Rolling your own

ByJohn Spillman, KT4CB

The ultimate Courtesy of a

QSO is a QSL Card.

A tutorial for

Prerequisites

Items Required:

Programs / Software [particular to your O/S](This tutorial assumes you have a working knowledge of the software on your system)

Microsoft Office Suite [Windows]Open Office Suite [Mac, Linux, Windows]A Paint Program [for modifying graphics]Stand alone QSL proqram [QSL Maker, ADIF2QSL, QSL Wizard, etc.]Within a Logger Program [N7XG, DXLabs, Log-EQF, HRD, etc.]

Color or B/W printer capable of printing to the edge of the paper and printing on card stock. (Some printers, although they claim to print to the edge of the paper, do not)

Assorted Graphics / FontsClub Affiliations [ex: 3905CCN, ARRL, QCWA, etc.]Seasonal graphicsSpecial Events graphicsSlash Zero Fonts [available free on the internet]

Paper

Minimum 60- 67lb card stock, choice of white or light pastel color [sometimes post card stock] The heavier 110 lb stock is too difficult to work with in most printers.Choice of matte or plain. [no glossy or photo paper, they stick together]

Paper Trimmer

Any other item you deem necessary to complete your project.

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Required Items (all on same side of card)

Call SignName and AddressCounty (the station you worked may be hunting Counties)Grid square and ITU/CQ Zones (The station you worked may be hunting Grid Squares or Zones)Country (If station you worked is DX)Transmitting power (Required for QRP) (see layouts for examples)Mobile or portable and where you were mobile or portable3905 CC certificate award numbers, (required for 3905 CCN contacts)

Your Information:

QSL Information:

Contact station's Call SignDate [with month spelled out] (ex: Jan, JAN, January)

[YES: 3-MAR-2017, Apr. 4, 2016][NO: 3/9/16, ambiguous – could be March 9 or September 3]

TIME – in UTC, ZULU, or Coordinated Universal Time (not 12/24 hr local time)

Band / Frequency (band for DX) They may be working split, and if you put the frequency on their card, it would be useless to them. It would indicate to their card checker they operated out-of-band.

Signal Report (RS(T)) Sent and Received

Mode: SSB, USB, LSB, RTTY, PSK31, CW, etc

How / Where they were operating: Portable / Mobile AND where they were Portable or Mobile

Operating from a National Park, IOTA, etc.

Boxes to indicate whether you want a card back (Please / Thanks / No Card Needed)

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For contests, add the contest name.

Without the above information and it being correct, the card you send will be useless to the receiver.

W0STU /p WI; Stuart 11-May-2016

14:25 3.947 or 80M 59s / 57r LSB

Required Items Detail (all on same side of card)

Call Sign of Station you worked Date

Time (zulu)

FrequencyOr Band

Signal Report

How / where operating

Mode

QSL Information:

������

United States

Your Name

Your Address

City, ST Zip

ITU 8 CQ 5 FN02sa

/ p NMQRP 5W

LINCOLN COUNTYYour County

ITU / CQ Zone

Transmit Power (QRO is not required to be stated)

Portable or Mobile and whereYour Call Sign

Country

Your Information:

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Your Grid Square

Nice to Have Information

Awards earned

Other interesting information you would like to include

Club affiliations (3905 CCN, ARRL WAS, DXCC, etc)

GraphicsLocal, regional, national logos / graphics

Special Events

Specific operating graphics (straight key, paddle, etc.)

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You are only limited by your imagination. Be creative!

Preparation [ 11 x 8 ½ ]We will begin by opening your graphics application. I used Openoffice.org's Draw program to create my cards.

Upon opening your application, you have a blank sheet on the screen. The default orientation is portrait. Change it to landscape.

Referring to Figure 1 on page 8, draw a line down the center of the page. Measure from the left or right side of the page, ignoring the program imposed border, five and ½ inches, using the ruler across the top of the screen.

(Adjust for program imposed border) (See Step 1 on Figure 1).

Next, draw a line horizontally 3 and ½ inches from the top of the page. Add another horizontal line 3 ½ inches belowthat, using the ruler on the left side of the page. (See Step 2 on Figure 1)

For our next step, print the page on plain paper. Using your trimmer, trim the paper 5 ½ inches from the edge of the paper.Trim it again to trim on the shorter edge of 3 ½ ”. The cutter should trim on the dotted line, both vertically and horizontally. Continue to adjust the lines and trim the paper until the trimmer cuts on the dotted lines. Once you have completed this step,you are ready to create your masterpiece. You have 4 squares with which to work with. I have labeled them 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively.. You can create a separate design in each one or use the same design in all four. I will be using the same design in each for illustrative purposes.You will finish with a card that is 3 ½ “ x 5 ½ ”, the proper size for a QSL Card.

If you will be doing a back side of the card, label this page “Front”, duplicate the page and label it “Back”

*Remember to save your work at regular intervals. I recommend every ten minutes.

You cannot use copyrighted material unless you are the copyright owner.

Figures 2 through 8 illustrate different layouts. You are limited only by your imagination.Enjoy creating you own custom QSL cards!

This was designed and written to be used with the N7XG logger and DXLabs program.

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Sending a QSL Card

Envelopes:# 10 envelope with return address [standard or security]

#9 envelope for SASE [fits inside # 10 envelope]

Standard security envelope [personal size]

Notes:

If sending green stamps, you would want to use security envelopes. (especially if sending overseas)IRC's [International Reply Coupons, available at the Post Office] are more secure.

DO NOT PLACE YOUR CALL SIGN OR THE RECEIVING STATION'S CALL SIGN ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE ENVELOPE. IT INVITES THEFT.

Sending to Club Stations or to state-side QSL Managers, use a #10 envelope with an SASE #9 envelope enclosed. It is recommended you place a couple of green stamps inside to defray QSL Manager's cost of processing your Request. Most DX stations have state-side managers. [You can find them on the internet.]

For Dxpeditions, follow their instructions. (They vary)

If sending to a bureau such as the ARRL Outgoing Bureau, sort by country, then by Call Area and thenby suffix. [Their own instructions supersede these]

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Open your program and select landscape for orientation. Place dotted lines as shown with the specific dimensions. The ‘card’ will be created within the dotted lines.

You have 4 sections [3 ½ x 5 ½] labeled 1, 2 ,3 ,4 respectively. Print on plain paper and use trimmer to confirm the lines match the dimensions. Repeat as necessary until they

do. Begin your design in one of the sections, keeping it centered within the section. We’ll start in section 1.

1 2

3 4

Measure from edge of paper

Place file name here

If more than one page, place

page number here

Program imposed border

Step 1

Step 2

Figure 1 8Page

2

4

Figure 2 – First block filled

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Leave a minimum of a ¼ “ to 3/8 “ border around the

Figure 3 – First and second block filled

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Figure 4

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Figure 5. Sample for program printed information or labels

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Figure 6. Sample for program printed information or labels

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5.53 "

3.46 "

Figure 6. Sample card created with MS Publisher

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3. 52 "

5.51 "

Can be removed for

Program-printing

(illustrated below)

Figure 6. Sample card illustrating the QSL box located above the graphics and with the QSL box removed.

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Figure 6. Sample card created with MS Publisher

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3. 52 "

5.51 "

Usable for hand-printing

or labels. Always include your

call sign on both sides of the card

Front

Rear

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3. 52 "

5.51 "

Figure 8. Sample card using graphics for a background.

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(not to scale)

This procedure will produce 4 cards to a page each with the dimensions of 3 ½ “ x 5 ½ “ after trimming