The USA County award has CQ magazine as its sponsor and if you are looking for an award that requires a lot of dedication this is the one for you.
So what is required to gain this coveted award? One contact minimum in all of the 3,076 counties in the United States. You might ask if there is at least one ham in all the counties, the answer to that is probably not.
The best alternative is to work mobile stations passing through many counties on their daily travels, or long trips. This is quite acceptable and has become the norm for the various county hunting nets in operation.
The best known one is 14.336 and it has been the county hunter’s net for many years and has provided many thousands of contacts in those rare counties. This net usually starts up around 1400Z and continues to run most of the day, or until the band dies.
To have a valid contact you must acknowledge your signal report given to you by the mobile station. So how does one confirm the counties and are confirmations needed? The counties are confirmed by the use of mobile reply cards, you fill in the information and send it to the mobile station, if he/she agrees with the information it is signed and returned to you. It is necessary to provide a self addressed stamped envelope as well to the mobile station. Mobile reply cards are available from many sources, so if you really get into this activity those on the net can direct you to the right source. I forgot to mention that the minimum signal report is 3X3 and I understand that it has been lowered to 2X2. Let’s face it that type of report you will not hear much of anything.
The twenty meter gathering is not the only frequency, there are other bands and modes available, if you need the complete list then google county hunter’s net and you will find a lot of information.
Now that you have the idea about mobile reply cards keep in mind that these cards confirm the fact you worked the county claimed. But wait, do you have to send in those cards? No, the county hunter award uses the GCR rule, or General certification Rule by two other amateurs stating that you have in your possession all the counties confirmed you are claiming.
So now let’s cover a few other items regarding county hunting and the number one item is honesty. I first started county hunting on 14.336 and 3.905 Mhz around 1967. I was racking up the counties, but suddenly I lost interest in the project. The main reason were too many faked contacts, yes I call them faked because the fixed station kept guessing at his signal report until he got the right combination.
I have a large antenna system and I can often hear ground wave signals, in fact copying mobile stations on ground wave was not a problem for me. In fact, I could hear both sides of the contact and got the report sent by the mobile station the first time. In many examples of guessing signal reports these persons were not being honest with themselves. I dropped out of county hunting for decades, in fact I was about to throw away my mobile reply cards, but my wife kept them in a shoe box.
About two years ago I found the old shoe box stuffed in a closet, I started totaling up the counties I had and were just a few shy of 2500. Keep in mind the county award is issued in 500 increments with the first level being 500 and so forth.
So after 40 years I began a short quest for some new counties, it did not take me long before I hit 2500 and then 2800. However, I am inactive again on county hunting for another reason. On the new version of the county hunters the net controls do not want any phonetics, personally this is ridiculous since many letters of the alphabet sound alike and are hard to distinguish. So be it, I got 2800 confirmed and it may be some time before I finish the award, if ever. But, I applied for 2500 and this certificate is indeed an example of fine awards and a thoughtful scheme in the art work.
If you do get in to county hunting it will require dedication and many hours of operating, plus the paper work involved. There are books available from CQ listing all the counties in each state, you can use them to check off the ones you worked. I would suggest this purchase they are not that expensive plus they are helpful.
If you have mobile operations you can activate many counties during your course of travel. If you are on the road a lot, well you can make a few people happy. In fact, you can take a mini expedition to a rare county and have lots of contacts indeed.
Back in the 60’s I was mobile and one weekend WB4FBS and I covered 60 counties in Eastern Kentucky. We ran all night on 3.905 and most of the day on 14.336 it was fun and we were both worn out when it was over on Sunday afternoon.
If one takes this slow and easy, say do some county hunting, then something else at a later time. Just depends on you and how much time you want to donate to the cause.
Good hunting in every way, have fun that is what it is all about…
