Send a Message...

Would you rather send birthday cards instead of an email or social media birthday greeting?  Perhaps a note to congratulate a graduate, baseball champions, or new parents?  What about a quick note of thanks?

Increasing postage rates (now $0.46 for 1st Class Mail, $0.33 for postcards) take the nostalgia out of old-fashioned mail service, when Facebook and other social media, along with email, are free and instantaneous. 

But what about another alternative that offers some of the simplicity of mail or telegrams, but at the same price (free!) of email or instant messages?  Would you take advantage of that?

Amateur radio operators across the country send and receive messages just like we described.  They do it as a free service, too!  A simple, twenty-five-word telegram-like message, called a "Radiogram" can be drafted and sent to your friends or loved ones.  Amateur operators offer the service as a means to maintain proficiency in communications skills that are vital for use in disaster communications.  Generally, messages can be relayed across the continental United States in one to two days, passing from one amateur operator to another, until they reach their final destination.  While it's slow than electronic communications, it's faster than the US Mail in most cases, and above all, it's completely free to you.

If you'd like to bring a smile to your friend's face with an old-style radiogram, K5JAW offers two ways for you to draft and send a Radiogram.  First, you can click the "Send a Radiogram" button in the bar at the top of the blog page, or you can click this link to reach the same page.   Fill in all the required information, then scroll down and hit "Submit" only once.  K5JAW will be notified and will send your message at the earliest possible convenience.  Alternatively, you can send an email to jim (at) k5jaw dot com.  Please include the name, address, and phone number of the message recipient, your name and contact information (phone and/or email), and the short message you'd like to send.  There is a 25-word limit, and punctuation (periods, question marks, etc) count as a word.  K5JAW will format the message properly, and reserves the right to truncate parts of the message without changing the overall meaning, so that it will fit the proper format.  If that is not possible, we'll contact you to work out a better message plan.

If your message is time sensitive (birthdays, etc), please send it to us several days in advance, so that there will be adequate time for it to be delivered.

We've received great feedback from Radiogram recipients.  Many were surprised the service even existed.  Most all enjoyed the quaint aspect of the service as well.  Give it a try!