Deluge of Electronic QSLs

I have had a frustrating few weeks, peppered with friends dying, the distraction of major contests, failing (and repairing) equipment, de-"crufting" a new Windows 11 PC for the shack, and absolutely awful weather. Winter has arrived with a vengeance. Another 20 cm of the fluffy white stuff is falling from the sky as I type these words. Tomorrow I'll have to spend an hour or two clearing it. Very pretty but annoying as heck.

This is therefore an opportune time to grouse about a topic that has become increasingly annoying to me and to many others of my acquaintance. I have to purge this now before I must put on a happy face for the rapidly approaching holidays.

I make a lot of QSOs. Really a lot. For example, in the recent CQ WW contests I logged 8000 and 4500  contacts during the SSB and CW weekends, respectively. My LOTW (Logbook of the World) account is well into 6-digits of uploaded QSOs. It is no surprise that I get many more QSL cards than most hams. All are unsolicited.

My QSL policy is strict and, to be clear, many hams find it objectionable. That is not my concern. I do QSL 100% but only by uploading to LOTW. I make this clear on my QRZ.com detailed profile (sign on to view) and whenever I am explicitly asked on air. 

Cards received via the bureau or direct mail get thrown into a box and promptly forgotten. While I appreciate the sentiment there are too many and I feel no obligation to deal with them individually. I haven't even had printed QSL cards to send for close to 30 years.

Yet the influx has grown worse in 2025. Many QSL senders who have themselves realized what a burden it can be just to send cards (which is certainly easier than processing received cards) have resorted to online services that email electronic QSL. Upload your log files, and with a click you can send hundreds or thousands or electronic QSLs.

Just today I received no fewer than 10 cards from one station that worked me on pretty well every band in every contest I entered this fall. This has descended to the level of spam or telemarketing calls and scams, and the old standby: junk mail.

Many of these QSL services have an opt-out policy to cease these mailings. A few hams have told me that they've tried to opt out and the email deluge continues. They complain, yet the unwanted email continues to fill their inboxes.

I am not so polite. I was never asked to opt in so I feel no obligation to opt out. Every new service or sender that emails electronic QSLs to me is put into a filter: they either go to the spam folder or trash, depending on my mood. If enough recipients flag these messages as spam it soon becomes a broad email policy. That means email from those domains is flagged as spam before it reaches us. I consider that acceptable. 

Perhaps you chase operating awards that accept electronic QSLs. Many will not while many sponsors of lesser known awards use the honour principle: they'll believe you if you tell them you've confirmed working the required stations. And, no, I won't seek out and upload my logs to every QSL matching service and award sponsor on the planet.

If you are a user of one or more of electronic QSL services you may be offended by how I treat their emails. I am not alone. I have a blog in which I can easily publish my views while many hams of my acquaintance do as I do but without any public pronouncements. Most of them are contesters like me who also make thousands or tens of thousands of contacts every year. Their received electronic QSLs are silently discarded or filtered.

I know that this article may come across as a rant from an angry old man. What you can't see is the smile on my face. I am caricaturing my attitude to make a point. In truth I'm more amused than annoyed by the matter. Filtering the deluge of electronic QSLs is easy. It's hardly any trouble at all.

The deluge of electronic QSL emails can distract from my on air activity, which is what really matters. If I were to spend more time on bulk QSLs that arrive daily and that I neither need nor want, I am less active. Time is a limited resource. I make my choices accordingly. Others may choose differently, which is their prerogative.