Emailed cards
When we find an email address for a station on your card, QSL.now sends the card for you. This page covers what the other operator receives, how they can reply or ask not to receive cards, and the limits we put on sending so the service stays welcome in people's inboxes.
Where the address comes from
First from the EMAIL field in your log, and otherwise from the address that station has published on QRZ. We do that lookup for you, so you do not need a QRZ account. The page where you check your card tells you which stations have an address, but it never shows the address itself. If neither gives us an address, the card is still generated and kept for printing, and the batch page tells you which stations were not emailed and why.
What the recipient receives
A short message from a dedicated address at cards.qsl.now. The sender name is your callsign followed by "via QSL.now", and the subject reads "QSL received from", your callsign, and the date, band, and mode of the first contact.
It says QSL RECEIVED at the top, then a table of what you logged: the date, the time in UTC (the clock hams share around the world), the band, the mode, and the signal reports sent and received. If you wrote your own message, it appears as one line under the table. Then there is one button, "Click here to send cards back, for free", which opens QSL.now with your callsign already filled in, so the other station can upload their log and answer you with no account.
Two files ride along, both named with the two callsigns, for example WB4OGQ-to-W1AW.jpg and WB4OGQ-to-W1AW.pdf:
- The picture. A JPEG of the card at 300 dots per inch, 1650 by 1050 pixels for the US card. It opens in any mail program and photo viewer.
- The PDF at real size. One page that is exactly the card, 3.5 by 5.5 inches, or 140 by 90 mm when you chose that size. The other operator prints it at actual size on card stock, or hands the file to a print shop.
We keep the two files under about 1 MB together. On the rare card where they would pass that, only the PDF is attached and the message links to the card's page.
Replies to the email itself go nowhere, and we never put your email address in the message. The way back to you is that button.
The claim link
Every email carries a link to a page for that card. It needs no login. The recipient can view the card at full size, download it, and see who sent it. There is also a button to send their own cards, which is how most people find QSL.now. The page stays up, so a recipient who deletes the email can still fetch the card later.
Opting out
Each email ends with two links. Unsubscribe from your callsign stops cards from you to that address, and cards from other stations still arrive. Unsubscribe from all QSL.now emails stops every QSL.now sender. We also send the standard List-Unsubscribe headers, so a mail program's own unsubscribe button works, and that one stops every sender. Your check page shows "Asked not to receive cards" for any station that has opted out.
Please respect this. If someone has opted out and you still want them to have a card, print it and mail it.
Why contest QSOs are not emailed by default
A QSO with a CONTEST_ID in your log is held back from automatic sending. Contest operators work hundreds or thousands of stations in a weekend, almost all of whom confirm through LoTW and never asked for a card, and a few hundred unrequested emails in one morning is exactly how a sending domain gets blocklisted. So contest rows are generated, printed, and pushed to QRZ and LoTW like any other, but the email box is off. You can tick individual contest QSOs by hand when you know the other operator wants a card, for example a new county or a special event station.
Daily caps
Sending is capped per sender per UTC day: 50 cards for a guest upload and 300 cards for a signed-in account. Cards beyond the cap are not lost. They stay in the batch marked as waiting, and you can send them the next day. If you run a large net or event and need more, write to support@qsl.now and we will raise the cap for your account by hand.
What we never do
We never email a station more than once for the same card, never send to an address that has bounced or opted out, and never add anyone to a list. Each message is a single transactional email about a contact you logged, and that is all it will ever be.