Transcript K1OA-Awards-Presenta..

Ham Radio Awards
Scott Ginsburg
K1OA
Why do we chase awards?
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Sense of accomplishment
Hones our operating skills
We like to collect things
We’re competitive (what’s your DXCC
total?)
• We need wall coverings
• It’s downright fun!!!
What can we collect?
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States
Counties
Countries (entities – more on that later)
Continents
Islands
Prefixes
Grid squares
Zones
Etc. etc
What bands do we use?
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All of them
This is mostly an HF activity
80-10m are the meat and potatoes
Maximize the higher bands when the solar
cycle is peaking, maximize the lower bands
when it isn’t
• Good paper on HF propagation http://radio.n0gw.net/radio02.pdf
Worked All States
• Most ham’s first operating award
• Administered by the ARRL (must be a
member)
• Endorsements available for CW, QRP,
single band, EME
• Specialty awards for OSCAR, Digital,
SSTV, 2m, 440, 220, 6m, 160m
• 5BWAS available (80, 40, 20, 15, 10)
Worked All Continents
• Only requires 6 contacts (Africa, Asia,
Europe, North America, Oceania, South
America)
• An IARU award but administered by the
ARRL
• www.iaru.org/wac
DX Century Club (DXCC)
• Premiere operating award of the ARRL
since 1945 (must be a member)
• Basic Mixed award starts with 100
countries, any band or mode
• CW, Phone, Digital, individual band awards
available
• 5BDXCC (80, 40, 20, 15, 10) available with
endorsements for the other bands (must be
current)
DX Century Club (DXCC)
• Countries are more like “entities” – there
are currently 340
• Based on political and geographical criteria
• The list is elastic – entities come and go,
some multiple times – pay attention to
current events!
• Maximum total available are 400 including
deleted (W7KH has 398!)
DX Century Club Honor Roll
• DXCC Honor Roll is achieved by confirming
contacts with (Total-9) entities (331 today) – nice
plaque available
• DXCC Top Of The Honor Roll – work ‘em all! –
even nicer plaque available
• HR or TotHR could take a (near) lifetime to
achieve – don’t miss out on the tough ones,
Antarctic DXpeditions are rare (VK0/H - 2014,
VK0/M, 3Y/B, 3Y/P)
DXCC Challenge
• Tracks current DXCC entities on all bands
• Basic award starts at 1000 (2x 5BDXCC
number of contacts)
• Endorsements for 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000
• Using 160-6m, there are 10x340=3400 total
available entities
• The number one ham (I4EAT) has 3203!
(#1 USA is W4DR with 3171)
Worked All Zones
• Administered by CQ Magazine
• Basic award available for working all 40
zones – mode and single band available
• 5BWAZ award available starting at 150
zones (80, 40, 20, 15, 10)
• About 880 hams worldwide have worked all
200 zones
Islands On The Air (IOTA)
• Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB)
award
• Limited to 1200 total islands defined
• Basic award starts at 100, available in
increments of 100
• Honor Roll achieved at 750 (F9RM is
leader with 1094)
• Many are part of the DXCC list
• Lots of IOTA DXPeditions
Worked All Prefixes (WPX)
• Administered by CQ Magazine
• Basic mixed award available for working
400 different call sign prefixes
• Endorsements in increments of 50
• Honor Roll available for 600 prefixes – call
signs listed in CQ
• 9A2AA is top of the list at >6400 prefixes!
Worked All Counties (USA-CA)
• Administered by CQ Magazine
• 7 award levels starting at 500 in increments of 500
up to 3077 total
• County Hunters net at 14.336 very popular
• Spotting website ch.w6rk.com is useful
• Mobile Reply Coupons (MRC) typically used to
confirm multiple counties from the same op
• About 1200 hams have USA-CA, some have done
it more than once!
CQ DX Field Award
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Administered by CQ Magazine
Grid-based HF award
324 10x20 (lat/lon) degree “Fields”
262 contain land, 54 are all water, 8 are ice with
no land
• Basic award starts at 50 fields, endorsements in
increments of 50 up to 150, 25 up to 300
• Look out for /MM operations
• K2TQC leads mixed totals with 272
CQ DX Marathon
• Administered by CQ Magazine
• CQ DX Countries (348) + CQ Zones (40)
worked in a year
• Starts 0000 UTC Jan 1 and ends 2359 UTC
Dec 31
• Categories based on antennas, power levels
• 2011 Unlimited winner was IK0OZD, 287 +
40 = 327
VHF UHF Century Club
(VUCC)
• ARRL award for working 100 Maidenhead
(2 deg x 1 deg) grid squares
• VHF/UHF bands only (6m and above)
• Endorsements available in increments of 25
for 6m, 2m and satellite contacts; 10 for 220
and 440 MHz; 5 for 900 MHz and above
Getting the QSL Card
• QSL Bureau
– Run by ARRL (must be a member)
– Slow but cost effective
– $12/lb (about 150 cards, $0.08 per card) for
outgoing cards
– W1 incoming bureau is $0.10/envelope plus
postage (run by YCCC, www.w1qsl.org)
– Not all DXCC countries participate (225 total)
Getting the QSL Card
• Direct
– Send/receive via USPS
– Typically include SASE and/or some form of
return postage (green stamps, IRCs, stamps)
– Might need up to $3 in some countries
– IRCs might not be sold by USPS as of 2013!
– Nested Euro airmail envelopes are popular
(William Plum)
– Beware of mail theft – no callsigns on envelope
– Some countries prohibit US dollars (India)
Getting the QSL Card
• QSL Manager
– Volunteers who assume QSL duties for DX
station – can use Direct or Bureau methods
– If direct, same rules apply
– QRZ.com good source of managers
– Potential source of IRCs in the future
– QSL Forwarding Service (WF5E) – bundles
requests
Log Book of the World (LOTW)
• On-line QSL database for electronic
confirmation – managed by ARRL
• Requires digital signature
• confirmations available for WAS, DXCC,
VUCC, WPX - $0.12 per QSO
• www.hb9bza.net/lotw-users-list
• The future of QSLing!
On-line QSL Request Service
(OQRS)
• Enter your QSL data, select delivery via
bureau or direct
• If direct, PayPal used for postage costs (and
a donation)
• Popular with big, costly DXpeditions
Strategies
• Use logging software
• Work contests
– Sweepstakes, State QSO parties for states and counties
– CQ WW, ARRL DX for countries
– CQ WPX for prefixes
• Use DX Packet Cluster (telnet, DX Summit)
• Subscribe to Internet DX bulletins (OPDX,
425DXNews, DXNL)
• Monitor DX websites for announcements (dxworld.net)
• Be on when the DX is on!