Amateur Radio Stamp Collecting

Amateur radio is a great activity for our stay-at-home times. Yet another option is stamp collecting!

I’ve been interested in stamp collecting since sometime in the 1950s when I saw an advertisement in Boys’ Life Magazine for hundreds of stamps for a dollar. The stamps arrived and I started sifting them into countries as well as pasting them into an album.

Just like amateur radio, stamp collecting took a back seat during my career building days. But it eventually came back. Plus, it came back with an amateur radio flavor.

Not satisfied with just stamps, I elected to collect first day covers. These are the envelopes and stamps issued on the first day of issue of a new stamp. The artwork on the envelope is the big attraction for me.

I started out with the 1964 USA stamp commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the ARRL. I wrote about this in my blog post from 2011 titled Stamp Collecting. Click the link to see what my collection looked like at the time.

I’ve also added a few supporting documents like the poster shown in the post office, the program for the first day of issue ceremony in Alaska, along with an information card about the stamp and amateur radio.

I’ve also been adding first-day-covers from several nations, all commemorating amateur radio. Not sure I’ll ever get to DXCC in amateur radio stamps, but it’s fun to collect them.

Here are a few photos of several stamps currently in my collection. Click on the images for larger versions.

Stamp collecting — a good stay-at-home activity.