From: "ARRL Letter Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: The ARRL Letter, Vol 21, No 12 Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 19:07:35 -0500
*************** The ARRL Letter Vol. 21, No. 12 March 22, 2002 *************** ARRL's DXCC Desk now is down to days in terms of application turnaround time. It was not long ago that DXCC hopefuls waited in line for more than two months to get their certificates or updates processed. Now, applications are taking approximately one week. "At one time this past year, we were up to nearly a quarter million cards and about 2500 applications," said ARRL Membership Services Manager Wayne Mills, N7NG. "This is a good time to send in your cards!" He chalked up a lot of the earlier activity to the popularity of the DXCC Challenge <http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/listings/index.html#challenge>. According to Mills, the DXCC workload shot up during 2001 by 60% or more over the previous year. The basic ARRL DXCC is awarded to amateurs who submit confirmation for contacts with 100 or more "entities" (formerly called "countries") on the DXCC List <http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/list_1a0.html>. The DXCC Challenge evolved from the work of the DXCC 2000 Committee, which reviewed the DXCC program and recommended some changes. The revised rules that went into effect in 1998 included additional single-band DXCC awards, which have proven very popular in themselves. The DXCC Challenge grew out of that initiative as an overall competitive award for DXCC. At one point, DXCC awards trailed applications by nearly 12 weeks. Mills attributes the much shorter DXCC wait now primarily to the fact that additional staff members were brought aboard last summer. It also has helped that the DXCC Challenge application bulge for 2001 passed through the pipeline as the DXCC "season" ended last September. "We've been able to catch up," Mills said, despite the fact that application volume remains at about the same level as it was during the first quarter of 2001. On a related note, Mills said the DXCC Desk will begin offering the last of the single-band DXCC awards--for 30 meters. An official announcement is pending, but it's expected the new award will debut October 1, 2002. Those planning to participate may send cards now to get a leg up on the new award. -- Jim Reisert AD1C, 7 Charlemont Court, North Chelmsford, MA 01863 USA +978-251-9933, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, http://www.ad1c.com ------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems, etc DX-NEWS http://njdxa.org/dx-news DX-CHAT: http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX NEWS items only, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives http://www.mail-archive.com/dx-news%40pro-usa.net/
