Note This!

How Does the BC Incoming QSL Bureau Work?

Its Really Pretty Simple! Using a QSL bureau is by far the least expensive way to collect QSL cards. Most major Amateur Radio countr...

Saturday, May 30, 2020

How To Participate...



What is the BC Incoming QSL Bureau?


The British Columbia Incoming QSL Bureau handles QSL cards being delivered to Amateurs in this province. That would generally be Amateur Stations with a Canadian call-sign starting with VA7 or VE7. 

This bureau does NOT process cards that are outgoing. Amateurs wishing to send cards should consult the Radio Amateurs of Canada  QSL Bureau website.

How do I use this service?

QSL cards sent to the Bureau manager will be sorted for delivery. When a card is received, the recipient's call-sign will be posted on the BC QSL Cards Awaiting Pickup page. If your call is there, you should contact the Bureau Manager using the information provided at the bottom of this page to arrange a delivery method. This may include direct pick-up, delivery, or mailing. 

Backlog

At this time there are many cards, dating back years, that have not been picked up. We will attempt to deliver these and to notify the recipient via this site. Future plans are to  list cards in a database you can access on our website. Your assistance is requested to make this site address known to other stations so that we can contact as many Amateurs as possible to make them aware of this service.  If you see a call-sign listed with cards waiting, and happen to have contact that person, please make them aware so that we can expedite delivery.

A link to this URL on your club or organization website would also assist in getting the word out.

Do you have an interesting QSL card to share?

We would like to feature QSL cards received by local Amateurs that are unique, rare or particularly attractive. If you have such a card and would like to share it with others visiting this site, please forward an image to the webmaster, ve7ti at rac.ca via email. Selected cards will be featured in a gallery on the QSL Card Gallery page.

Ideas or Suggestions?

We welcome your ideas and suggestions to make this site as useful as possible. Please contact us at the addresses listed below.

Contact Information 

BC QSL Bureau Manager

Ken Clarke, VE7BC
Telephone: (604) 816-5775

Bureau Mailing Address

VE7-VA7 Incoming QSL Bureau
Ken Clarke VE7BC
P.O. Box 1109
100 Mile House, BC
V0K 2E0

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Making Your Own QSL Card...


How to make electronic QSL cards
using Microsoft Word

The purpose of this post is to show you how to make a QSL card like this:


On the lower left corner I put a picture of a squirrel, but it can be your picture.

All the components of the QSL card (background picture, callsign, location, table about the QSO, your picture) are in a sandwich – called working with layers. In plain English, that means you can move the components wherever you want, make them smaller, bigger or simply get rid of them. Completing the QSO details in your final QSL card means just opening your Microsoft Word document, and entering the details inside the table, in dedicated boxes. We will get there... 

  • Start Microsoft Word. Create a new document. Save it with a meaningful name, something that you can remember and locate when you need it. 
When you open Microsoft Word 2016 -2019 you will be presented with the following ribbon:



While it is not very visible in the above picture, this is what you see when opening Microsoft Word [click on the picture to enlarge it]. Choose “File” from the upper extreme left.



Double click “Blank document” and the screen will come back to the default display.
  • Set the newly created document as a QSL card. That means it has to be a landscape document, of a certain size, with some specific margins (even zero, as in my case).
Click “layout” from the menu, or do the above operations as your different word processor requires.


I put all margins to zero, and I will take care myself not to put any element, except the background, at the extremities. The orientation is landscape and a good size to format is 11 inches by 7.4 inches.

  • Save the new document with a meaningful name, something that you can remember and locate when you need.
In the above picture, click “File” (upper left). From the new window click “Save as” and save it somewhere that it is convenient for you. I saved it in the .docx format. It is OK to do it in the old .doc format, too, because we do not have any fancy or difficult elements which to require the .docx format.



  • Insert a background picture. Adjust its size and position.
I chose a picture that has good contrast, and allows me to put other components in the QSL card without obstructing the text. If you want to prepare the background  in more detail, you should do it in a separate photo editing program. I never bothered with that much work, so I just introduced a picture as background.

