A brief history of amateur radio use, code, and DXing is necessary to fully understand the place from which QSL cards were born. This history supports and upholds the importance of QSL cards to the ham radio community and to the overall academic community, as well. One cannot understand much of the text and images on the QSL cards without knowing the history, purpose, and language used on the cards. In addition, knowing the dates helps to situate the cards in this collection with the events occurring during the early years of QSL card exchange.

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Ham Radio

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Jim Maxwell’s “The History of Ham Radio” suggests that much discovery and research was conducted in the late 1800’s by private individuals which led to the creation of wireless communication in 1896 (1). Because of this, all radio was considered “amateur” until businesses became involved to increase commerce (2). Maxwell wrote that there was no regulation of who could use the wireless and in the beginning of amateur radio, operators assigned themselves their own call letters, usually their own initials (2). This lack of regulation caused rampant use and radio waves become crowded which caused interference with commercial radio interest (Maxwell 2).

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In 1912, the United States Congress passed a bill which required all amateur users to become licensed (Maxwell 2). At this time, ham radio license numbers were assigned to start with a “W” followed by two or three additional letters (Haring 22). These letters represented in which of the nine Federal Communications Commission (FCC) geographical districts the operator lived (Haring 22). After the number of “W” letters were exhausted, the FCC introduced call letters beginning with a “K” (Haring 22). It was therefore possible to tell from an operator’s call letters how long they had been active in ham radio (Haring 22). This bill also limited amateur’s radio length to 200 meters in the hopes that hams use of the radio waves would decline and disappear (Maxwell 2). However, several events occurred which actually prompted an increase in usage by the hams, namely new inventions in transmission, radio relay stations, and World War I (Maxwell 2). These early changes to the ham world are evident in the QSL cards from that time period; the call letters are prominent on the cards as well as the transmission information and Q code language.

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Amateur operations ceased during WWI, 1914-1918, but the operators themselves were still tuning in; they were now working for the war effort under direction of the Navy, and the Navy was in charge of all radio operations in the United States (Maxwell 2). This was the first major event which coalesced the operators for their first service to the nation, but not the last. Of note, service is one of the “fundamental functions of Amateur Radio—to be of service to the public and to the nation,” as described by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) (Maxwell 2), and service strengthens the bonds of a community, both those who are served and those who do the serving. In November 1919, the hams were back in action with their own hobby and no longer under service to the Navy (Maxwell 2).

           

Communication between operators started to take a new form as hams tried to reach stations which were farther and farther away simply for the challenge of reaching a far-off station. In 1926, a ham operator was the first person to reach all continents from a field in California, and searching for long-distance stations, a practice known as DXing, was born (Maxwell 3). This love of DXing was quite popular until the advent of World War II in 1939, and all ham operations across the world, except for the United States, ceased during this time, so DXing amongst the nations also ceased (Maxwell 4). The US operators were forbidden in 1940 from contacting foreign countries, and in 1941 when the US was plunged into the war, all ham operations ceased once again (Maxwell 4). At this time, there were over 60,000 people registered as hams in America (Maxwell 4). This directly affected the exchange of QSL cards because without the preceding radio contact, the QSLs would not need to be sent.

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Until the early 1950s, most ham operators used Morse code to communicate via the radio waves due to the high expense of phone transmitters therefore, the QSL cards in this collection are likely all the result of post-Morse code conversation. After WWII, the transmitters “fell within the financial reach of the average hobbyist” (Haring 25). As quickly as 1957, only 5% of hams worked only in code (Haring 25). Despite this, the hams continue to use the Q code, based off of Morse code, to communicate verbally and textually (See Figure 1).

           

In the early 1990’s, ham operators were no longer required to know Morse Code to obtain their license and ham licenses were assigned to over 700,000 US users (Maxwell 6). According to Haring, prior to this time, operators were required to pass a written exam of electronics theory and radio regulations and a hands-on Morse code translation test (ix). With the arrival of the personal computer and the internet, many were worried about the demise of ham radio operations. However, hams have embraced these new electronic digital means of communication along with their love of amateur radio; the PC and the radio go hand-in-hand for the hams as they’ve learned to integrate the radio and the digital (Maxwell 7). The continuation of hams obtaining licenses and the integration of PC usage demonstrates the bonds amongst the hams and their protégés and their ability to adapt to a changing discourse community.

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The effect to the QSL card exchange has been integrated into the computer era, as well. While hams can and still do exchange the physical QSL cards, some operators use electronic transmission of contact to sites such as The Logbook of the World (LoTW) (ARRL “Introducing Logbook of the World). LoTW allows users to exchange and confirm contact information without the use and expense of QSL cards but also without the community building and personalization which comes with the cards. This is not to say that community building is absent between modern hams. With the advent of multitudes of electronic social sites, hams may stay connected via other means. However, the historical and rhetorical value which is shown on the cards in this collection is lost when hams only use electronic contact transmission. For example, the technical information need only be shared on the LoTW for purposes of logging. The added remarks, images of place, and the way the words work in discourse on the QSL cards would be missing.

