Take a grand tour of the United States without ever leaving your operating desk with the SKCC's Worked All States Award! It's open to all members. Many members choose to start with the basic WAS award. Others tackle it with a specific endorsement in mind: single-band, QRP, and WAS-Centurion. Your call.
Here are the basic rules, common to each of the WAS "flavors":
1. An operator must submit and the award manager must approve and publicly proclaim acceptance of an application showing contacts in which the operator has exchanged names and SKCC numbers with another SKCC member in each of the 50 states. Contacts may be made at any time and on any band, including WARC bands.
2. An operator applying for the award must be an SKCC member at the time each qualifying contact is made.
3. All contacts must be made with a straight key, semi-automatic key (bug), or sideswipper (cootie). For details, see the club's policy on approved keying devices here.
Applicants are encouraged to copy the member station's state carefully. The state you hear the member give you may be different from the state listed for that call in the membership data base.
As the name implies, operators can earn a WAS for meeting the above requirements on any individual amateur-radio band. Single-band endorsements also can be applied to each of the following additional endorsements.
To qualify, an applicant must meet the basic requirements using transmitter output power levels of 5 watts or less.
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 can download an award application here.
For questions about the WAS award program or to submit an application, send an email to Mark, NX1K @ was-manager@skccgroup.com
Go for them, folks!