DXCC Card Checking FAQ
The following sets of Questions and Answers are those that I have answered
frequently or are based on personal experiences. A more complete set of FAQs
may be found at the DXCC faq page.
As of April 2007 DXCC Card Checkers may at their discretion check WAS and VUCC cards.
Q) What cards can a DXCC Card Checker check?
A) Checkers can check any card except those from Deleted Entities,
or 160 Meter cards.
NOTE: The 10 year old QSO rule has been waived.
Q) I am going to send my cards to the ARRL for checking do I need
to fill out the Record Sheet,
the back side of the application?
A) No, it is to be filled out only if the cards are to be checked by
a card checker. I would advise filling it
out and keeping as as part of your
records just in case an error is made during the checking
process.
Q) Why do I need do sort the cards by Band and Mode?
A) It helps to speed up the data entry process and helps to reduce
errors during the same process.
Q) Is there any perfered way to sort the cards?
A) No, I perfer the cards to be sorted so that the multiple QSO
cards are at the end. The only
requirement is that the cards
be arranged by band and then modes within bands and multiple
QSO cards to be together.
Q) Modes within Bands, what is meant by that?
A) First separate all cards in to groups based on bands, then sort
each band group into sub-groups
based on mode CW, Phone, and RTTY.
Cards that have multiple QSOs but you are claiming only
one QSO must sorted in this manner.
Q) I have several cards that have multiple QSOs but I do not want
claim credit for all of them on this
submission what do I do?
A) The easiest thing to do is list the QSO or QSOs on a Sticky Note
and stick it on the card.
Q) I have a few cards from the same station but he puts only one
QSO on each card, how do I arrange
these cards?
A) They should be arranged as single QSOs based on Band/Mode.
My database sorts them as
multiple QSO cards and I have not been told that is was incorrect.
Q) My handwritting is terrible may I use a wordprocessor,
spreadsheet, or database report to generate
the Record Sheet?
A) Yes, just a long as the data is arranged in the manner laid out
on the record sheet.
Q) Is it absolutely necessary to use PHONE and not USB, LSB, SSB?
A) No, but to reduce the possibility of data entry errors use PHONE.
Q) Do bands need to be listed as 20M instead of 14MHz or 17M instead
of 18 MHz, etc.?
A) Again no, but remember to reduce data entry errors use 80M, 17M, etc.
Q) I have many PSK QSOs but certificates are awarded for MIXED, PHONE, CW, RTTY,
and SATELLITE. How do I list these contacts?
A) All the digital modes count as RTTY.
Q) What about the date format?
A) It is essential that you follow the format laid out in the
heading of the Record Sheet, day/month/year.
Q) This will be my first DXCC Application and I have only 90 paper
QSLs with 95 QSOs that I would like
to get checked at a hamfest this weekend. Can I submit
these QSOs now and then submit the rest
when I have at least 100 confirmed Entities?
A) No. The DXCC Rules state that the inital DXCC Application
must contain QSOs from at least 100
separate DXCC Entites.
Q) How can I be sure that I have enough confirmed Entities to make my
first DXCC Application?
A) Obtain a current copy of the DXCC Entities List and go through
the cards and if necessary LoTW
QSLs that you are going to submit. As you
go thru your cards check off each Entity that you have
confirmed, only one check mark per entity. When you have finished, count the number of entities
that you have checked off and if the number is 100 or more then you can submit the application.
Do not forget to include a card from your home entity and if you are a US station you may include
cards from Alaska and Hawaii as well.
Q) This will be my first DXCC Application and I have 90 paper
QSLs with 95 QSOs and have another 15
QSLs from the LoTW. Do I have
enough confirmed Entites to make my inital DXCC Application?
A) Yes, as long as you have more than 100 confirmed DXCC Entites. In this
case I would attach
a copy of the LoTW Application to indicate how many additional QSLs you will be claiming and do
not forget to mark the "Check for LoTW QSLs" block on the DXCC application.
Q) You keep refering to Enties but logging programs base everthing
on Prefixes. Why do I put Entitiy
names on the Record Sheets?
A) In some cases there is no official prefix, Spratley Islands, in others the same
prefix is used for more
than one entity, FO, VP8, and still in others more than one prefix is used for the same entity,
Antartica. The Official DXCC listing is kept as a numerical list based on the entity name, which is
also the value of the ADIF DXCC field.
Q) I made my only DXCC submission a year or so ago. I have collected
75 or so new cards. May I
make another DXCC submission now or must
wait until I have 100 new entites?
A) The 100 entity rule applies only to your inital DXCC submission.
After that you may submit only one
card with just one QSO if you wish.
Q) Is there a maximum number of cards that I can submit?
A) Yes, however, a Card Checker may at his discretion wave the rule provided he has time to check the
additional cards. If you want to have a large number of cards, more than 120, it would be a good
idea to check with the person checking cards before hand to see if he will want to check that
number of cards.