This award is modeled after the CQ Magazine WPX Award but tailored for the Straight Key Century Club. The goal is to gather as many unique call-sign prefixes as you can when working other SKCC members.
The basic objective of this award is to encourage more QSOs among the membership. Working for this award will not require the participants to be members of a subgroup of the SKCC membership, like the Tribune awards require. It will require that a member have lots of QSOs with other members especially the newer members and DX members.
An initial award -- SKCC PFX Award Px1 -- is issued when the sum of SKCC numbers exchanged for a set of unique prefixes is greater than 500,000. For each additional 500,000 added to the application, the N in an applicant's PxN endorsement will increase by 1 up to X10. Individual band endorsements for each level will also be awarded.
Endorsements beyond Px10 will be awarded in increments of 5 -- i.e. Px15, Px20, Px25, etc.
A call's prefix consists of the letters and numbers up to and including the last number on the left part of the call as it appears on the operator's station license. Prefixes and suffixes separated by a "/" are ignored.
Examples: AC2C = AC2, N6WK = N6, DU3/W5LFA = W5, 2D0YLX = 2D0, S51AF = S51, K5ZMD/7 = K5, W4/IB4DX=IB4.
Both stations must be members of the SKCC at time of the contact.
Only contacts made on or after Jan. 1, 2013, count toward the SKCC PFX Award. Neither the SKCC Club Call (K9SKC) nor any Special Event Call sign (such as K3Y) will be accepted for credit.
Applicants must use straight keys, sideswipers (cooties), or bugs for the contacts. For details, see the club's policy on approved keying devices here.
PFX credit will be given for any contact where the call appears as the membership-list "callsign" or "other callsign" associated with an SKCC number.
Example 1: You had a QSO with K8JP, SKCC #3171T, prefix = K8. Then, later in the year when he was in Belize, you had a contact with V31JP, SKCC #3171T prefix V31. Both contacts could be used because K8JP and V31JP appear in the membership list under "Callsign" or "Other Callsign" for that SKCC #3171T. These two QSOs would be worth 6342 toward your total.
Example 2: You had a qso with WA0MQS, SKCC 10500 prefix = WA0. Later, he changed his call to AA0AC, SKCC #10500 prefix = AA0. Both contacts could be counted if they were in the membership list under "Callsign" or "Other Callsign" for SKCC #10500. These two QSOs would be worth 21,000 toward your total.
Submit your application form to the award manager: AC2C@skccgroup.com.
The administrators process all applications on a PC. Thus, all data must be entered into a PC before processing can begin. If you maintain a log in ADIF format, there are a variety of logging and award processing programs available from the Files and Download Section. These programs will use your ADIF log file to create error-free application forms for you.
As an alternative, you may use the PFX application form found here.
There is no need to include the prefix with the QSO as the checker will compute the prefix from the call. If you want to include the "prefix," place it in the "state" column and change the heading. Submitting the application with prefixes in alphabetical order would be helpful but not required. The usual rules for valid QSOs apply: call, date, name, skcc number, SPC, and band. When applying for endorsements, all previous PFX QSOs must appear on the application.
If you are unable to submit a computer-readable application, please contact the award administrator before submitting your application to discuss alternatives. Other file formats will not be accepted without discussing them with the administrator, as they are difficult to process.
Be sure to check your applications for duplicate SKCC number/call sign pairs as duplicates do not count. When reporting QSOs, if you have two stations with the same prefix, and you can only use one for that prefix, you'll reach the goal faster by using the one associated with the highest SKCC number. Remember, new members have bigger numbers.
Example: AC2C #2748 and AC2IK #9924 are both prefix AC2 but AC2IK is worth 9924 SKCC points and AC2C is worth only 2748 SKCC points. Only one can be counted for the PFX Award prefix AC2 so you should report AC2IK as the qualifying contact.