What? You don’t know anything about QSL Cards?
Well, then you are in good company – neither did we. Until a mail reached us from Scott, based in Wisconsin (USA).
Scott informed us that he has a collection of QSL cards that a few are from a US Army man stationed in the American Occupied Zone during the early 1950s. This would be indicated by the OE13 prefix on the card.
Some of the cards would have reference to a BDN army address, so it could be assumed he was part of the project. Scott attached a few cards showing these details and we were curious to learn more about QSL cards.
Meanwhile we learned that QSL cards are (still) used as “a written confirmation of either a two-way radiocommunication between two amateur radio or citizens band stations; a one-way reception of a signal from an AM radio, FM radio, television or shortwave broadcasting station; or the reception of a two-way radiocommunication by a third party listener. A typical QSL card is the same size and made from the same material as a typical postcard, and most are sent through the mail as such.” (wikipedia)
“Some US Soldiers stationed in postwar Europe continued their amatuer radio activies/hobby in the respective countries while away from home during their off duty time. This occured in the UK, Germany (https://www.qsl.net/da1bt/) , Austria and others. The OE13 prefix appears to be unique to the American Occupation Zone in Austria and as such, desirable to other amateurs to have proof of contact with.” Scott writes in his email.
“We can see in photos 1,2,7,8 that some were very excited to make the contact. In this case, the requestor was a shortwave radio listener in Germany who sent along a postcard and letter of his reception report.“
“In photo 6, these are some other stations in the occupation zone with the OE13 prefix. It looks like the suffix of the callsign is the initials of the operator! I quite literally just figured this out when looking at the names.“
“In photos 3,4 these show the Blue Danube related address. …”
“… same with 5,9.“
Also interesting on the original card Scott “sent a while back with OE13RN on it, that “Ray” was using a war surplus BC-610 transmitter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC-610
Very often postwar, radio amateurs were using war surplus equipment due to low cost and ease of availability.“
“Other operators on these QSL cards appear to be using homemade radio equipment. Also common for this time period.“
Maybe BDN not only was listened by a enthusiastic audience in Austria but also by fond listeners in other distant countries at all. For sure BDN staff was in touch with people from all over the world.
What a serendipity – thanks a lot to Scott for sharing this information with us.