From the Microsoft Word ribbon choose “Insert” and after, from the drop down menu “Pictures”. My background picture for this tutorial is from my own computer, but it can be from an external hard disk or from an SD card, USB stick and so on.




I have chosen a picture, and I click “Insert” (lower, right button). The result is not exactly what you probably expected, because the picture does not cover the whole background. I did not pre-process this picture:


I right click in the middle of the picture and from the pop-down menu I choose “Size and position” (just before the last one on the bottom).


From the next dialog I have to choose “Text wrapping” and “In front of text”, and ‘OK”:




This allows me to freely move the background layer. I can magnify or reduce the picture used as background, and also to move it around, to eventually use only the part of it that I want. If you left click the mouse in the middle of the picture and keep it pressed you can drag and drop the picture. Keeping the left mouse button pressed it is possible to use the corner handles of the picture to increase it and decrease it, without changing the proportion. If you did something wrong use the “undo” button from your word processor, or CTRL and Z together from your keyboard.

 I finally got to:


  • Insert the callsign and follow the same steps described for the callsign in order to add any more text you want to the QSL card.
It is the high time to add the callsign. From the same “Insert” menu of the ribbon I chose “WordArt” and from the drop down choices I chose something that looked nice to me:


I have to go into the WordArt box to type. It is text like any other text from the word processor, so you can increase the font and so on with your normal tools in Microsoft Word or whatever alternative you use. In order to move it freely, right click and choose “Wrap text” and “In front of Text”:




This allows me to move the callsign wherever I want. I select the callsign by putting the mouse somewhere at the outside extremities until I see a cross sign. Now I can left click, keep the button pressed, and drag the callsign to the position I want.


Often I click to select the callsign box and instead I select the background. I just UNDO and try again to catch the right element.

Following the same procedure as adding the callsign to the QSL card, I added my location, and placed it under the callsign. Use your creativity. 

Do not forget to switch the ribbon from “Insert” to “Home” to increase or reduce the font size, its color and so on:


Your QSL card now should now look something like this:


  • Create a table where to write the QSO details.
Perhaps other word processors allow you to directly insert a table into the document, but Microsoft Word 2016 – 2019 would not allow the insertion of such a table in the QSL card document we created. Not directly; we will have first to create a text box, and inside the text box we will be allowed to create the table. 

We click the “Insert” tab on the ribbon:



Now we click “Insert Text Box” from the right of the ribbon, and select a simple text box.



 The text box can be dragged and resized. We can do this because it is created as “In front of text” by default. Otherwise we would have to right click on it and set it as “in front of text”. The box will be white, but in the end we will make it transparent. Select the sample text from inside the box and delete it.


We will place a table inside the box, with 2 rows and 6 cells.


A table will appear inside the text box. If Microsoft Word does not let you do that it means the text box was no longer selected. Click inside the text box, and then insert the table. Type the headers and some example text into the table. Resize everything, and align the table and the text box in which the table exists however you want to.



Eventually, you can declare the QSL card finished. I prefer to make some formatting touch-ups. Left click once inside the table. Right click on the table and select table properties:



Format your table as you want from in the next dialog box:




I especially play with “Borders and Shading” (lower left button). I make the border colour white,and the width 3 points:



So, now the table is like this:


We should make the text box 100% transparent. Right click on it, and from the new dialog box select “Format shape” (bottom):


On the right of the page you will have  a new formatting box where you can move the slider for transparency to 100%. The box will disappear from our card (it is there, but it is transparent). We can also format the outside border to haves no line. Table borders are white, and the text inside is black, so not very visible. Let’s select all the text and also make it white. (Because of the dark colour, it can be difficult to see if the text becomes selected or not; just select it – even if you are not sure you really selected it – and make it white. Most probably you succeeded.)


