I am by no means a contester. The only thing I get serious about is the 13 Colonies thing around Independence Day, but that's not a contest, just a scavenger hunt. However today, after I accidentally bagged the ARRL prez for a QSO, curiosity was killing the proverbial cat. So I found the Leaderboard website and took a peak.

I'm ranked 13775, 1224 points with 142 QSOs

And, holy crap, the leader has 238882 points with 23742 QSOs

That's dedication. No, hell, that's psycho OCD. I can't even imagine it. All I did was answer the occasional W1AW station just for kicks!

BTW you have to be uploading to LOTW for the Leaderboard to work.

Sometimes the points, are just a byproduct of something else.  A lot of those at the top of the list are contest stations (or individuals who participate in contests), and that is how they manage to rack up so many QSOs. Others (like the current leader) are worth a lot of points, so everyone wants to contact them.  I've probably contacted him a half dozen times, myself.  And still others, are DX stations who are of course popular.  Since I'm only worth one point, I'm not a high valued target.

Back during the first half of the year, Hog Sniper and I were neck and neck in the points standings.  Every time I checked the Leader Board, we were within a few points of each other.  But, he is a QSO machine, and makes many, many more contacts than I do, especially on the digital modes.  So it was inevitable that he would pull away from me, and disappear far off into the lead.  I bet he has 15000 points, or more, by now.

If you sort by the number of contacts, the top three are DXpeditions!

Huh, ranked 9460 with 2526 points and 391 QSOs.

I don't feel like I have been particularly active this year.

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There are a bunch of high point stations on various bands right now, if anyone is interested. I just made several contacts, but my favorite was W1AW/KH6, on 10m CW, with  the K2 and 15 watts.

I found them, but had to give up and go see Santa.

I may get on again tonight.

Using the G5RV only is definitely motivating to get the tower up.

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I started out trying to work each station on every band and mode that I could. Then summer came along and I was hardly operated

This was a great way to get 5BWAS but I let myself down.  

I have 7,045 points.

I really thought this was a great idea and I really had fun with it. But, like I said, when summer rolled around, I got sidetracked and totally fell off the grid.

I wasn't using this to see how high I could score in the Leaderboard, but would have been a great way to accumulate WAS contacts.
I have been a ham for a long time (since 1979 when I was in high school) and up until maybe 4-5 years ago, I never applied for any ham radio award. I decided that in order for ME to consider MYSELF a "real" ham, I wanted to at least be able to honestly say that I had WAS and DXCC. Again, this was for my own personal satisfaction: not to impress other people (which it doesn't do), As I noted in another thread, ham radio is a personal thing, it isn't a spectator sport. So anyway, I had always told myself that I probably had WAS, I had just never bothered to compile the data. I knew I was a long way from DXCC because I had never really tried hard to work DX and when I did, I almost never tried to confirm it. But, when I actually started counting cards, I found out that I didn't have WAS or DXCC and wasn't even particularly close to either one.

So I decided in the coming year to work on getting both. And I almost instantly got caught up in it and I really enjoyed it. Different things motivate different people. I realized long ago that I was goal oriented. When I set a goal and then started working towards it, I was much more enthused with operating ham radio. I got WAS, but then I realized this was only the tip of the iceberg. I could get WAS for individual bands and individual modes. So I started working on that. If I already had WAS on 40 meters CW, and I was working on 15 meters WAS CW and 15 meters was dead; no problem, I could start working on 40 meters WAS Digital or something. There was always something else to work on.

So anyway, this ARRL Centennial thing was right up my alley and I feel bad that I squandered the opportunity to really capitialize on it.

Right now I have: Rank: 10090    Points:2296  QSOs 319

You know, I haven't been an awards chaser, either. To me the hobby is about the equipment and how it performs. It doesn't take a ton of QSOs to do that. But I do upload to LOTW, and I do use DXKeeper for logging, so I just took a peak at the "progress report" that DXKeeper can generate. I have 37 states confirmed in LOTW. Hmmmm...that's just about enough to make me work a little harder to get a basic WAS, although I don't think I'm going to get on any of those "award" nets, but you never can tell!

I have had a fun time with the centennial party as well. I'm not really a contester or award chaser either. I managed to get W1AW WAS (I think anyway. 3 stations still need to upload) and it has really helped me toward triple play with only 4 more slots to fill. Most of the time it has been enjoyable with decent operators.

There is 189,000 participants listed.  I am shooting for the bottom.  

I enjoyed it as well.   Spent time most Tuesday evenings the first half of the year trying to get all of the W1AW/p stations.

I'm around 7750 points with 530ish qso's.

I'm at 12083 points, with 838 QSOs. I got a lot of that earlier this year, when chasing the Triple Play award.

FWIW: I gave out about eight QSOs from W1AW HQ on 30 meters CW during the ARRL Centenial Convention this summer.  
During the tours we were only allowed to operate for 15 minutes. It takes almost that much time to be spotted. So I sat there calling CQ for 10 minutes and then worked the 8 Qs in the last five.

Another FWIW: I visited ARRL HQ a few years ago and operated 20 SSB and worked over 90 people in an hour. It was a lot of fun to be on the receiving end of a pileup. It was also a kick to be using a six element monobander up on a really big tower and an Alpha amp running legal limit. That always helps.




I wonder how close we could come to having a AR15.com WAS award ?  In other words, you work an AR15.com member in all states.
I am sorta new to the ham radio forum here so I have no idea how many states are represented, but it might be fun to consider.
If we don't have an active ham/member in a given state, this would be a good excuse to go portable; and it sounds like a lot of guys on here like to operate portable.

45 points shy and I'll be tied up through this weekend.  ARF 20m QSO party next week!

Dang Kekoa!

I went crazy over the last two days, and  now have more than 15000 points.


I guess I need to get a life.

Damn it... how in the hell did I jump up to 56 points.  I guess a few people finally uploaded to LOTW.  

They were everywhere last night/this morning.

I stayed up waaaay too late.  But it was fun bagging some of the CW stations, sending is doing pretty good, still can't run barefoot/brain-only decode in contests though.

I'm ranked 12942 with 1498 points and 375 QSOs.

I have been having fun as well.  I could care less about the competing part but I have racked up a few more for my WAS award if they ever confirm.  I figure these guys are competing so they will confirm unlike some other people.  

I have a stack of QSL cards to go in the mail box today from it.  

8294 place with 3313 points and 234 QSOs

Haven't really tried much until here of late.

I just can't work them all.

About a week and a half ago, I decided to shoot for the top level award (15000 points) in the ARRL Centennial Points Challenge. I needed another 3000 points, but wasn't sure I could get them in 10 days.  Was I ever wrong.  There are so many high point stations on the air right now, that I can't work them all.

I worked the ARRL president for the third time last night, and because of the different band/mode combinations, I've worked some stations a dozen times or more. They are everywhere.  Once the system gets all caught up, I'm pretty sure I'm pushing 18000 points.

I tried, but I just can't work them all.  I just can't. It's making me nuts.

I need to take a break.

I was way down in the pile and picked up over 3000 points in the past week.

I am at 8433 points as of today and thats is with the Leader Board being behind and not showing all of the points I have worked.

I bet I have picked up another 1000 points just this afternoon