The downside of not paying for QSL

You probabely read my previous post about "QSL for sale". The title of this post was a little offending for those that are QSL manager or DXpeditioners, of course I have to make my excuse for that. It was not ment to offend anyone. My opinion is that paying for QSL is ridiculous in this digital age and I wanted to make that clear. Many commented and I got many e-mails about the subject, some agreed, some didn't. I had to change some text in my blog post after some comments because I was not right. I also add some text at the "QSL code of conduct" page. But in the end people have to decide themselves, to pay or not to pay! After reading all the comments and e-mail I discovered (learned)  two things that you all have to think about. First the hobby is experienced at many levels. You have serious people, people that do it all for fun, people that have lots of money to spend for the hobby and people that don't. And besides that there are a lot of other levels and subjects in this hobby. Second when you decide not to pay for QSL it has a downside.

There will be less interesting DX on the bands...

What is DX? Well, it is a station from a far away country, or a very rare country. The problem is that there are simply no radioamateurs living at the rarest DXCC. They send a DXpedition of radioamateurs to activate such a DXCC. This can be done solo or with a team of operators. One (or more members) of this team are the QSL managers, most time it is a person that is not on DXpedition but manages all QSL at home after the DXpedtion has finished.
There are also QSL managers that are part of many teams and provide QSL managing for many DXpeditions. However, modern QSL managers are also providing all kind of services like live logging via sat phone, OQRS, QSL via bureau, uploading to LoTW, clublog, eQSL etc. it is just what a DXpedition demands. A big DXpedition costs money, a lot of money. And the services that they provide you cost even more money. They all do it for you to get a new country or band slot in the log and get it confirmed. And of course they do it for themselves since it is great to be on DXpedition with a team and make as many contacts as possible, one big adventure!
So, most of the DXpeditions are funded by the operators and from gifts by individuals or clubs called DX associations or foundations. I'm shure the QSL cards design and print are payed for by the DXpedition, but the postage isn't (in my opinion, they should finance it).
However, there are also postage costs of bureau cards that are requested by OQRS. Most DX foundations that sponsor DXpeditions demand that bureau QSL has to be send for free to those that request a QSL. It only looks like this is free (you pay for your countries amateurradio association to be member of the QSL bureau) but it isn't. DXpeditions are no member from bureaus, the QSL manager has to send QSL packages to all country bureaus from incoming QSL requests. This costs money that isn't covered by the DXpedition (but actually should in my opinion). Part of it is payed for with the dollars that are incoming with direct cards and via paypal donations, so others are paying for your QSL when you do a OQRS request returning via bureau. You can read about all expenses on M0URX Tim's site.

But....what I read in a lot of comments and e-mail is that DXpeditions make their own rules. They activate a rare country or island so it is their party. They decide if you have to pay for QSL...or not.
You see, it is the downside of not paying for your QSL...less money, less DX. If a DXpedition has to pay for all costs they might consider not to go because it is simply too expensive. However, some DXpeditions are forcing you to make a huge donation for a paper QSL card to be send, they even do no QSL digitally or via bureau. In my opinion that is unfair.

- Do you think that there really will be less DX on the bands if you don't make donations or pay for your QSL card or confirmation? -

Does paper QSLstill have a future? Why all this hassle of confirming a contact with paper cards? I think people want to have something that they can touch, that they can cherish and collect. You can't do that with LoTW confirmations. Unfortunately for those that like QSL the way it is it will all change not too far in the future. QSLing can already be done with eQSL or LoTW for free, you don't have to be a member from anything. And as long as you don't want to have any (paper) certificates you don't have to pay anything. I can't imagine paper QSL cards, the way we know it now, will still exist in a few decades. But time will tell...

This blogpost is a follow up on my previous post. It does not change my "QSL code of conduct" or my opinion. This one was more about QSLing by DXpeditions. It was also a excuse to those that are DXpeditioners and QSL managers. They do excellent work. Hopefully it gives you something to think about...as long as paper QSL cards exist!