Friday, September 07, 2012

Which ham sites would you really miss?

This morning I received an email to warn me my subscription to eQSL.cc will run out next month. Forgetful as I am becoming, I thought that this time I'd better get on and renew it right away before I forget.

The amount asked for Bronze membership is $20.00 US. But if you think that's too much you can pay any amount, even as little as $5. You could probably get away with $1 but surely nobody is that cheap?

Bronze membership is really worth it because it allows you to use your own QSL design. Free members only get a plain text card which is pretty boring.

I'm glad eQSL allows free membership because it's better to have as many hams as possible registered with the system (and hopefully take the steps needed to become Authenticity Guaranteed) even if they don't pay a cent.  According to eQSL nearly 90% of members never donate any money. I'm not very good at mental arithmetic but if every user paid something then the minimum membership fee would be about $2 a year I think.

It's always tempting to freeload, to put off donating until another day, but I think everyone should donate to help keep running the sites they use most.

Here's my list of sites I use most every day and would really miss:
There are a couple of omissions that may surprise you. But those big sites you're thinking of must make enough from advertising to get along without my help. I probably visit them less than once a week, so I wouldn't miss them as much as the sites in my list.

Which ham radio sites would you really miss if they closed tomorrow?

8 comments:

VE9KK said...

Good morning Julian, there are two sites I can come up with....Solar ham propagation site and DX watch. Solar ham is great with up to date propagation and very well run. As for DX watch I like the ability to customize the spotting. I am able to view spots that are only heard in North America. So those to sites I would miss for sure.

Anonymous said...

I don't use any of the sites you mention but I would miss DX Summit, VOACAP Online, NG3K's list of upcomibng DXpeditions, DX World and DX Coffee.

Anonymous said...

Hi Julian, for bronze member on eQSL there is no minimum limit, just any donation in the past 12 months. The sylver one requiers min 30usd. Personaly I'm not a fan of eQSL, I only use it to reply to others who send me QSLs. I have Bronze membership, usually I donate 10usd/year just for the custom QSL card option, as you said, the free ones are very boring.

Dick said...

What would I miss. I'll give you those that I follow and would miss if if they suddenly disappeared.

:Reverse Beacon

:e-QSL

:QRZCQ (I formally resigned from QRZ.com)

:e-ham for the reviews

:Buckmaster callsign listings

I think that is about it.

Oh,the good blogs and you know who you are.

GW0KIG said...

Hi Julian

the blogs, E-QSL (I am also a bronze member), E-Ham and various forums are the sites i would miss most along with QRZ i think.

73 Kevin

Sverre Holm said...

Surprised not see ARRL Logbook of the World on the list, I guess it was waiting for me so I could mention it. It is my main source for QSLs.

G0FTD said...

Southgate ARC.
Reverse beacon.
QSL.NET propagation data collection
ukrepeater.net
wsprnet

SV1GRN said...

Hi Julian,
the most important for me is the LOTW. Why LOTW? Because, LOTW is the qsl method of 21 century. With joining ARRL's LOTW you can forget printing, sending and collecting cards. In the same time you get a paperless shack and you can free your clubs staff from collecting and posting cards hihi.
Ofcourse there is many other importatnt sites such,
DXWATCH
PSKREPORTER etc.
73