You do not need a beam and an amplifier to chase awards. Some of the most satisfying programs are domestic, and a modest station can finish them.
WAS — Worked All States
Confirmed contacts with all 50 states. Administered by the ARRL, tracked automatically in Logbook of The World, and available with endorsements for single bands, single modes, QRP, and other variations.
The practical difficulties are not what beginners expect:
- The nearby states are the hard ones. On 20 m at midday your neighbors are inside the skip zone
- The empty states are hard for population reasons — Wyoming, North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont,
- State QSO parties are the shortcut. Every state runs one; during it, stations from that state
- Triple Play WAS requires all 50 states on each of phone, CW and digital, confirmed through LoTW
and simply not audible. Work them on 40 m and 80 m in the evening, or on 6 m during sporadic-E.
Rhode Island and Alaska take patience or a QSO party.
are calling CQ all weekend and want your contact. A year of QSO parties will finish WAS.
only.
County hunting
There are 3,077 counties, and a community devoted to working all of them (USA-CA, administered through CQ). County hunters coordinate on 20 m and 40 m nets, and mobile operators drive to rare counties and run them — sometimes announcing which county line they are parked on so a single contact counts for two.
It is a long game, it has its own vocabulary and its own nets, and the people in it are unfailingly helpful to newcomers. If you drive across a rural state, announcing your county on the road makes you briefly very popular.
Other domestic programs
- WAC (Worked All Continents) — six continents, achievable in a weekend of decent conditions.
- POTA and SOTA — parks and summits, with awards for both activators and hunters, and the fastest
- Grid chasing on VHF — VUCC counts grid squares, and 6 m sporadic-E season in early summer will
- ARRL Centennial-style and anniversary events, W1AW portable operations, and the many
- State and club awards — most states have a "worked all counties in this state" or bicentennial
growing activity in the hobby. See parks and summits.
hand you dozens.
special event stations that issue certificates.
award; your state club council is the place to ask. See resources by state.
Working the awards, not chasing them
The habit that finishes domestic awards is simple: log everything, upload after every session, and check what is missing before you sit down. LoTW will tell you that you need Wyoming; then you look for the Wyoming QSO party rather than tuning aimlessly.