The QSL card is pretty much unique to ham radio. I don’t know of bowlers or anglers or golfers who give each other a report on their latest interactions!
Wayne, KE8JFW, has been posting lots of articles titled, “It’s All in the Cards,” each featuring a DX Engineering ham’s treasured pasteboard. But in the age of electronic confirmation at the speed of bits, why do we keep and celebrate this tradition? (You can see Wayne’s QSL Card articles here).
History of QSLs
Originally, a written confirmation was mailed by each station after a contact because wireless was hard! Even Marconi had to exchange telegrams with England to confirm that he heard that first “S” coming across the Atlantic in December of 1901—was that the first QSL?
Soon after, experimenters started making their own spark gap transmitters and crystal radio receivers, but spanning more than a few miles remained a challenge. The question was often, “Did they really hear me or am I imagining it?” If the contact was solid, what kind of equipment did they use? What else was important to making that QSO, or even just receiving a transmission?

The mailed letter soon became a postcard with the purpose of acknowledging the contact, abbreviated on the air by “QSL.” In no time, that postcard became known as a QSL card, and each amateur began customizing their own with station information. Many included clever and funny drawings, making that simple postcard into a short graphic novel! The QSL card is as old as radio, even predating the term “ham,” and remains a core element of ham radio today.
When radio awards like Worked All States (WAS) and Worked All Continents (WAC) were devised to encourage amateurs to improve their stations, it was the QSL card that vouched for each precious contact. “Submitting your cards” was part of getting your certificate and often meant packing them up and (gulp!) mailing them to ARRL HQ or whoever was sponsoring the award. (Checking by local hams and clubs was added later).
QSLing Today
With today’s electronic confirmation systems such as ARRL’s Logbook Of The World and eQSL, why go to all the trouble of printing, mailing, and sorting QSL cards? While an electronic confirmation is speedy and fun, there’s nothing quite like getting a physical card in the mail or, better yet, a whole pack of them from your QSL bureau.
You may see references to the QSLer’s motto, “A QSL is the final courtesy of a QSO.” Many hams had a stack of cards at the ready and would send them out as soon as the contact concluded. Back in the day of the penny postcard this was a manageable approach, but QSLing every QSO would be pricey today. My approach is to reply 100% to any card that comes via the bureau or direct mail. I guess I’m “old school” that way! It’s a more measured approach to just send QSLs for a “first” QSO with a station.

Of course, there are still QSL managers who handle QSL card requests for DX stations. ClubLog’s Online QSL Request System (OQRS) makes requesting a card and donating to an expedition very easy. Some stations use a print-and-mail service like LZ QSL Printing Service that accepts an ADIF log file, prints the cards, and sends them out without you having to fill them in.
And then there is today’s four-color printing—wow! High-quality cards in full color were almost unknown a couple of decades ago. You might get a card with one or two colors plus black. It has never been easier or less expensive to have a card with a colorful graphic or photo of your vacation, DXpedition, or home station. These cards are fun to look at and really tell a story.
Atlas of QSL Cards
QSLs are a physical record of what you’ve worked, and many hams save them by the hundreds. They form a unique (and sometimes irreplaceable) record of your accomplishments throughout your ham career. Just looking through your QSLs will bring back many exciting memories of a QSO that is special in some way.
I was reminded of the value of these memories when I received a copy of Atlas of QSL Cards by Laura Piipari. Ms. Piipari’s father, Olavi Lehti, OH2BBR, was a founding member of the OH2AM collective of Finnish hams who shared a passion for radio, especially DXing and contesting. Over his 60 years of operating, he collected many QSLs from exotic locations that are rarely visited even today.
OH2BBR became a Silent Key a few years ago, and the author inherited her father’s entire QSL collection. What started out as her initial plan of “just organizing the cards a little” turned into a book that “showcases some of the QSL cards in (this) unique collection. The cards aren’t just personal memorabilia but offer perspectives into history, geography and political events, with a backdrop of some very daring adventurers’ undertakings…(and)…testaments to some lifelong friendships.” Every QSL tells a story, it seems.

