This weekends WPX CW contests is fast approaching. As usual I’ll be hoping that there are a few new ones to work. This year though I also have another objective in mind.
I have been reviewing my Logbook of The World (LoTW) confirmations and in so doing I have drawn up a shortlist of 20 of those countries I have worked but where I still need a LoTW QSL. Many of these are countries I should have no trouble working and none of them are particularly rare.
Algeria, Argentina, Azores, Belgium, Ceuta & Melilla, Crete, Gibraltar, Greenland, Ireland, Japan, Jersey, Macedonia, Malta, Northern Ireland, Senegal, Slovakia, Svalbard, Tunisia, Turkey, Wales
Some of these would usually be overlooked as I tune the bands looking for more exotic DX. Not so this time - if I can snag 15 of those 20 I will have the required 100 LoTW confirmations to submit my CW DXCC application.
The trick now of course is to work as many stations as possible from each of those countries in the hope that at least one from each country uses LoTW.
Dean Amateur Radio contest, CW, DXCC, LoTW, WPX
First things first - I’m not by nature an award chaser. However, entry to the DX Century Club (DXCC) is something I’ve had in mind ever since I was first licensed. It’s the award that most hams will identify with as being the one to work toward.
There are various DXCC awards for the common modes of operation and for stations contacted on any of the individual amateur bands but the most basic of all is the ‘mixed’ award for confirmed contacts with 100 stations across all bands and all modes.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, a few days ago I applied for the DXCC mixed award and the DXCC 20m award…through the ARRL Logbook of The World. I’ve been a LoTW user for about 4 years now and I used only LoTW confirmations when applying for the awards. This is a lot easier than submitting precious QSL cards for checking. Payment is all done online and I hope to receive the certificates before too long.
All being well I’ll soon be in a position to apply for my DXCC RTTY (currently 84 confirmed on LoTW) but beyond that I need to work hard at increasing my CW and SSB totals (currently 80 and 65 respectively). Time to hit the bands and make some contacts! CQ de G0RIF…
Dean Amateur Radio ARRL, CW, DXCC, LoTW, QSL, RTTY, SSB
It is always nice to receive QSL cards and the beauty of the bureau system is that you get a lot of cards delivered all at once. It’s great to then look back through the log and remember some of those contacts.
Many contacts can be short & sweet though - this is the case with contest or special event stations who are intent on logging as many contacts as possible as quickly as possible. The cards shown here from OE2008A and HB2008VC are from two such special event stations setup to celebrate the Euro 2008 football tournament co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland. There were many such stations and I received over 30 of their cards in my most recent delivery, a mix of Swiss and Austrian stations for SSB, CW and RTTY contacts.
a selection of the more colourful QSL cards received from the bureau
Here (bottom right) you can also see the card received from Peruvian station OA4WW, this means that of 168 countries logged I now have 151 of them confirmed by paper QSL (rather than some electronic form such as LOTW or eQSL).
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures bureau, CW, Euro 2008, G0RIF, LoTW, QSL, RTTY, SSB