           

The history of ham radio, DXing, and Morse code establishes the setting for the use of QSL cards, and it was only 20 years after the first wireless communication was successfully transmitted that the first mention of sending QSL postcards occurred. According to Chris Codella, author of the website Ham Radio History: A Century of Amateur Radio – Hams, Organizations, Events, Inventions, in 1916, an operator wrote a letter to QST, an amateur radio magazine, asking why the magazine never wrote about the value of “reception report by postcard” (“Call and Card”). The editor agreed with the operator that sending the postcards was a “great way to keep amateurs in touch with each other and better understand the range of their signals” (Codella, “Call and Card”). The editor's published viewpoint proved prophetic to the ham community; the amateur operators could exchange written information that detailed more than could be exchanged via radio wave. The radio waves could be fleeting, the Morse code hard to understand, and written dialogue and images could establish more of a sender's personality. In addition, if the radio wave was hard to establish again, the operators now had the mailing address with which to communicate with the other.

           

Despite this initial 1916 contact, QST later credited another operator in 1919 with inventing the QSL postcard exchange idea because of his background in image and cartoon design and because he suggested the information each card should comprise (Codella, “Call and Card”). In September 1924, standards were published by a ham operator, Howard S. Pyle, titled "Amateur DX Report Cards" (Codella, "Call and Card"). Pyle called the exchange of QSL cards an “international fad” and claimed that only basic information should appear on the cards: call sign and address, date and time, and the wavelength (Codella, “Call and Card”). Pyle further argued that the use of “lots of colors and flourishes was best left to those with some actual artistic talent, lest ‘you make yourself and your station ridiculous to the fraternity’…and ‘avoid cheapening your card by a display of vaudeville humor’” (Codella, “Call and Card”). As can be seen by the cards in this study, the earliest of which is January 28, 1924 from New Hampshire, this “international fad” turned into a decades-long tradition with operators creativity proudly displayed and exchanged.

 

DXing

           

It’s necessary to include in this study a section on DXing because of its importance to ham radio and QSL card exchange. Despite the over 100 year history of amateur radio, not much has been written by way of scholarship with regards to DXing or QSL cards. Many radio hobbyists have web sites and blogs but these are all mainly focused on the “what?” of ham radio, not so much the “why?” However, Michael Nevradakis wrote “Disembodied Voices and Dislocated Signals: The World of Modern-Day DXing” which focuses on one aspect of ham radio hobby – that of DXing. DXing, searching for long-distance radio waves, isn’t always done with two operators but can be done with one operator searching for a long-distance radio wave in space. Because of this, not all operators who participate in DXing exchange QSL cards. Many do however, and their participation in long-distance radio wave searching is directly related to the ham radio community, contesting, and exchange of information from different countries.

 

Modern-day ham radio enthusiasts practice their hobby for a variety of reasons and the same could be assumed for historical users. Users exhibit an interest in radio and its equipment, communication and community, collecting and competition, and a select few have a sole interest in “capturing” a radio wave from space. These users are referred to as DXers or “distance fiends” and their aim is “to tune in to as many distant radio signals as possible” (Nevradakis 69). DX is a term, like other radio abbreviations borrowed from the radiotelegraph language, which means “distance” (Nevradakis 69).

           

DXing first appeared in the summer of 1924 when the government designated new wavelength bands to amateur users (Codella, "DX Records"). In December of that year, Pennsylvania’s Haverford College’s chess team played a match via amateur radio with a team from Oxford, England. The teams played for 5 ½ hours and eleven moves for each side but decided to finish the game in January (Codella, “DX Records”). This type of interaction is indicative of the social nature of DXing, of the newness of the hobby, and of the wonder of international contact. In fact, on January 24, 1925, my grandfather contacted a ham operator in England as indicated by the QSL card, his earliest international card of the collection.

           

Not all DXers participate in this hobby for the purpose of contacting other hams and some are not registered hams operators themselves. Some are solitary users and use radio equipment to find radio signals on broadcast, citizens and utility bands.  These DXers practice capturing distant radio waves and signals from space, distant radio stations for music, satellites, and TV broadcast stations, and their purpose is not to collect QSL cards but to achieve, literally, far-reaching goals (Nevradakis 70-71). However, as Nevradakis found in his study, many DXers want to know about different countries and their cultures and want to expand their community through the exchange of QSL cards. In fact, as of 2000, there were 500,000 hams who were members of the International Amateur Radio Union and registered to exchange QSL cards (Nevradakis 71). Nevradakis established that those who participated in DXing had a strong sense of community with their own jargon and social networking (68).

 

Postcards

         

Pet Rocks, rubber band bracelets, and baseball cards have nothing on the postcard craze of the early 20th century which is the next piece of the historical puzzle behind QSL cards. Without a brief look into the history of postcards, an understanding of the importance of QSLs to the ham community and to scholarship would be superficial. In fact, it is no coincidence that the time period of the introduction of the QSL card was at the end of The Golden Age of the picture postcard. This Golden Age lasted for two decades and approximately “200 and 300 billion postcards were produced and sold” during the years 1895 and 1920 (Rogan 1), and these decades could also be labeled a “national obsession” when it came to collecting postcards (Lear 78).

