Subject: survey scans to come eventually///ramblings

Hi Jim and all, my ISP has finally told me that they may soon be running fiber-optic
out my way (in the country).  I've been waiting for this for years.  At that point,
I may finally consider sending in scans of a large quantity of surveys.  I have
always been deterred from submitting scans, because they take so long to upload to
the internet with the slowish bit rate I still have here.  I have a huge number of
surveys, and a mere sixteen months from now I will be the first person IN WORLD
HISTORY to have collected surveys **actively** for a half century.  I know of one
guy who has collected longer than I have (starting in 1961), but he has been almost
entirely inactive for 16 or 17 years now.

I have acquired many surveys which are otherwise entirely unknown to the hobby, and
some of it has required persistent, deep, and rather frustrating amounts of digging.
 My focus has always been on surveys before 1960, though I collect them from years
all the way to the end.

I don't know how soon I may start sending in scans.  I hope it's possible before
year's end, though I don't have any idea whether that's possible.  "Soon" can mean
anything between next week, and next year, for all I know.

Two of my most prized additions of late are KPOJ Portland OR from 1957, and
CMBC-690 Havana CUBA from 1958 - both of these found on ebay, and both of them
contained within listings which were incredibly inept and only found via sheer dumb
luck.  Both are worthy of their own little tales.

In December, somebody listed a homemade Elvis Presley scrapbook, which was put
together by a school girl in the Fifties.  Included in his 28 or 30 PHOTOS from the
scrapbook were articles, ticket stubs, an autographed napkin, even some of her
report cards...BUT NOT the surveys from KPOJ and KXL.  (Of the two, KPOJ was by far
the more-wanted one.)  I only found this because one of my ebay searches included
KPOJ specifically - I have THREE call letters specified searches (5 stations each,
for 15 of my most wanted surveys).  I only found it because the seller description
said something like "KPOJ and KXL song listings" and my [KPOJ +4] search caught it.
 His photos included ALMOST EVERYTHING in the scrapbook - other than not including
the KPOJ and KXL photos, I'm not even sure that he failed to photograph ANYTHING
else.  Clearly he considered these surveys to be something even worse than
junk...yes even of less interest than REPORT CARDS.

The CUBA thing was even more inept than the KPOJ listing, if that's at all
possible.  I contacted the seller earlier this year, after noticing that he had a
LOT of original Cuban newspapers, and asking him PLEASE to look out for any radio
station surveys from Cuba from before Castro.  I told him that I would offer at
least $1,000 - and, even more likely $2,000 - for ANY original Cuban survey.  So
what happens about three or four weeks later?  He lists a Cuban survey FOR WHAT IT
IS, and lists it so entirely ineptly that only ONE of my 46 survey-related searches
disclosed it.  In fact it was the "hit list" search I have, which is usually the
most unproductive of ALL my 46 searches.  Even worse, he had it on only a THREE DAY
listing.  I could have so easily missed it, because sometimes I don't get to my
ebays for three days.  Of course I bid on it (I actually think I put down something
ridiculous like $8,000)...and I won it for $26.  This guy could have had $2,000
instead, and I almost missed it entirely because of the totally inept way it was
listed.  Not that I'm complaining, mind y'all, but that was too close for comfort.

AT LEAST he didn't put it up as a BUY IT NOW.  That method is the bane of my ebay
existence.  I'm not aware of anything that I've missed because it was BUY IT NOW,
but it would be very easy for that to cause me to miss something, and the surveys I
need are most likely to be listed by some backwoods seller who only happens to have
some weird survey on hand unlike the other 99.9% of the paper he deals with.

As far as what I'm trying to accomplish with my collecting goals, I consider the
Cuban survey (with traditional Cuba music, not rock and roll) to very possibly be
the best find of my lifetime.

OK, BACK TO THE SCANS TOPIC: Is there a tutorial anywhere about the limitations on
file size and such, and what kind of dpi resolution I should use, etc.?  Is there
an ARSA form that I fill out for each, or any particular place where I send the
scan, etc.?  Is there a type of document it's best to "save as"?  (.jpg and .pdf
and other options exist, I think.)  If/when I'm able to start doing this, I want to
do it right, to cause the fewest problems and incompatibilities as possible.

I'm also thinking that it might be worthwhile having a separate survey section for
surveys which are too complex and/or cumbersome to cross-index all the music on
them into the ARSA database, is that a thought?  I'm thinking, for instance, of old
C&W surveys, or if I decide to scan KPOK 
Scottsdale AZ (from 1958, a Top 25 Easy Listening albums survey!!), or perhaps a
Dominican Republic or Rhodesia survey, etc.  (Yes, I have stuff like this.)  ARSA
members aren't likely to care all that much if a song done by a merengue group from
Santiago de Los Caballeros, D. R. is indexed or not.  I started reading a little
into the Chart Chat archives and I noticed a similar issue coming up about modern
Canadian surveys - if there was a section of stuff not being indexed it would still
allow the surveys to be posted, but without causing loads of grief on those who do
the background documentation.