Worked all Continents.
As the name suggests this is an award you can easily obtain in the course of your ham activities on the HF bands. This award requires that you have at least one contact in all of the six continents of the world.
So, what are the six continents? North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania they are the valued six.
Since I gained this award many years ago, I used paper cards at the time, you might go that route, or via LOTW for the ARRL issued award. QRZ has the same award, no paper involved, plus E qsl with no paper involved.
Depends on you and the award you want to obtain.
What are the best times and bands for working all continents? You do not have to work them all in one day, it is possible with optimum conditions, but let’s face it propagation for the most part is lousy.
If you live in North America this one should be easy on any band, not a problem. South America there is lots of activity on 14/21/28 mhz just about any time. Gaining confirmations from South America via paper cards, another problem. But, they do come through with paper cards if that is what you want, lots of times the mail gets lost.
Europe, common on any of the bands 160 to ten meters, if you have one that does not respond to qsl requests, work another station.
Africa is more of a challenge, this continent goes in spurts, sometimes African nations will show up on the bands via expeditions. For the most part this continent supports little local activity otherwise. However, you may find South Africa pretty plentiful, plus Madagascar as well. There is regular activity from 3B8 and 389, so your chances are good, take what you can get and be happy.
Asia, this one is pretty easy with all thousands of Japanese stations on the air, activity is just about all bands and with the abundance of Japanese ops confirmation is not a problem. Other countries in Asia might be more difficult to find and qsl chores take a long time to happen. If you are lucky enough to work Asian Expeditions so much the better for you. There is regular activity from Mongolia on twenty meter cw, in the form of JT1AA/5.
Oceania, this one for the most part will be Australia and New Zealand, but lots of other island nations active such as Indonesia, and very often Eastern Kiribati T32.
Some of the best times to gain all continents is during the DX contests, ARRL and CQ worldwide. Look for those rare African nations if you are in the eastern half of North America in the afternoon. Check for Asia from about 4 pm local time till around 8 PM. Oceania usually makes it in the later evening stations from VK/ZL build up very strongly. Also, you have a chance early in the morning on 40 meters.
This award can be issued as mixed modes, CW, SSB, or digital, requirements are the same at least one contact from each of the six continents. Now before someone notices this award is issued from the ARRL via the International Amateur Radio Union. IARU, but you apply via the ARRL. If you prefer the ARRL award, paper cards, or LOTW are accepted. If you go the paperless route via QRZ, or EQSL, nothing more then matched contacts are needed.
We wish you good luck with your pursuit, have fun and enjoy the challenge.
