I have been pretty busy last two weeks first shiping you the
K1B cards, and than sorting VE QSL bureau backlog made during
my 3 wks vacation.
I have been reading your mail, but did not have chance to respond,
even after seeing couple of misconcepts in your mail. I would
not consider them intentional, rather the result of inadequate
information.
What was the K1B mission in the first place? After the DXpedition
was over, many people were more than pleased with the great
achivement of the team, and expressed their interest in sending
donations AFTER the DXpedition. The number of those requests
increased after the DXpeditions costs were made public ($100K US).
However, many of you did not have the confidence in postal system
and asked me if I can help.
In this sense, the whole action is initiated by YOU, not by
anybody else. The latest on our mind was to condition cards to
donation, as some of you tried to misinterpert.
I usaually never do anything before I think twice. The
Hamvention in Dayton was the opportunity to make details
of the plan, after discussion with all parties involved.
The whole plan was made public in an anouncement that
was published right after Dayton on this and other lists.
We did not expect more than 50 such contributions. However,
your response was ovrwhelming. I received almost 250 donations.
Having long term QSL Bureau experience in handling large
number of QSLs, I made my own records of all cards and donations
that were received, opened each and every letter, and responded
to those who asked for confirmation. This had twofold effect:
To reduce the luggage weight, and to send the list of requests
IN ADVANCE to YT1AD. For those of you who never handled large
volume of mail, such a trivial action as opening the envelope, or
placing the stamp, becomes elaborate taks when done in volume
of hundreds or thousands. Let alone the time spent.
When I arrived to YU, the situation was such that QSL cardis have
arrived from the printer just a day before, and almost none
of 4000 K1B requests was processed, or even the letters opened.
When I came with 250 nicely sorted and opened letters, including
the list sent before my arrival, the choice was obvious: Process
them first. Also the decision was made to process SSB cards to
avoid long time consuming manual transport to Moscow.
In record time all requests have been processed, logs checked,
and to save the tame for Hrane and his team to start processing
another 4000 requests, I took an action to seal the envelopes,
place the stamps, and rubberstamp the return address after my
return to Canada. This action paid off. While I was getting ready
to return in Canada, the team processed another 200 requests
and handed them to me at Belgrade airport, literally minutes
before plane departure. In that sense we can only say 'Hats down'
to such dedication.
Now on this side of the pond the process was pretty streightforward.
Within a day or two all mail was sent, and as per confirmations
seen on this list, many are already received.
The most important of all. In a phone call 20 minutes ago, I have
the latest infrmation on K1B cards progress. 2500 reiquests have been
processed and sent last week (ending July 20), and another 1000
this week. This is in addition of several hundred 3D2CY requests
(received from Z32AU) that are also processed.
I hope this conludes the discussion on this topic on this list.
K1B DXpedition goes into history as one of the gratest DXpeditions
of this kind. Thank you.
73 Nenad VE3EXY
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