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Alphabet Prefix Award Comments: This is a simpler version of the popular CQ Magazine WPX Award. Time Frame For Qualifying QSO's: January 1, 1990 0000Z through the present Basic Award Premise: Work as many different letter and number combinations taken from the first two characters of a station's callsign. Categories: World (including USA) USA Only Equipment: YOU: Power: QRP Antenna: Simple Wire Antenna by NAQCC standards. HAM YOU WORK: Power: Any Antenna: Any QSOs: Any kind of QSO's count - rag chew, DX, contest, nets, etc. Other: A prefix for our award is the first two characters of a call which can come in three combinations as follows: Letter Number - K0XXX (K0), K3WWP (K3), G3TXF (G3), S59DX (S5), etc. Letter Letter - KB3LFC (KB), DL1IAO (DL), JA3ZOH (JA), etc. Number Letter - 8P9A (8P), 6Y5JA (6Y), 9Q5AR (9Q), etc. There may be special calls that start with Number Number, but these are few and far between and we are not counting them. The two characters may also come from the portable designation of a call providing a regular prefix is used as the designation. The following examples explain this more clearly: DJ9IO / HP3 can be used for either DJ or HP, but not both KL7 / HB9CQF - KL or HB, but not both HI / K3WWP - HI or K3, but not both and so on. Non-prefix type portable designations such as /M, /P, /AM, etc. do not count. By our definitions then, there are the following number of possible combinations: Letter Number - 26x10 = 260 Letter Letter - 26x26 = 676 Number Letter - 10x26 - 260 Total - 1196 Of course not all possible combinations actually exist. For example there are currently no calls (that I am aware of) that begin with the letter Q along with others that I won't list here. If I (K3WWP) ever get time, I may figure an approximate total actually in use. Or if one of you has a boring day with nothing else to do...... (hint). Here in the USA there are the following possibilities: AA-AL - 12 K0-K9, KA-KZ - 36 N0-N9, NA-NZ - 36 W0-W9, WA-WZ - 36 Total - 120 (Anticipating a question - KP, NP, WP, NH, KH, WH, etc. operating from US possessions outside the 50 states are included in the USA award.) To assist in keeping track of the prefixes if you don't have a computer log capable of doing the work, you can download the following text file check lists and print them out. Depending on how your browser is set up, you may have to right click the links and select 'Save as...' to download the files. World #1 World #2 USA Web Site Honor Roll Listing - No Certificate: World - Listed when you reach 200 prefixes. USA - Listed when you reach 50 prefixes. Certificate: World - Issued when you reach 400 prefixes. USA - Issued when you reach 100 prefixes. A certificate sent to you via email is FREE. You may make a monetary donation, only if you wish to do so. There is no obligation to do so. If you want us to print your certificate and send it via regular mail, the fee is $3.00 per certificate. Endorsements: No true endorsements, but you may regularly update you listing totals on the web site 'Honor Roll'. Please do so reasonably and not each time you work just a few new prefixes. Logs: No logs required for this award. We're putting you on your honor. See General Award Rules for information applying to this and all other awards. |