For you newcomers to the world of ham radio there are numerous opportunities to earn various achievement awards to place on the walls of your shack. I for one when I began my venture in ham radio almost 60 years ago as a Novice op I made the attempt to work all states.
This in my early days of radio was the measuring stick for you as an operator, I have many qsl cards with the letters of WAS plus a pair of numbers. The first example was the states actually worked, the second the number of states confirmed.
How does one accomplish this feat and apply for the first award you may want to display in your shack?
As the name Implies it requires a minimum of at least one qso in all 50 states plus confirming those contacts by one of several methods. So how does one set about to work this venture and once done what is process for applying? The WAS is issued by the ARRL, yes there are other methods in this venture, QRZ.com, EQSL. LOTW. the standard for decades has been the ARRL award. The other two have recently been introduced to ham radio operators and provide other avenues of pursuit.
In order to obtain the WAS award from ARRL some proof of a contact must be submitted, sorry the league does not accept EQSL or QRZ.com, They do accept paper cards and LOTW a service that has emerged for a large number of hams in the last decade.
So how does one set his sights on WAS and what are some suggestions? If you are a casual op you can start out with the lower bands, 160/80/40 due to the propagation of these bands during the evening hours you have the chance to work the states close to your location. The closer states say within a few hundred miles will be more difficult to work on the 20/15/10 band due to the propagation of these bands.
Using the 160/80/40 meter bands you can work the states close to you with ease, yet the states further away from your location may prove rather easy on the higher bands.
What are the easy states to work and what are the hard ones? Let’s break this down by call districts starting with the first district. New Hampshire and Vermont are among the rarer states in the first district. The second district is not that rare, New York and New Jersey have an abundance of hams in both states. However, in the third district Delaware is pretty scarce, I was stuck for about a year in my very first attempt at WAS missing Delaware.
In the fourth district, Florida is an easy state to work, South Carolina may prove a little difficult, plus my own state of Kentucky is one that is often sought. The fifth district has Texas that is the easiest state to work, but New Mexico is somewhat a rare one old Mississippi ranks among the rare ones.
California is the most populated state and finding an op on virtually any band from 160 to 10 meters is not much a challenge. In fact California is the only state in the 6th district! Moving on to the rarer areas of the country, those boys in the seventh district make them selves scarce in several states. The rarest is Wyoming, followed by Idaho, Montana and Nevada, the rest are more populated and have active operators.
West Virginia is among the rarest in the 8th district, it will take some looking for this one, but it is not the rarest of them all. The 9th area is pretty plentiful with Indiana and Illinois, Wisconsin, is plentiful but not that rare, just keep looking.
The zero district has the rarest of them all, North Dakota and South Dakota, Nebraska ranks highly with the rarer states. Hawaii and Alaska are rare on some bands, while numerous on others, for instance Hawaii has little to no activity on six meters. Yet, pretty plentiful on 20/15/10. Alaska is pretty much the same, you just have to be on at the right time and place.
Is there an effective yet quick way to this award? Yes, each year there are two good contests, one is the North American qso party and the other Sweepstakes. Since there are many stations operating during these contests, you can rack up the states pretty quickly in a couple of weekends. In addition to this there are various qsl parties by several states, this is a great opportunity to catch those rare ones and complete your task.
With that we take a look at the rules, pretty simple, work them with in a 100 mile radius of your home location. I have heard some unfounded rumors to the effect that working someone in your own city, or county does not count for credit. To put this to rest, that simply is not true, you can work your next store neighbor if he is a ham on any band, count it for a contact and have credit for WAS.
It has been said in an old Chinese Proverb “ The longest journey starts with the first step” you have to begin somewhere and in order to make Worked All states if has some requirements of you.
Determination, one must have this in order to achieve your goal, no, you do not need a large antenna, full power, or the most expensive rig on the market. You can gain this award in a mixed mode, CW, SSB, Digital, or even on two meters if you can do it.
One suggestion is create a data base on your computer, list all 50 states list call letters, dates, times, bands and state in the data base. Keep this log, so when you do apply for the award you got all the information handy. For now, wish you good luck and may you obtain this award with ease. I completed my WAS in June of 1961. I had a modest station in comparison to my present station. For the next article Five Band WAS, yes it can be easy…
