Some of my ‘antique’ QSL cards!

Had a search for the QSL cards which I had received during my first stint on ham radio decades back. These are the precious ones I could fish out from my almirah. I think I had a few more, which are not traceable. Those were the days when Logbook of the World had not been invented. All these were received directly. The ones which were received through ARSI QSL bureau seems to have been lost. If I remember correct, that was definitely a larger collection. These QSL cards belong to the era in which I was operating CW/AM with a homebrew 3 x 807 vacuum tube TX and Philips Prestige BC RX. Horizontal dipole antenna was on top of coconut trees and the coax was 75 ohms TV cable. No SWR meter either! But the Pi tank of the TX was tuned to resonance.

5,8,9 report from K3ZO in Maryland, USA was a great report for me. As you can see, it is greyline propagation early in the morning at 0035z. Of course, his 3 element Yagi for 40m at a height of 27m would have been the major contributor to that signal report rather than my simple dipole.

One more from Maryland, USA, this time with a 5,5,9 report and the timing was about half an hour earlier. You may note my old call sign VU2JFP in the top left corner. Wonder how he could find it out in those days when QRZ.COM was not there, nor even internet or home computers in my region. May be there was some physical call book which I had no access to.

This one from Japan is a bit odd. It shows my old call sign well at the top. But the mode and band were ones which I did not have access to at home in those days. In those days I used to operate from my friends shacks whenever I visit a city for some other reason. Most likely this was one of those contacts on 21 MHz using SSB mode. Just remembering some of my friends from whose QTH I have operated: VU2NYR (SK) who was my Elmer, VU2MKS (SK), VU2KGB and a few others I am unable to recall.

Another important QSL card which I have, from the VU7APR DXpedition in 1989. Though the mode is noted as 2 x SSB, most likely it was AM from my side. The operator was my good old friend VU2JOS. We both started with homebrew VU2VWN QRP way back in 1985 and he still has the log of our first QSO. But this QSO would have been with my 3 x 807 TX with 120W DC input.

This QSL card is unique in more than one ways. The card commemorates World Amaterur Radio Day 2001. It is from a VHF FM repeater VU2BCM. That would have been during the morning net which I used to check in regularly in those days. Now from a different location, I do not have access to VU2BCM repeater. In those days I also had a 7 element VHF Yagi given to me by my friend VU2FWW. Though I made a 7 element VHF Yagi in 2023, VU2BCM repeater was not active at that time. Later I dismantled that Yagi for favour of my Moxon Yagi for satellite operations. As the Moxon Yagi has just two Moxon elements for VHF, I am not able to reach up to VU2BCM repeater at 128.4 km now.