 

In “An Entangled Object: The Picture Postcard as Souvenir and Collectible, Exchange and Ritual Communication,” Bjarne Rogan studies the postcard’s Golden Age and its popularity and meaning for the social classes of the time. He writes that the popularity of the collecting and trading of postcards was based upon a “desire for things” and the easy access of the postcard to most population groups (3). Rogan writes of the four factors which helped the postcard to gain such popularity: the aesthetics of the cards, the cards as souvenirs, the cards as collectibles, and the cards as means of communication (4-5). Of these factors, this study focuses on the aesthetics, the collectability, and the communication means as they relate to QSL cards.

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In her article titled “Wishing They Were There: Old Postcards and Library History,” Bernadette Lear argues that despite the popularity of postcards as collectibles, postcards can also be viewed as “artifacts of several national phenomena, including changes in printing technology, postal regulations, forms of communication, popular culture, and travel” (77). These postcard changes can be seen on the QSL cards as well. The earlier cards were rather plain in their pre-printed design but as the years passed, they become more colorful and more complex in their design despite the complaints of the operator written about in Codella's history who felt the cards were an "international fad" ("Call and Card"). It is evident from the cards in the collection that operators designed their cards to display their interests and ethos despite not having any "'actual artistic talent'" (Codella, "Call and Card").

           

Historically and in the peak of The Golden Age of postcards, women were the main collectors and often kept their cards in albums for uses similar to modern-day coffee table books (Rogan 4). The collections were often separated into groups based on “views, landscapes, portraits, and works of art”. However, as men became involved in collecting around 1905, it was seen to take a more “serious” turn. Male collectors were seen to be more organized with their albums and more selective with their cards and in 1906, men outnumbered women collectors by approximately five to one (Rogan 5). Similarly, men in the United States ham radio scene make up approximately 2/3 of the users (F1JXQ “Demographics of americain [sic] amateur radio: Who is US ham radio?”), but statistics aren’t available about the number of people who collect QSL cards. I can assume, from the QSL collection of my grandfather, that most of the collectors were men. The cards indicated that 57 operators had male names, one had a female name, and the other 82 were of unknown gender due to using only a first initial for their first name.

           

Donna Dunnehoo wrote “Amateur Radio QSL Cards: Their Design and Exchange” and found in her interviews of ham operators who collected QSL cards that the collection of cards was similar to the collection of pictures for a family photo album in that the cards “are a permanent record that recalls memories of the past” (22). They are also like family photos in that hams not only collect the cards in albums but can display them in frames, files, and on the walls around their radio equipment. Unlike photos, when hams post the cards on their walls, the walls can become so crowded with QSL’s that it resembles wallpaper, and that is exactly what hams call it when the walls become covered with QSL cards – wallpaper (22).

 

In addition to the albums as collection space, postcard collectors participated in contests which were sponsored by postcard companies. One of the largest card producers was a British company, Raphael Tuck and Sons, and they sponsored three major contests. The first and second contests were for people who collected the largest number of Tuck cards from different postmarks in the span of two years. The third was a contest to see who was the most creative in using their postcards for home decorating. It was not unheard of for collectors to decorate their walls, tables, cupboards, etc. to display their postcards (Rogan 7). These contests seem directly related to QSL contests although the radio competitions were about “collecting” radio stations contacts and the QSLs were the proof, not the goal.

 

Some scholars have drawn parallels between postcard uses in the Golden Age to social media practices today. In his article titled "The Edwardian Social Network,” Guy Atkins relates the photo and text on a card from 1906. The photo is of Ruth Vincent, an actress from England. The text on the reverse is as follows:

            Dear M.

            H & I are going to see “Girl on the Stage’ tonight. Would you care to join   

            us, if so meet us outside P. of W. theatre about 7 o/c. Love to both.

            Yours Meg. (39).

 

Atkins notes that the card was not intended for use as a collectible or as a souvenir but as an immediate message similar to a text or phone call today (39). What is interesting to note is that someone, presumably the receiver, did save the postcard as a collectible, however. Atkins also noted the creases on the card where it was stored in an album, and he also purchased the card in 2003, 97 years after the card was sent (42). In addition, he wrote about the abbreviations and informality of the language which was used (39). The abbreviations could be compared to the code and abbreviations used on QSL cards; however, immediacy, such as that with a text or phone call, would not have been a main goal of QSL exchange. Collecting QSL cards and contests were the main reasons behind exchanging QSLs. The codes used on QSL cards where indicative of the language used by the hams; it was their technical jargon and helped establish the operators firmly within the discourse community.  

           

Now that an understanding of the history of ham radio, QSL cards, and postcards has been established, this essay will delve into the meaning of the QSL cards based upon their images and text, and how they create a discourse community amongst the ham operators. In addition, the QSL cards in this study have been firmly situated into the time period of early ham radio.

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