Monday, May 13, 2019

1957 QSL card mailed from
France to Frackville



On the heels of last week's 1962 QSL card, here's another from what was once the collection of ham-radio enthusiast Melvin C. Reed of Frackville, Pennsylvania.

Following radio contact, this card was mailed from Camille Faulque (call sign F8NU) at 5 Bd. Victor Hugo, Cholet, France, to Reed, all the way across the pond. As the crow flies, there were about 3,628 miles between their connections (or 14.5% the circumference of Earth).1 The card itself says "C. Faulque" but I got the full first name from the Fall 1957 Radio Amateur Call Book. (Also, Amitiés Camille appears to be written on the card. Amitiés means "Friendship" or "All the best.")

The QSL was mailed with a pair of dark ultramarine Nice stamps, which were originally issued in 1955.

Fun facts about Cholet: Its name probably comes from the Latin word for cabbage, and it is home to numerous megaliths.

Fun facts about Frackville: It's named for early settler Daniel Frack, and this sentence appears on its Wikipedia page at this moment: "Frackville is indeed surrounded by many prisons."

Footnote
1. It would take a cheetah, running at full speed without stops, two days and 22 minutes to run from Cholet to Frackville. If it had a bridge across the Atlantic Ocean. And maybe some Cheetah Snacks.

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