Keeping Track Of Your E-QSLs

This may be helpful to hams who use the eQSL.cc website. I have come up with an easy way to keep track of my eQSL cards that I have downloaded. I created a folder in My Documents called E-QSLS. Within that folder, I created subfolders for each digital mode plus SSB. Then within those folders, I created subfolders for contests, special events and DXpeditions. See the flow chart below.

FLOW CHART

E-QSLS
|
PSK31-Contests
Special Events
DXPeditions
|
RTTY-Contests
Special Events
| DXpeditions

FELD HELL-Contests
|
Olivia
|
MFSK
|
SSB-Contests
Mobile Contacts
6 Meter Contacts
Special Events

When I save an e-QSL, I save them as JPEG files using the operator’s callsign and the date of the QSO for the filename: W9XYZ 11-13-13 for example. If I happen to work this guy again, I will save it with the date of the next QSO: W9XYZ 12-15-13 for example. If you work someone operating portable such as W9XYZ/4, don’t save it as W9XYZ/4 because the computer will be confused by the slant bar. Instead, save it as W9XYZ-4. When you download e-QSLs, you can choose which file type to save it as. JPEG works the best because it is recognized by many photo processing programs. Picasa works great for storing e-QSLs, too. It is easy to print them out when needed. When at the eQSL.cc website, click on My Profile, then go down to Advanced Features where it says “eQSL Display Format”. There you can choose either JPEG or PNG format.
Speaking of printing e-QSLs, you should remember to print them with a border on them because when you print borderless, the left hand edge gets cropped. Having the border prevents this from happening. It may not show up that way on your computer, but it will when it prints. I usually don’t print stateside eQSLs, but I do print the DX ones. If you don’t want to print them out using your own printer, there is a cheaper alternative….Wal-Mart. Put your e-QSLs on a CD and print them out at the Wal-Mart Photo Center. You can use one of the computer kiosks and have it print in bordered form. I haven’t done this in a while, but it is much cheaper than doing it yourself at home.
As with anything on computers, make sure you have a backup copy on an external hard drive or store it on “the cloud” such as Google Drive or something like that. I make a backup copy of My Documents on a backup hard drive, which includes my eQSL files.
If you find this helpful or if you have other ideas, I would appreciate your input. Post a comment if you like.

73,

John Gercken, AA9UF