[HCDX] Item of interest to US-based DXer's and QSL hounds

[Albert Muick <radioresearch_field_operations@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear All,

I saw this in the New York Times, courtesy of rotten.com, and I have to
say it has me completely shocked.  It seems the US Post Office is
essentially bankrupt, and if it defaults on a payment this month (as
expected), it may have to close for the winter!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/business/in-internet-age-postal-service-struggles-to-stay-solvent-and-relevant.html?_r=1

And after all the advertisements on TV stating that they were solely
supported by the sale of stamps, without any funding from the federal
government.  The Postmaster General and Congress are in an emergency
meeting tomorrow to decide what to do about the situation.  Since
Homeland Security is involved with this somehow, I expect any solution
to incorporate a right to rifle our mail without warrants and at will.

This may really be a push for email QSLs and eQSL.cc services!

Another interesting experience I had the other day was attempting to
purchase IRCs.  No one in the Lehigh County, Pennsylvania had them
except the Main Post Office.  They are now at $2.10 each, and they only
had 19 of them.  Initially the guy tried to sell me IRCs that had been
redeemed, as he did not know what they were, until corrected by an
employee with more tenure.  They wound up not being able to sell those
19 to me at all, because they could not get the sales code to work in
their computers!  I finally wound up buying them online from
shop.usps.com and they should arrive tomorrow.

So this is what we've come to!  Time to privatize, like the Deutsche
Post and the Austrian Mail.  Service and customer satisfaction soared
after they privatized.  Our postal employees are mostly grumpy and
unhelpful/unfriendly to boot, at least around here.  If they actually
had to compete for business and earn a living, it might change their
whole attitude.

Tomorrow's emergency session should prove interesting!

73

Al Muick
Whitehall, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
USA
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