Today, I went to lunch with some high school friends in Detroit. On the way back, we stopped at John K. King Used and Rare Books. This place is a real Detroit institution. Housed in a former glove factory, the store claims to have more than a million used books stashed in closely-spaced bookshelves on four floors.

Just as we were about to leave, I spotted a box near the door labelled, “Ham Radio Cards & Ephemera.” In the box was about 100 QSL cards from the estate of Carlton R. Lindell, W8MNQ, 1250 Eastlawn Ave., Detroit, Mich. Some were blank cards of his, others were cards he received in the late 1930s and 1940.

I found two with callsigns that spell words—VE3ALE and the one above, W5ICE. There are a couple of remarkable things about this card. First, it only cost a penny to send a postcard back in those days. Second, the description for W5ICE’s transmitter and receiver are not model numbers, but actual descriptions of his “rig.” The transmitter used H125 tubes in the final amplifier, while the receiver was an “8 tube super(het).”

Also notice that there’s no line for the mode being used. It was probably assumed that the mode was CW.

It’s been kind of slow lately as far as QSLs from stations whose callsigns spell words. These last two are from special event stations, though. That makes them, well, special.

W0EBB is the callsign of the Kickapoo QRP ARC.

W0EBB is the callsign of the Kickapoo QRP ARC. It was established in 2003 to honor Clarence Drimmel, W0EBB of Atchison Kansas. This club sponsors a winter operating event every third Saturday in February called “Freeze Your Keys”. This event is an outdoor event usually run from a shelter house in Weston Bend State Park which is about 10 miles north and west of Kansas City and just east across the Missouri river from Leavenworth Kansas. This card confirms a contact made during that event.

K0ANT is one of several stations that participated in the Antarctic Activity Week.

K0ANT is one of several stations that participated in the Antarctic Activity Week. Their card reads, “The intent of the AAW special  event is bring worldwide attention to Antarctica and to the international scientific community working to preserve and protect this pristine corner of the Earth, unlocking its secrets, and to share a message of peace.”

I just got home from dinner out with the in-laws, and was pleasantly surprised by the envelope from the QSL bureau. In addition to the batch of European QSLs, the ones below were also in the envelope:

I’m not exactly sure, but I think this is the first cards I’ve gotten from all three countries (even though I may have gotten LOTW QSLs from them.

It pays to be persistent. I worked Ron, KB8NOD, quite a while ago, and sent him a QSL card back then. I recently worked him again and mentioned that I never got a card in return. Well, he said that he’d run out of cards, or something like that. I pushed a little, noting that I had quite a collection now of QSL cards from stations whose callsigns spell words, and really would like to get his because I didn’t have any NODs yet. He said he would check again, to see if he had some squirreled away somewhere.

I got this in the mail yesterday. :) He writes, “This is my last one….I hope you like it.” I really do like it. I think hand-drawn cards like this have a lot of character.

Here are the two latest additions to my collection of QSL cards from stations whose callsigns spell words. These two are good enough to eat!

I worked this station during the PA QSO Party. It was as easy as, well you know…….

I worked W6OAT during the CA QSO Party. He was really booming in on 20m phone. You can see why. I bet his neighbors just love having that tower in their neighborhood!

Here are a couple of recently-received QSLs for my collection of cards from stations whose calls spell words:

Tom, W1EAT writes, “…because W1DRINK is toooooo long!”