6m WAS - Worked All States Award
I have achieved the 6m WAS in 2022 with 49 states confirmed in LoTW and luckily I found an old 6m paper card from Nebraska. Nebraska was the only state I had not confirmed in LoTW in 2022. On Oct 31, 2024 I worked N0LWF and have NE also cfmd in LoTW.
My WAS application was completed on Sept 14th, 2022 with award number #1653.
All my contacts were terrestrial/conventional ionospheric contacts, no EME. Only eleven Europeans have achieved the WAS on six meters so far (www.arrl.org/50-mhz-and-up-was-lists). After some research I believe that only one of them has reached that also by all terrestrial contacts (without EME).
After having worked KL7KY in 2014 I began to chase US states more seriously for my 6m WAS award. It ain't easy and never thought that but it's possible to reach all 50 states from Central Europe once you have Alaska and Hawaii and since we have FT8. FT8 has been a game changer. The never before seen contacts made during the TEP season and Es season have really increased our insight into those propagation modes.
The last new states in the last few years have been:
| 2017 | CA | NV | MN | |||
| 2018 | AZ | NM | ||||
| 2019 | IN | MI | ||||
| 2020 | ND | WI | ||||
| 2021 | IA | DE | ||||
| 2022 | KS | UT | MT | SD | WY | ID |
I was very lucky to reach the last six (less-populated) states in the sporadic-E season 2022 even though we had fewer US openings in 2022 than in 2021. See how long it took (for me) e.g. to work Delaware.
Next goal is the 6m Digital WAS endorsement with 49 states confirmed in LoTW needing AK.
Sporadic-E Season 2022 Summary
I did an accurate analysis of the WSJT-X and JTDX log files and determined the states through QRZ.com XML lookup queries. In 2022 I have had 22,900 decodes from 864 different US stations and 48 (!!) states this year from my station in JN58. And that is amazing.
Area State Decodes Area State Decodes
------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
1 CT Connecticut 817 6 CA California 423 423
1 MA Massachusetts 2095 -------------------------------------
1 ME Maine 1056 7 AZ Arizona 173
1 NH New Hampshire 1841 7 ID Idaho 82
1 RI Rhode Island 310 7 MT Montana 8
1 VT Vermont 82 6201 7 NV Nevada 7
------------------------------------- 7 OR Oregon 120
2 NJ New Jersey 1112 7 UT Utah 5
2 NY New York 1350 2462 7 WA Washington 151
------------------------------------- 7 WY Wyoming 5 551
3 DE Delaware 156 -------------------------------------
3 MD Maryland 1493 8 MI Michigan 127
3 PA Pennsylvania 1458 3107 8 OH Ohio 1070
------------------------------------- 8 WV West Virginia 307 1504
4 AL Alabama 228 -------------------------------------
4 FL Florida 1582 9 IL Illinois 152
4 GA Georgia 1065 9 IN Indiana 31
4 NC North Carolina 758 9 WI Wisconsin 222 405
4 SC South Carolina 863 -------------------------------------
4 KY Kentucky 102 0 CO Colorado 9
4 TN Tennessee 42 0 IA Iowa 137
4 VA Virginia 1158 5798 0 KS Kansas 12
------------------------------------- 0 MN Minnesota 282
5 AR Arkansas 46 0 MO Missouri 105
5 LA Louisiana 211 0 ND North Dakota 73
5 MS Mississippi 288 0 NE Nebraska 0
5 NM New Mexico 0 0 SD South Dakota 9 627
5 OK Oklahoma 148 -------------------------------------
5 TX Texas 1160 1853 KH6 HI Hawaii 34 34
------------------------------------- KL7 AK Alaska 24 24
-------------------------------------
Compared to 2021 it were 33,000 decodes from 1,100 different US stations and 46 states in 2021. But the big difference is W6 and the Pacific Northwest: California 423 decodes vs 55, Oregon 120 vs 0 and Washington 151 vs 9 in 2021. And 405 decodes from W9 vs 5400 in 2021.