Chasing after operating awards is one of my main activities in Amateur Radio. In this category on my site you’ll find descriptions of many awards that I’ve received and how you can go about receiving your own.
The Tropic of Capricorn is an imaginary line of latitude along the surface of the Earth. It lies along the southernmost points where the Sun can appear directly overhead at the time of the December solstice. The FT8 Digital Mode Club (FT8DMC) sponsors the Tropic of Capricorn Award for working Amateur Radio stations in countries through which the line […]
A number of different organizations offer awards for working Amateur Radio stations on all continents of the world. The American Radio Relay League’s WAC award requires just six different contacts. Thus, Continental Awards represent a low barrier to entry for modest home stations, particularly when using modes such as FT8. Interestingly, the definitions concerning what […]
Paolo, IK3GER sponsors a large number of operating awards. Many highlight various aspects of Italian geography and culture. He also offers the My Logbook Diploma for offering evidence of making at least 10 QSOs in a single day. For going the extra mile, you can earn an excellence seal on the certificate by making at […]
Are you looking for another way to incentivize making lots of contacts with Japan on HF? The FT8 Digital Mode Club (FT8DMC) has you covered. You can get your first Worked All Japan Grid Squares Award (WAJGS) by working Japanese stations in at least 25 different grid squares. Three versions of the award, bronze through […]
The Activity Group of Belarus (AGB) offers a large number of Amateur Radio operating awards. Several of their awards are based on the zones of the world created as part of CQ Magazine’s Worked All Zones program. Zone 14 covers much of western Europe. AGB offers up the Zone 14 award for working Ham Radio stations just […]
The European Ros Club issues the Worked Grid Argentina award for working stations in 5 different grid squares that cover Argentina. But there’s much more to the program than just that. You can receive additional awards for every 5 or 10 additional squares up to the maximum, which appears to be 120. That adds up to 13 different certificates. […]
The Tropic of Cancer is an imaginary line of latitude along the surface of the Earth. It lies along the northernmost points where the Sun can appear directly overhead at the time of the June solstice. The FT8 Digital Mode Club (FT8DMC) sponsors the Tropic of Cancer Award for working Amateur Radio stations in countries […]
The FT8 Digital Mode Club (FT8DMC) offers the Worked Oceanian Stations Award (WOSA) for working a given number of stations across the vast Oceanian Continent (Australia plus most Pacific Islands). WOSA can be called a continental award, but could also be termed a Pacific Ocean based award. Some countries on the periphery of the Pacific […]
Maidenhead grid squares are a popular way to divide up a geographic area for VHF/UHF activity and now more commonly via the FT8 digital mode. The FT8 Digital Mode Club sponsors the Worked US Grid Square Award for those operators who contact American stations in at least 25 grid squares. You can chase additional certificates […]
For administrative purposes, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) divides up the world into three different zones. Amateur Radio’s International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) organizes itself along similar lines. These zones consist of: ITU Zone Area 1 Europe (including the part of Russia that lies in Asia) and Africa 2 North America and South America 3 […]