QRZ is issuing a new award this year to celebrate the United States’ 250th Birthday. To earn this award, one needs to achieve 250 confirmed contacts with United States stations. I learned of this less than a day before the award went live, and immediately thought: I want to get as low a certificate number as possible.

With that goal in mind, I quickly set about tuning up my DX Commander Expedition for the bands I had not yet completed. That process took about two hours, but it was well worth it—now I had a ready-to-go antenna that didn’t require me to constantly disconnect or reconnect links to switch bands.

As it approached 00:00 UTC, the start of the award period, I readied my radios and computer. I figured the best way to rack up contacts quickly would be FT8. Starting on 40m, I made my first contact within minutes and continued operating for the next four hours. After a short break, I had nearly 75 QSOs logged. Later that evening, I resumed and eventually stopped for the night after making my first New Zealand contact.

The next morning, I began on 20m before jumping to 15m and a few other high bands. Eventually, I returned to 20m and tried FT4 for the first time, quickly adding another 40 contacts to my log. As the new UTC day began, I returned to 40m, focusing on FT4 and later switching back to FT8, gaining another 70 contacts.

On the final day of the sprint, I focused primarily on the high bands, especially 15m, before gradually dropping back to 20m and 40m as the day progressed. After 396 contacts over 50 hours, I had finally reached the 250 confirmed contacts required for the award. I submitted my application, and while my goal of being among the very first ten recipients wasn’t met, I was still in the first 25, sitting at certificate number 22.

Now that I’ve achieved the award, the next step is to earn endorsements for as many bands as possible. With a full year to do it, that should be a delightfully manageable task.