The mail lady delivered a small package from ARRL yesterday. It was my DXCC CW certificate. I filed that application online as soon as I crossed the confirmation threshold on February 3rd giving you some idea how long the DXCC desk processing is currently running. Obtaining DXCC CW was the primary objective in my quest for wallpaper that began in earnest in 2022 when I decided I didn’t want to go SK without it on my permanent record. I’ve been a ham since 1977 and have worked a lot of DX without keeping a log. Paper or otherwise. After 45 years in the hobby, I finally began maintaining a proper log, and using LoTW for award credit.

Along the way I picked up DXCC Mixed, DXCC Digital, DXCC 20M, DXCC 15M, DXCC 10M, and now DXCC CW. I have found it interesting that the certificates aren’t all the same. Mixed, Digital, and CW are numbered. So is my 10M certificate, but the 20 and 15 meter paper are not numbered. Seems there is no consistent template?

I’m equally surprised that the CW number is so low. I have always considered DXCC CW to be the penultimate DX achievement and assumed it was more highly coveted. Mine is numbered 25,206 and dated February 3, 2025. Meanwhile, my DXCC Mixed certificate is dated May 26, 2022 and is number 68,103. Obtaining Mixed is obviously easier than DXCC CW so that isn’t too surprising, but I would have guessed considerably more than 25,000 hams would have collected the CW award.

Best I can tell from online images of DX certificates, over the last quarter century the number of DXCC CW awards have grown by about 625 a year.

Certificate and processing fees for these awards aren’t cheap and I know many hams who have the confirmations, but don’t value the actual awards enough to apply for them. Point taken. To each his own. But the way I see it, I have doubtless spent at least $100,000 on ham radio equipment in my lifetime, not counting the expenses from endless weekend trips to Dayton and other related activities. The $150 or so I’ve spent on certificates is ‘spit in the ocean’, even for this retiree.

My original intent was to hang DXCC CW on the wall and end the quest. Now I’m not sure I can so easily quit. While I’ve crossed the minimum requirement to earn a piece of paper, there remain another 230 entities yet to be confirmed. And while I had no interest in the DXCC Challenge award when this all started, I’m now 70% of the way toward the first 1000 needed for the basic award. And here we sit just past the peak of Cycle 25. The quest for DX will continue, although at a more enjoyable pace. I got what I wanted, and now maybe will get a little more.