esteem and the dreaded yellow tabbard disease

As for putting back something into Amateur Radio my preference is to support beacons.


73 John

 

Back to my original Post: HOW MANY NON MEMBERS OF THE RSGB KNOW ABOUT THIS CHANGE.??

This was only some information I came across (not being a member of the RSGB for several years now through personal choice ) and wondered how many other non- members, were suddenly not getting what was a service for all Swl / Radio Amateurs in the UK

The question about choices of :-

If to Qsl
How to Qsl
Types of Qsling
are surely personal ,no big stick to wave at any one type. (the thing about the price of stamps going up was just stuck in my throat at the time)

My thoughts are as follows, with the electronic age well and truly here ,(radio amateurs have always been at the cutting edge of technology) why are awards regulated by such an outdated, expensive,time consuming, archaic methods.
When it could all be done so much cheaper, without having to send "Green Stamps"
(if that is all they want I have a box of Green shield stamps under the stairs I think)

If the cheats want awards and more pieces of paper to stick on the wall , let them make their own and print them off on any printer.

I personally get the kick out of KNOWING that I have worked a particular station conformation of such a thing is nice, BUT not the be all and end all for me .

HAPPY QSLing and my the Stamps be with you (Green or otherwise !)

Graham Gw0hus

 

Thanks to Graham, John and KI6LZ for taking this forward. Good ideas well thought out.

Obviously those of us supporting QRZ.com and eQSLs are maybe a select bunch of amateurs. I guess that in a hobby which is being stifled by the advancing average age (I have been in this hobby for over 45 years), complexity in the gear and the modes, and the general bumbing down (typo, but that looks better) which seems to have happened, some folks will want to stand up and explain some common sense. It is a pity that those that claim to be in authority do not listen to this. Paper QSLs are really an inconvenience for the RSGB, and they would rather be shot of them, while at the same time standing aloof from accepting electronic alternatives.

For me, an electronic QSL is as much of a joy to receive as a paper one - a bit like a letter and an email. I do not write many letters these days. Royal Mail is going down the pan thanks to the same process, and paper QSLs will soon be memory. Well, not quite I think. Direct QSLs still have a future for those who can afford them for that special contact. What will continue to disappear is the QSL bureau, and many have gone already.

Just another sign that the old certainties (QSL bureaus and national societies who care about members) are on the way out. Let us move on. In one way the RSGB are hastening my own change - I only reply to paper cards: if nobody sent them to me I would be finished with them. So, the future is electronic.

Jim
GM4FVM
P.S. I keep an old laptop running Linux in case the armagedden virus ever wipes Windows completely. And a pen, a roll of shiny loo paper (says "Now wash your hands please) and a packet of Kendal Mint Cake. If the Information Age goes into reverse, I can live without the paper QSLs, so I will burn those for heat.
P.P.S I also have an emergency supply of Pink Stamps (I always thought the Green ones were a bit common). 'fvm