The 256-page book features more than 200 of the most interesting cards out of the collection that numbered in the thousands. Each featured card is accompanied by a summary of what makes the card, the country, or the contact of unique value. The cards are organized by continent, with the countries arranged in the same way as the DXCC list of entities. You can see a wide variety of cards, ranging from those simply printed with a single ink color to full-color photo cards.
A few sections at the beginning explain what QSL cards are, how they are structured, what the information on them means, and how radio propagation relates to the contact recorded on the card. The cards start with one from the famous Sovereign Military Order of Malta (call sign prefix 1A) and conclude with a set of cards from some Antarctic island contacts, including super-rare Peter I (3Y) and the American research station at KC4USK where scientists and technicians would maintain contact with home via ham radio through the long winter. As OH2BBR would say, “It’s All About the Connection!”
(Ms. Piipari’s book is available from her website.) The photo shows QSLs from India and Laos, two sought-after contacts today!

There are other books featuring a collection of QSL cards. For example, Hello World: A Life in Ham Radio by Danny Gregory and Paul Sahre takes us through the seven decades of operating by Jerry Powell, W2OJW. Jerry’s collecting of QSLs started with a 1928 card and continued until his death in 2000.
Another book containing a famous QSL collection is Don Wallace, W6AM, Amateur Radio Pioneer by Jan Perkins, N6AW. A center section includes color plates with some of DXing’s rarest QSL cards from the pre-WWII days when Don’s “world of rhombics” amateur station near Long Beach, California, was the world’s finest. The book is available used or can be viewed through the Internet Archive if you create a free account.
There are online QSL history resources, too. The biggest and best by far is the Documentary Archives Radio Communications collection. Known by the German name, DokuFunk, the museum includes collections of material for amateur radio and broadcasting. The largest collection maintained by DokuFunk is the Colvin collection of around 250,000 QSLs documenting the travels of Lloyd, W6KG, and Iris, W6QL, Colvin from the 1960s through the 1980s.
Designing a QSL
OK, you’re hooked! Now what? How do you go about developing your own QSL? What makes a “good” QSL? It will help to know that you can have more than one card. You can change your QSL design any time, whenever the fancy strikes!
Say you activated a park for the Parks On The Air program and made less than 100 QSOs but would like to send out QSLs featuring the park. Your home color printer or a local office supply store can do a pretty good job of making up small batches of cards.
Use a graphics program on your PC (I’ve done well simply using PowerPoint) to create a “four-up” single-sheet image. Then print the slide as a graphics image file—use a lossless format such as TIF or PNG to avoid blur—or PDF and take it to the store. They can print the image and will even cut the cards apart for you. It’s easy!

Maybe you already have some QSLs—does one strike your fancy as being particularly attractive or interesting? That’s a good place to start, copying features from cards you like. Choose an attractive photo or graphic that says something about you, your station, or where you operate from. If you are ordering cards from a QSL printing service, they will have templates available.
Remember that the card’s text should always be clear and easy to read. Fancy fonts can be hard to understand, especially for non-English speakers and readers.
One side of the card, front or back, should have clearly labeled spaces for all the necessary information as on your “model” card. Include the following:
- Call sign in large, clear letters
- Your name
- The station’s location including DXCC country (“entity”)
- If practical, note the grid square, U.S. county, and any other useful award program ID
You can choose to have all of the necessary information on one side, which is somewhat less expensive to print. It also leaves one side with lots of space for an address and stamp.
Regardless, one side of your card should have all of the necessary QSO information: both call signs, date and time in UTC, signal report, mode, frequency or band. This makes it easy for the receiving station or QSL manager to fill out your return card without having to flip the card over. Checkboxes for PSE or TNX QSL are handy, and be sure to have a place for your signature!

Note that using a date format like 2-3-2024 can be confusing. Is it February 3 or March 2? A better format would be either Roman numerals or a three-character abbreviation for month, such as VII or Jul for July. Use UTC for most QSLs unless you’re just confirming a local contact.
Showing Off Your QSLs
Eventually, cards will start coming in via direct mail or the QSL bureau (be sure to have some envelopes at the bureau, even if you don’t contact a lot of DX stations). After you admire them, then what? You can put them into a drawer or box, but surely the best thing would be to display them where you can see them!
The time-honored display is in a “QSL Hangar” with clear plastic pockets to hold the cards. Another option might be to create your DXCC Notebook in a three-ring binder full of report holders. Holders for CD-ROM discs will also work.

The QSLs you receive are a story of your adventures in ham radio. Some will be from nearby stations, others from all the way on the other side of the world. You’ll have QSLs from special places and special people. Some you’ll want to display simply because they are so beautiful.
Regardless of how they are displayed and stored, make it easy to enjoy them and remember the fun of ham radio!