Following the same procedures described above, you can add pictures, text and so on. Just remember that Microsoft Word will likely  freeze the new elements you inserted into layers of your card. You have to select the new element you just introduced, right click and choose “Wrap Text” “In front of the text”. Our card is now finished, and we can save it.

Your finished card

  • How do you use your new QSL card? Open the .docx document. Click inside the table, in the cells where you want to modify the text (another callsign for your contact, another date and so on). Save the document, preferably as a .PDF file, and send it.

 ~ Daniel Romila VE7LCG

QSL Card Gallery



Do you have an interesting QSL card to share?

We would like to feature QSL cards received by local Amateurs that are unique, rare or particularly attractive. 

If you have such a card and would like to share it with others visiting this site, please forward an image to the webmaster, ve7ti at rac.ca via email. Selected cards will be featured in a gallery on this page.























The International Space Station






















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How Does the BC Incoming QSL Bureau Work?



Its Really Pretty Simple!



Using a QSL bureau is by far the least expensive way to collect QSL cards. Most major Amateur Radio countries have a bureau where cards are collected from hams within the country and then forwarded in bulk to the destination country. Using bulk mail to send your cards to the bureau and for them to forward the cards to other countries cost much less for postage than mailing individual cards. Both RAC in Canada and ARRL in the U.S. offer QSL cards outgoing services for amateurs who are members. Incoming cards can generally be received whether or not you are a member but membership alone is worth the cost of the bureau's service. The  RAC - BC Incoming QSL Bureau only accepts incoming cards for distribution to area Amateurs.




QSL'ing Direct


To QSL direct you fill out your QSL card and mail it the the person you contacted. So, if you had a QSO with VE3RAC and you would like his QSL card, you need to find his address. This can be done by searching an online callbook such as Buckmaster or QRZ!, or you can use a CD-ROM callbook from these organizations or others.

Fill out your card, address it, using an envelope to protect it, affix a stamp and drop it in the mailbox. Usually in a few weeks you can expect a card in return.

If you are sending a card to a DX contact it is generally good practice to include a self addressed envelope and return postage. Do not use the postage of your country as it will not be valid for use in the DX country. Instead include either a U.S. dollar bill (known by hams as a green stamp) or an International Reply Coupon (IRC) which you can purchase at the post office. We Canadians cannot use a loonie to pay for return postage as it is heavy and therefore subject to theft. Some countries require more than the equivalent of a dollar for postage. One example is Germany where you should send two dollars or two IRCs. Remember that DX amateurs, especially those in rare countries, get a lot of requests for QSL cards and so it is only fair to them that you provide the cost of postage.
QSL Managers

Active stations often use a QSL manager when mailing to a foreign country. With some less developed DX countries this is difficult. Using Managers in Canada and the US  makes postage less expensive. You can often obtain the QSL manager when looking up the address of the  call or on the Internet.

You send a card to a QSL manager in the same way as above. A return envelope and postage is a must.


Contents of a QSL Card

Some of the content that should be on each card is:

  • your call sign
  • your name and address
  • a place to write:

       - the call of the station you contacted
       - the date (use DD/MM/YY to comply with most countries). 
         Be sure the date used is the UTC date (see note below).

  • time in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)
  • frequency or band
  • mode (SSB, CW, FT8, RTTY, etc.)
  • RST
  • a request to QSL or thanks for a QSL received.

Some optional items you might include are:

  • your station (maybe even a picture)
  • your CQ and ITU zones
  • the county you are in
  • your grid location (primarily if you operate above 50MHz)

If you plan to send a lot of QSLs you might find that using a computerized logging program such as N1MM (free) or others can help you keep track of your contacts and also print labels for your QSL cards.

Contact Information 

BC QSL Bureau Manager

Ken Clarke, VE7BC
Telephone: (604) 816-5775

Bureau Mailing Address

VE7-VA7 Incoming QSL Bureau
Ken Clarke VE7BC
P.O. Box 1109
100 Mile House, BC
V0K 2E0
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