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WAS most wanted?
23 February 2015 | by This weekend I finally snagged Nevada. Not one of the smallest states in the US, but certainly one that has been elusive to me since getting back into HF in 2013. I had worked a ham in Nevada earlier last year, but my multiple requests for LoTW or a paper card fell into the noise. But this weekend I worked a Nevada station that promised a paper card straight away.
This got me to thinking…with the magic list of DXCC most wanted, is there a WAS most wanted list? I worked every state and received quick confirmations in short order except for Delaware and Nevada. And watching the psk streams go by, I sure see a lot of people asking for NV, and DE. Of course, it depends on where you’re located.
11 Responses to “WAS most wanted?”
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That reminds me of a story. A long time ago, and a thousand miles from where I am now, I was working though the states on 80m CW. I was living at my parents place where we had a full-size 80m dipole cut for the novice band and I figured I’d never have such a good antenna again for a long while, if ever, so I set out to get WAS on 80m CW. I had gotten all of the 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s (Mississippi being the hardest to get, as I recall) 8’s, 9’s, and 0’s. I figured the far west would be the toughest, even though I had a number of states (I seem to recall I’d worked Idaho and Utah and Wyoming) so I set my sights on the east, and I soon had all of the states in the 1 area except Vermont.
At that point, I decided to focus my entire attention on Vermont, at least for a while. For a couple of weeks, I’d spend hours every night with a callbook on my lap, listening for VT stations calling CQ. I’d listen to every QSO in hopes that I could identify one of the station as a VT and maybe get them to work me after they were done. None of this ever worked. I had exactly zero Q’s by the end of the process.
Eventually, I got sick of it, of course, and called CQ just wanting to work somebody and not particular about who. A VT station came back, of course, and I’ve still got the card.
I think I also have had a contact or 2 in Nevada, but since I have gotten in doing HF I have not been serious on getting the QSL’s. I log everything but only have a few QSL “cards” those mainly from eQSL. I have not figured out how to see a QSL “card” from LoTW through DX Suite.
Jeff
The hardest contacts for me living in 2 land is Rhode island,I never ever hear Rhode island.That would be my #1.The next ones would be Delaware, Massachusetts,Washington DC,and Finally the N. and S. Dakota’s.
Tnx 73
My self I am working for W.A.S. 5 band CW, PSK, the elusive one’s for me are NV. SD. I have worked a couple but seems they don’t want to LOTW or E-QSL come on guys LOTW and E-QSL isn’t that hard to do really. No more qsl cards, postage etc. Its easy even a caveman can do it hi.
hello:
my toughest was getting a card from iowa the ham became a sk but the other 2
were ill. and north dakota using 6 mt. i dont do anything but paper qsl cards
For me from 9 land the hardest were Minnesota and South Dakota. I have LoTW from all states other than SD now. I’ve been waiting to get LoTW from SD so I don’t have to get the 1 QSL verified.
@Jonathan – that’s pretty funny! Crazy how that stuff happens!
@Jeff – good to hear you’re using LoTW. You can see confirmed QSOs at the LoTW web page.
@Thomas – I think I snagged RI during the ARRL W1AW events…and every W1AW station did QSL!
@Fred – keep checking hamspots.net for when NV or SD pop up. That’s how I finally nabbed NV!
@Al – FB on getting WAS on 6M! That is quite the feat.
@Roger – I got both of those on PSK. Next stop for me is doing WAS by mode instead of Mixed.
1st off, congrats on WAS [what band?] I completed WAS on 10m ssb last year [took about a year] and I was sort of wondering that same thing, is there a WAS “most wanted” list [per mode/per band]
I don’t know of one BUT, I do know that JT65 has sites, for like meteor scatter and eme [moon bounce] where skeds are set up, and people ask for such and such state there often [but that’s 2 modes only, and those 2 modes are somewhat rare … i do meteor scatter, it’s tough at times finding people to work lol]
I know many groups use email reflectors … perhaps some of us could work together and try to create one? just an idea… if we can’t find one, make one … just a thought!
73 all
~j
ps
i don’t see an option to be notified of follow up comments, i’ll try to remember to check back!
Last year, we had a special prefix – GA- from Jan. 25 until Nov. 31 and I was determined to work WAS with the W1AW portable stations using this prefix. As I was so often QRV, and the prefix was a bit of a magnet, I managed to work WAS with regular stations as well, but was missing DE with a week to go. Finally, I worked a DE station on 10 SSB and he sent me a QSL card direct without me even begging for it! However, he had made a mistake on the card which invalidated it and I had to write to him (enclosing green stamps) and ask for another card. Luckily, he believed in Ham Spirit and quickly sent me back the card, this time with no mistakes.
I can understand people who live in rare states or entities becoming a bit tired with QSL requests, but cannot understand why they just ignore somebody who really needs a confirmation by card or LotW, whatever. Don’t know about you, but it gives me real pleasure to be a ‘new one’ or a ‘needed one’ for someone, and I’m more than pleased to help them confirm it. Maybe it’s because I started off as a 10-year-old SWL 58 years ago and remember all those generous people who answered my QSLs with bureau or direct QSLs even though I had no money to pay for their stamps.
I try desperately not to think that the hobby was more gentlemanly-like decades ago, but it’s getting harder as the years go by!
@Jason – This is WAS mixed mode mixed band….about as basic as you can get! Next up is focusing on a band or mode…I can’t decide which.
@Colin – Cool story about the GA prefix! It pains me to hear people complain about LoTW. Once you set it up, it runs very nicely. It isn’t simple, and you have to follow the instructions exactly. Done right, with computer aided logging, LoTW runs such that paper cards are seldom needed. New generations of hams like instant confirmation through electronic logging, and simple award submissions.
Cool cool Mike!
I am going to post a link to this article on some google plus communities … to see if anybody has more info.
let’s assume nobody does have a list … if that is the case, if some are willing to help me, I will be willing to help create a list. I will even go so far as to volunteer a page on my ham radio club’s website [ http://www.w7ghj.org ] for the list! [ I pay for the site, and I am also the web admin, so I can make that decision by myself lol]
73 all
~J [ ke7tdy ]