A sharp-eyed postie has impressed one local resident by delivering a letter with just his name and ‘ham radio call sign’ on it.
Stevie Gillespie received a card from a fellow amateur radio enthusiast in France four days after they spoke to each other on a high frequency station. The card was addressed to Monsieur Stevie Gillespie, his amateur radio call sign, Derry, Irelande du Nord.
Initially Waterside man Stevie didn’t think there was anything strange about the card arriving at his home.
Amateur radio operators often exchange QSL cards to confirm two-way radio contact between stations and it is seen as a courteous thing to do. They represent a ham radio operator’s calling card and they can be particularly collectable if they come from rare countries where there are only a few operators.
Stevie explains that he spoke to Pierre Miet, from the South of France and agreed to send a QSL card. Normally Stevie would then receive an email so he can provide his postal address. “It was only after the card arrived I realised I hadn’t received any email and when I looked at the front noticed that there was no actual address.
“My call sign is not registered anywhere with my postal address, so all I can say is fair play to the postman.” Stevie has been involved with ham radio since 2002 and said there are a number of operators based here in the city.
He has started to wonder whether the postie is involved with ham radio himself and recognised his call sign on the envelope.
The Waterside man has been in touch with Royal Mail to thank the postman for his excellent service. “There was nowhere on the Royal Mail website to send a compliment, so I had to lodge it as a complaint and stress that it wasn’t a complaint!”
The avid Derry City fan also returned a QSL card to Pierre with a picture of the late Ryan McBride on it.
Maybe something that requires looking into ? ? ? Well done that Postie 