[CQ-Contest] ARRL Triple Play Award

[David Gilbert]

 From the latest ARRL Letter:

"The Board voted to create a Triple Play Award. This new award, set to 
be implemented by January 2009, will be given to those amateurs who 
achieve Worked All States (WAS) on voice, CW and digital modes.  All 150 
QSLs must be exclusively via Logbook of The World (LoTW).  Only those 
contacts made after the awards start date will be eligible."

The award itself sounds interesting, but the LoTW requirement makes it 
even more interesting.  I wonder how long (and how many contacts) it 
will take someone to achieve certificate #1.  It's entirely possible to 
work all states on a particular mode in a single weekend contest (K7ZB 
and I have even done it twice as M/S on 160m), but getting all 
confirmations through LoTW sounds quite challenging.  I'm not trying to 
knock LoTW, but at the current hit ratio most users report for the 
system, this seems like less of an operating award and more like a 
recruitment award ... i.e., how effective are you at sending emails 
after the contact and begging folks to upload their logs to LoTW.   
Maybe that was the League's intent.

73,
Dave   AB7E