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The DX Century Club,
or DXCC, is an amateur radio operating
award earned by making contacts with licensed
amateur operators in at least 100 "countries"
(i.e. geographic locations listed in the rules
for the award) around the world, many of which
are physically distant from the claimant
(i.e.DX).
The award is granted by (and is a registered
trademark of ) the
American
Radio Relay League (ARRL). Radio amateurs
worldwide are eligible to apply although
applicants from the US, its possessions and
Puerto Rico must be ARRL members. Proof of two
way contacts, either in the form of QSL cards or
online confirmations in the Logbook of The World
(LoTW), must be submitted to and verified by the
ARRL to qualify. Each DXCC award certificate is
dated and individually numbered, and is widely
recognized among the global amateur radio
community as confirmation that the holder is an
accomplished DXer.
As amateur radio grew, achievement awards for
working several distant places were developed.
As early as 1926 the International Amateur Radio
Union started issuing the Worked All Continents
certificate. In 1934 R/9 magazine began the
Worked All Zones award. The ARRL started to
examine the issue in 1932 and, after
considerable work to determine what constitutes
a "country", presented its criteria in 1935.
Although the first DXCC certificates were
awarded in 1937, the award program was suspended
during World War II. When American amateurs
returned to the air on November 15, 1945, the
DXCC award program was re-launched and has
continued ever since.
Most - but not all - entities on the DXCC list
are conventional countries. All have some
definable political or geographical
distinctiveness. For example, although Hawaii is
part of the country called the United States of
America, it counts separately in the DXCC award
program due to its distance from the rest of the
US. The criteria for inclusion or exclusion of
entities from the list have been refined
occasionally during the life of the program.
My Progress
towards a DXCC Award
courtesy of
ARRL LOTW
Confirmed Contacts
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