W1AW/p Centenary WAS

Earlier this month the VA3/VE3 incoming QSL bureau notified me that I had a lot of cards to be mailed out and to please sends funds since this would blow through my previous deposit. I was a little surprised by this influx of cards since it seemed unusual. Nevertheless I forwarded the funds and my mailbox was soon filled by several heavy envelopes.

More than half of the cards were for the 2014 ARRL centenary celebration stations W1AW/p operating from every US state and overseas territories. I guess they had lots of cards printed and decided to confirm every QSO, even without any requests.

I do not as a rule apply for operating awards of any kind, not even DXCC, being happy to have worked the stations I want to work without requiring any more paper. This is why I was pleased to sign up for LOTW to escape paperwork, and especially unwanted task of filling out QSL cards.

Nevertheless my curiosity was piqued. In 2014 I was operating QRP with my KX3 and for the most part using simple wire antennas. I was certain I had worked all 50 states worth of W1AW/p stations just by habit of jumping in when I stumbled across them. It seems that being a DXer I am loathe to bypass any pile-up!

And so it seems I did indeed work all 50 states. Now they're confirmed (many twice) as well as most of the overseas territories. No, I am not curious enough to break it down by band! But I do know it was all CW.

Although the award itself does not interest me these cards make a nice memento. Kudos to ARRL for doing this.