[amsat-bb] Re: IRC's to be discontinued

[Kevin Muenzler, WB5RUE]

The last time I walked into my local USPS office and asked for an IRC all I
got were dumb looks and "What's an IRC?"


Kevin Muenzler, WB5RUE
Eagle Creek Observatory
http://www.eaglecreekobservatory.org
Common sense is so rare these days it should be classified as a Super Power



-----Original Message-----
From: amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org] On
Behalf Of John Papay
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2012 11:46 AM
To: amsat-bb at amsat.org
Subject: [amsat-bb] IRC's to be discontinued

The ARRL Letter dated November 8th has an item about the USPS proposing to
discontinue the sale of IRC's here in the United States.  If you are sending
for a QSL card to many countries, the alternative compensation, American
dollar bills, are likely to be stolen by a postal worker.  Your card never
makes it and you don't get one back.  IRC's can only be exchanged for stamps
so the likelihood of them being stolen is lessened.

IRC's are available at usps.com so there is no need to have them stocked or
ordered at a local post office.  It costs literally nothing to have them in
the online store.  If the sale of IRC's is discontinued here in the US, you
will have to buy them from another country.  IRC's must be exchanged for
postage by Universal Postal Union member countries but there is no
requirement that they be sold in member countries.

There is a link in the ARRL Letter that goes to a site where you can file
comments regarding the proposal.  The URL is
http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=USPS-2012-0101-0001

I did that and made the case for retaining them in the usps.com store only.
Please consider doing the same so we don't have to buy them overseas.

73,
John K8YSE  

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