Vintage QSL Cards: Old QSL Gallery

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It is often interesting to see some vintage QSL cards. These old QSLs tell a lot about amateur radio communication in the early days.

From these vintage QSLs it is possible to gain a flavour for the equipment used, the stations; the operating and much more.

QSL card history

It is difficult to verify which was the first QSL card sent. In the old days of radio, many stations used to send hand written confirmations in the form of letters, but there are a few stations that started to use cards. This concept seems to have been invented by a number of people independently at different times.

Possibly the first reference is a card sent in 1916 from 8VX in Buffalo, New York to 3TQ in Philadelphia in the USA. Another instance of a first was in Europe when W.E.F. "Bill" Corsham, 2UV, operating from Harlesden, England first used a QSL card in 1922.

Vintage QSL cards

There are very many old QSL cards that can be seen and often bought.

The selection of vintage QSL cards below comes from a variety of sources, but is able to show aspects of amateur radio in the 20th Century.

Cards to G6YL
Barbara Mary Dunn, G6YL, was the first lady British licensed radio amateur - hence the YL letters in her callsign. She gained her license on 14th April 1927. Some of the vintage QSL cards seen below are dated shortly after this.

QSL card to G2YL
Nelly Corry, G2YL, was another British 'Young lady' or YL operator who was active from the 1930s.

G2YL was the second British YL licensed radio amateur - her station was at Walton-on-the-Hill, in Surrey to the South of London, England.

QSL card from King Hussein of Jordan, JY1
King Hussein of Jordan was the longest reigning in the Middle East - he was King of Jordan for 47 years taking the throne when he was a teenager.

King Hussein was an active radio amateur holding the callsign JY1. One of his, now vintage, QSL cards is shown below.

QSL cards to G3YWX
These are a few cards from the years since I was first licensed in 1969.

  Written by Ian Poole .
  Experienced electronics engineer and author.

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