Ham Radio QSL Cards – In the early days of ham radio, when making shortwave contact with a station across the state was a novelty, across the country was astounding, and transoceanic contacts where nearly unheard of, hams would confirm contact by sending each other QSL, or confirmation of contact, cards. This tradition continues today, but I today’s mass produced cards are often far less interesting than their early counterparts.
Early QSL cards were often handmade, and frequently included a cartoon, photo or information about the ham’s station, or humorous line art sketch. As both a fellow ham, my FCC issued callsign is W1UJR, and a student of history, I find the early cards very interesting, and have posted a short collection of some of my more intriguing cards
I was fascinated with the “Chair Warmers Club” card, a group of early handicapped hams who met regularly on the air. Back in the day, before telephones and the internet, ham radio was the only real contact these folks had with the “outside world”. W1CJD is “Gil” Gildersleeve, and as you might surmise from his card, the famous artist of hundreds of cartoons in radio magazines of the era.
I found the W8CFD card particularly intriguing, for it appears to the photo show a young ham, along with the caption of “”Believe It or Not” — That’s me over there….”. I looked up Wilven Hagerty of Honesdale, PA, not much found using Google, seems the 81 passing years have largely erased the traces of this fellow.
The W8ECA and W3HVD cards are quite interesting, I have soft spot for cards which appear to be homemade. The W8ECA card in particular looks like someone colored it in with crayons! The other cards for areas near where I grew up – Walton and Norwich, NY or cities where I once lived, Buffalo, NY.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”6″ gal_title=”QSL Cards – Bruces Bench”]
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