I screwed up with this one as well and submitted on the wrong call. But its still valid as it only takes in the Fcalls log. Still not a bad effort for an Fcall really. Shows it can be done with a little CW and SSB.
E-DX 50
Category: Awards
E-Asia Award
Dumb arse did not notice he was logged into the fcall account when applying for this.
E-Oceania Award
There are a whole bunch of new awards now up on EQSL.
3 New Confirmations on LOTW
Found 3 new confirmation on LOTW, San Andres Island, Guadeloupe and Portugal.
WWFF 44 References Activated
This has taken quite some time to achieve. I started this journey late 2014 and now its almost 5 years later and I have gotten there. Award number 103. Not a lot of people have achieved the activators award. 44 contacts in 44 parks can be a bit of work depending on where you live.
WWFF 444 Hunter Certificate
DXCC 100 Finally!!!!!!!
Its taken me just under 5 years to make DXCC 100. Most of these contacts were made low power. Fcall in VK is 10w and I worked about 80 of these on that license. The next 20 took a license upgrade and 20m, FT8, 30w and 9 months to make. Yeah, anyone who says you can make DXCC in a weekend using FT8 is deluded. I worked 67 confirmed in 9 months, not 100 in a weekend. HAHA. Anyway I am pleased to have finally got DXCC 100. WOOO Me.
VKFF Honor Roll 425
ePFX 300
WPX and 3 Endorsements
Its taken me 4 and 1/2 years to qualify for Worked All Prefixes. Mostly this has been achieved using low power. I wouldn’t even call it mostly QRP. Maybe 50% at most. However its all been done with low power. And by low power, im talking less than 50 watts.
For 4 years i was license restricted to 10w SSB and CW and made over 1/2 the contacts. But since upgrading and getting FT8 and other digital modes, mostly I have been running between 20 and 30w.
FT8 has been a game changer for me. I have really upped the contact rate. Like close to 1000 contacts in 6 months and that is not being very active on the bands.
So along with the main WPX award, I qualify for 3 endorsements. WPX Digital Asia, well given that I have been operating almost exclusively on FT8 that one is no surprise. The other 2 are also low hanging fruit , Asia and Oceania. If you cant work everyone in your region there is really something wrong no? LOL.
The only disappointment here is that LOTW wants $50 Usd to process the award. Add in the 3 endorsements and cost will be $100 Usd. Converting to local currency that is $150. That is an extraordinary amount of money to have an award processed. Obviously I am not going to pay that. You would have to be mental in the head to spend that kind of money to have someone rubber stamp your participation award, so that the award manager can rubber stamp your award.
Applying for the award is $12 + postage Usd. Not bad, and reasonable. But, if i wanted the endorsements then that is 4 time $12 + postage. Say about $100 Australian. So in total, I could spend $250 or 1/4 the average weekly wage to get a participation certificate and 3 add on stickers
And they say ham radio is not a rich white mans folly. I mean, come on, that is an extraordinary amount of money for a piece of paper that only has some meaning to me that I have passed some arbitrary number of contacts. Horses arse comes to mind for wasting that much money on a piece of paper.
In a follow up to this, you actually do not have to apply for the award and get extorted by LOTW. You can fill out a spreadsheet and apply directly to CQ Mag and bypass the middle man. Now they might ask you to confirm some certain contacts just to be sure to be sure, but then you are only paying LOTW for a couple of confirmations and thats gotta be better than spending a small fortune on nothing.
So I will probably fill out the spreadsheet and apply for the main award. Being a paper chaser that i am. HEHE
