Worked All States (ERC)

Working an Amateur Radio station in all 50 States of the US is an achievement that can be obtained using stations of all capabilities. There’s a reason why the American Radio Relay League‘s Worked All States Award is one of the most popular operating awards around. But there are similar synonym awards for the same […]

DX Country Award

The ARRL’s DX Century Club (DXCC) award is Amateur Radio’s most sought after operating award. But applying for it can be a bit pricy. The Croatian Digital Group offers a cheaper award synonym called the DX Country Award. How much cheaper? The award is entirely free! Like DXCC, the DX Country Award uses DXCC “countries”. […]

Worked All Continents (FT4DMC)

The Worked All Continents award is a relatively easy first time certificate for Hams to chase. The International Amateur Radio Union‘s WAC award serves this purpose well. There is a digital version of the award, but what if you want to fine tune your efforts even more? The FT4 Digital Mode Club‘s (FT4DMC) Worked All […]

January 2024 QSL Card Inbox

January started off slow, but things picked up with several individual cards showing up in the mail. Then my first batch of bureau cards in some time. I also got word that I have an additional 80 QSL Cards at the bureau waiting to be mailed to me. The Columbian Island of San Andres lies […]

60M Award Hunting

WPX Mixed Award

The Amateur Radio 60M band is an odd creature. Unlike every other band, 60M is channelized into 5 discrete buckets. This limits the flexibility Hams enjoy on other bands to get the most use out of the spectrum allocated to us. Because of these limitations, groups that sponsor operating contests and even awards have avoided […]

Captain James Cook Award

Captain James Cook was one of the most intrepid explorers of his day. In circumnavigating the world he visited scores of countries. The New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters (NZART) organization offers the Captain James Cook Award for Amateurs who make contacts with those many nations around the world. The award comes in three classes. […]

Country QSO Count Awards

The criteria for this category of award is simple. Work a given number of unique stations in the specified country and you’re eligible for another award to add to your shack. The number of such awards out there is large. Chasing all of them can easily keep you occupied for some time to come. Thankfully, […]

December 2023 QSL Card Inbox

Up through mid-December, things were a bit slow on the QSL Card Inbox. But I received a number of interesting cards as Christmas approached. In the end, it’s been a productive couple of months at KA5WSS. This card confirms contacts with 9Q1AA in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It confirms QSOs on 15M and […]

Triple Play Award

The American Radio Relay League‘s (ARRL) Worked All States Award is perhaps the most prestigious and sought after domestic award. Working all 50 states of the United States is no small feat. It’s even more of a challenge when Hams outside of the US attempt it. The WAS program is rich with enhancements for working […]

Worked Different Amateur Radio – Brazil

Brazil is South America’s largest country. It also has the largest number of licensed Radio Amateurs at 32,000. Working all Brazilian states is somewhat tough since many states are not heavily populated. There is an easier way to get started collecting Brazilian awards. The European ROS Club issues the Worked Different Amateur Radio – Brazil […]