Awards ladder

Your POTA, SOTA and everyday QSOs are already working toward the classic amateur awards. This page puts them in a sensible order, from the ones a new Technician can finish in a season to the ones that take years, and says what confirmation each one needs.

Independent guide, not affiliated with ARRL, IARU, CQ, AMSAT, MARAC or any program. Award rules belong to their sponsors. Fees and details change, so read the sponsor's page before you apply.

Awards ladder v1.0 · written 2026-10-08 · rules checked as of Oct 2026 · America250 WAS ends Dec 31, 2026

How the files move (Polo, AC Log, TQSL, QRZ, pota.app) is on Award platforms. This page is about which awards to chase.

Step 0: get confirmations flowing

Almost every award below needs confirmed contacts: a QSL card or a match in ARRL's Logbook of The World (LoTW). Most awards here accept LoTW. Award applications may carry fees, so check each sponsor.

• Set up TQSL and a Station Location for home and one for each park or grid you operate from. A park QSO uploaded under your home location confirms the wrong place.
• Upload your full log (not just the POTA file) after every outing.
• Hunters: the activator's upload to pota.app does not put anything in LoTW. You both upload to LoTW for a confirmation.

Steps: Award platforms → LoTW.

The ladder

Step 1: program milestones

POTA, SOTA and WWFF each track your activations and hunts on their own sites. They're the quickest wins and need no QSL cards. Find them under your profile on pota.app, on sotadata.org.uk, and in WWFF Logsearch via wwff.co. Comparison: Programs. Other programs with their own awards (islands, lighthouses, bunkers, lakes) are on the Program atlas.

Step 2: Worked All Continents (WAC)

Work and confirm North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Repeater contacts don't count. There are band and mode endorsements, plus a Five-Band WAC (80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 m). On 20 m FT8 on a good afternoon, you can finish basic WAC in a weekend of hunting. Rules: IARU Operating Awards and the ARRL WAC page.

Step 3: Worked All States (WAS)

From the ARRL WAS rules (checked 2026-10-08):

• Any amateur band except 60 m. DC counts as Maryland.
• No repeaters or other relays. Satellite WAS is its own award.
• Both stations must be land-based: no ships or aircraft.
• US applicants must be ARRL members. Applicants outside the US are exempt.
• Award types: Mixed, Phone, CW, Digital (with FT8, FT4 and other mode endorsements) and RTTY, plus band endorsements and the WAS 5 Band award.

Why it suits POTA: hunting parks hands you activators in rare states every weekend. Activating does too, because hunters in all 50 states call you. Low-population states, plus Alaska and Hawaii, often take longest, and they all have park activators.

America250 WAS (2026 only)

ARRL is running a year-long Worked All States event for America's 250th anniversary, paired with its 2026 Year of the Club (ARRL America250 WAS, checked 2026-10-08):

• Work all 50 states between Jan 1 and Dec 31, 2026.
• Only QSOs uploaded to LoTW count. No cards.
• Endorsements: the W1AW/portable stations in all 50 states, and ARRL-affiliated club call signs in all 50 states.
• You set up a LoTW WAS award account for it. The ARRL page links the steps.

With under three months left in 2026, check your LoTW award account now, see which states are missing, and hunt them. Park activators in those states are your quickest source.

Step 4: Triple Play WAS

All 50 states on voice, CW and digital, confirmed only through LoTW, with QSOs made on or after 0000Z Jan 1, 2009. It's serial-numbered by application time (ARRL Triple Play). Digital is the easy third, voice the middle one, and CW is where most people stall. See the CW chapter.

Step 5: grids (VUCC)

VUCC counts Maidenhead grid squares (2° × 1°) on VHF and up. From the VUCC rules (PDF):

• 100 grids to start on 50 MHz, 144 MHz and satellite. 50 grids on 222 and 432 MHz. 25 grids on 902 and 1296 MHz.
• No repeater contacts, except through satellites on the Satellite award. No crossband except satellite.
• All your contacts must come from locations within 200 km of each other. A grid road trip doesn't help your home VUCC.
• In LoTW, the grid comes from your TQSL Station Location. If you sit on a grid corner you can list up to four grids (ARRL VUCC).

6 m in sporadic-E season (late spring and summer) and FM or linear satellites are the usual paths. See Satellites and Technician HF.

Step 6: DXCC

DXCC needs 100 DXCC entities (countries, roughly) confirmed. From there you can climb to the DXCC Honor Roll or chase the DXCC Challenge (1,000 band-entity points). POTA has a lot of DX activity, so working DX park activators and calling DX hunters from your own activations adds entities. A spotting tool helps: JTAlert and GridTracker flag new ones on FT8.

How to find and work DX (clusters, split, DXpeditions): DXing.

Step 7: CQ awards (WAZ, WPX)

CQ's long-running awards are WAZ (all 40 CQ zones) and WPX (call-sign prefixes). The CQ WAZ program is managed by N4BAA, who took it over in April 2022 (CQ WAZ). WPX is tied to the WPX contest (cqwpx.com). CQ's main site didn't respond to our checker on 2026-10-08, so confirm current WPX award rules and fees with CQ before applying.

Step 8: the 488-grid awards

• FFMA (Fred Fish Memorial Award): all 488 grids in the 48 contiguous states, confirmed on 6 m. Only a small number have ever been issued (ARRL FFMA).
• GridMaster (AMSAT): the same 488 grids worked by satellite, from locations within 200 km of each other, confirmed by QSL or LoTW (AMSAT GridMaster).

Rovers who activate rare grids from parks are how most of these get finished. Your own rare-grid park can help someone else's.

Side track: county hunting

MARAC's USA Counties Award covers all 3,077 counties and does not require QSL or electronic confirmation. Repeater, satellite and phone-patch QSOs don't count. A park QSO counts for the park's county (MARAC USA-CA rules, PDF). More in the Program atlas.

Habits / gotchas / checklist

• One TQSL Station Location per place you operate. Check the grid, state and county before signing.
• Upload the full log to LoTW, not only the POTA export.
• Repeater and internet-linked QSOs don't count toward WAS, WAC, VUCC (except satellite) or DXCC. Simplex and HF do.
• America250 WAS: LoTW-only, 2026 only. Check your award account before Dec 31, 2026.
• Before you send cards or fees, read the sponsor's current rules page.
• Log the satellite name for satellite QSOs (ADIF SAT_NAME, PROP_MODE = SAT) so they land on the right award.