I saw this mentioned on Reddit, but it doesn't seem to have been shared here, so... Source: https://www.upu.int/en/press-releas...e-international-reply-coupon-enters-the-histo It's probably not too surprising given how difficult it has become to get and use IRCs in many places, and how expensive international mail has become. But it's the ending of an era. The press release mentions there will be a special commemorative product made available. For those wondering...I'm not sure where it's possible to get IRCs anymore, for those interested in collecting "the last one". The last time I bought any, I got them through SwissPost's website, but they seem to have quietly disappeared from there. France's La Poste website lists them as "out of stock".
I think when I first got licensed in the 1960s a postcard cost 4c to mail, and IRCs were 15c. I don't think I ever used one, but I heard about them as a way to get DX cards. But I always associate them with a very different story. Carlo Ponzi, eponym of the famous scheme, said that he was making his money by purchasing IRCs in a country where they were cheap and selling them in a country where they cost more. That arbitrage probably didn't happen, of course; the whole point of a Ponzi scheme was to use new investors' money to pay off old ones and make it sound like you were making money, in his case via IRCs. Nowadays, of course, Ponzi schemes have gone high tech, and are called "crypto".
I am considering how to make sure my foreign ham friends wouldn't face too expensive cost when we are exchange QSL card...
Start using QRZ Logbook and LoTW. The reality is it is expensive to send paper QSL cards. For all but the most special occasions, most hams have stopped exchanging paper QSL cards due to the high cost when you multiply many, many QSOs to be confirmed. Dave W7UUU
I have 27 Different Country IRC’s Some are Beautiful …. Some were .50 cents, to $11.00 each. They stopped using them 9 years ago… K8PG Paul Morse Music
I remember using them 40 years ago. They were a good idea whose time is past. Around the world mail services in general certainly seem to be declining. One country I know well, the Dominican Republic, has virtually none and I see Denmark has essentially ended theirs too, so I guess this is just part of a long-term trend. Hopefully home delivery will continue in most places--after all, reasonably priced service is still needed, particularly remote areas. But I suspect that between LOTW and OQRS the Bureau system will largely fade away. Too bad, there's nothing like the thrill of getting a nice card in the mail!
Dave, it seems electronic QSL cards are becoming more common. I have received a few to conform a DX contact. How does a person get credit for the qso on QRZ? QRZ?
It's not possible. Email QSLs are super easy to fake. I get "QSL World" e-QSLs all the time that claim contacts on bands, modes and time frames that are completely fake. Emailed QSL cards cannot be used anywhere for awards - at least not that I'm aware of. See below for a wonderful example.... it's sent to XX0XX which is one of my QRZ test accounts and has my actual email associated with it. 9A3MA apparently needs the XX prefix (Macau) and found my fake test call sign. He then faked that we had a QSO in November 2001 - long before the XX0XX call sign existed and long before my email existed, at a time when I didn't even own any ham gear! EXCELLENT illustration of why emailed QSLs are worthless. Dave W7UUU
Well, in this case it seems it was the QSO which was fake, regardless of how the QSL card itself was received.
When I was at 73 we accepted IRCs as payment for most of our awards. We discovered that the post office in Peterborough would treat them as bearer bonds and just give us cash for them...we had a big box stuffed with IRCs, and it paid for a good number of lunches.
It's simply the point that faking an email QSL is a lot less work that printing up a fake paper card and buying a stamp to mail it. At least a paper card could be used for an ARRL award. An emailed QSL is worthless. No one accepts them for awards (that I'm aware of - not QRZ nor ARRL most certainly). And a faked email QSL is less than worthless. Dave W7UUU
