иконографияКартиниOn 07/09/11 I reached a major milestone in my ham radio career.  On that day I received word that my latest submission to the ARRL DXCC program had been accepted.  This application was my final step in receiving 5-Band DXCC (5BDXCC) which means I have contacted, and confirmed via QSL cards,  100 or more countries on five different amateur radio frequency bands.

This is the culmination of an effort I started over 30 years ago and something I am very proud of.  As of the above date I have the following totals: 103 countries on 80 meters, 109 on 40m, 167 on 20m, 164 on 15m and 118 on 10m.  Here is the 5BDXCC certificate I received today.

In addition to the 5BDXCC I also received endorsements on my CW (Morse code) and Mixed (CW+Voice) DXCC totals which brings me to 325 and 329 countries respectively.  Currently the DXCC program recognizes 341 ‘countries’ and when I have worked all but 9 of them I will be eligible for the DXCC Honor Roll !

In addition to the certificate shown above, the ARRL offers an optional plaque for this award.  I ordered one and it arrived a couple of days ago.  It really looks great.