In 2000, DXCC program rules were modified substantially in an effort to create simplified and stronger rules that would help make DXCC work well in the 21st century while tightening the DXCC List Criteria. At the same time the DXCC Challenge Award/competition was created as part of the modernization effort. The Challenge is intended to allow for an energetic new pursuit in DXing that focuses on statistics based upon only current entities on the List. The Challenge has been highly successful.

Another change resulting from this rules modernization was a subtle change from "deleting entities" to "removing entities." The intent of this change was to no longer allow the addition of deleted entities to the Deleted Entity List. In the subsequent years since DXCC 2000 there have been few issues with this concept and resultant little attention given to the realities of the ideological change. Recently, however, since the rollout of Logbook of the World (LoTW) and various political changes internationally, it has become evident that the program should return the concept of deleting entities for mostly administrative reasons. "Removing" an entity from the DXCC system is non-trivial if not impossible. Also, the success of the DXCC Challenge and the DXCC Honor Roll have made a great game better by providing a playing field that isn't heavily biased by age.

It seems that the concept of a "deleted" entity -- one that is marked as deleted and not applicable to Honor Roll or Challenge but that still exists in the records -- is an elegant solution to the problem of changes in entity status. Distinguishing entities that are no longer extant makes sense as a means of leveling the playing field for younger participants in DXCC, but to wipe out someone's past accomplishments altogether just seems too drastic.

At its last meeting the ARRL Programs and Services Committee decided that administratively the concept of deleted entities should be returned to the DXCC program. Necessary changes to Section II, DXCC List Criteria have been made to the rules and part 5 is renamed Deletion Criteria. The concepts for deleting an entity do not change. If an entity is deleted it will be added to the Deleted Entities List and the statistical records for DXCC participants will be adjusted accordingly, just as they had been in the years prior to 2000. The numbers shown in the individual DXCC records lists have always included the Deleted Entities. No DXCC participant needs to take any action at all.

In order to better accommodate new users as well as existing account holders, ARRL's Logbook of The World (LoTW) has been updated. According to ARRL Membership and Volunteer Programs Assistant Manager Norm Fusaro, W3IZ, these improvements were made based on tracking Manager LoTW help questions and listening to users.

"Through the efforts of Membership and Volunteer Services Dave Patton and Information Technology Manager Jon Bloom, we have also added an automated results table on the LoTW Users Home Page that lists members in numeric order who have achieved the Triple Play Award," said ARRL Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B. "IT personnel have also fixed a number of longstanding issues with Logbook in recent weeks, and some additional enhancements are underway."

Some things that have been added:

An LoTW User's Corner that includes quick links to log onto your account, save or renew a certificate and ways to address PC failure.

The GET STARTED section has been simplified with links for each of the four steps in the certificate process.

LoTW instructions are now available in nine languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Russian, Slovenian and Spanish. Options to select a language have always been available, but they have now been moved up front to the GET STARTED page. The languages are identified with icons of flags to represent each language.

The GET STARTED pdf file has been updated to include new screenshots and refinement of some of the processes.

The software download section now consists of only three icons representing the three operating systems for which software is available: Windows, Mac and Linux. The user simply selects their operating system and they are redirected to the download specific to their system.

A new link has been added for QSL Manager, Club Calls and DXpeditions. This link gives details on establishing an account for these special operations and includes a section for 1×1 call signs.

A new PowerPoint overview is available from the LoTW site. This presentation has also been added to our multimedia library. The program is an overview of LoTW and what users can expect from the service. There are screenshots of LoTW pages, as well as a condensed version of the certificate and award application process.

With more than 200 million QSOs submitted, ARRL's Logbook of The World system is a repository of log records submitted by users from around the world. When both participants in a QSO submit matching QSO records to LoTW, the result is a QSL that can be used for ARRL award credit. Yaesu is the principal sponsor of the LoTW Web site.

A change has been made to the DXCC Blog page. Since all awards come under 'Century Club Awards' the new title is Century Club Awards Weblog.

This new heading encompases all ARRL awards rather than just DXCC, to also include WAS, VUCC, WAC (IARU), and other certificate programs.

The old link still works but it will no longer take you directly to this page, it will first bring you to the general page where other weblog links are found. (Century Club Awards will be in the list)

If you have this page bookmarked, or, if you have a link to this site via your web page, here is the new link that will take you directly to the new location:

http://www.arrl.org/blog/Century%20Club%20Awards

If you have a desktop icon simply highlight the above link. Click CTRL-C (to copy). Right click on your desktop icon then click properties. Highlight the old URL then click CTRL-V (paste). Click apply in the lower right corner and it should work now.

73 es DX!

Bill Moore NC1L
ARRL Awards Manager

Some users may have noticed that their WAS totals have changed or have completely gone away. On Jan 1, 2009 LoTW refreshed all WAS accounts to accommodate the new Triple Play award. Your Triple Play record is shown as a sub award in your WAS account just as band and mode sub-awards are shown.

If your account had no QSO rules then the system had no way of applying your QSO credits.

This is easily fixed by adding a rule to your WAS account. All WAS accounts must have at least one rule.

To add a rule to your WAS account simply access your WAS account then select 'MODIFY ACCOUNT'. Follow these steps to complete the process:

Click 'Add Rule To QSO Set'

Next, select the type of rule you want to apply. Drop the box down, make your selection then click 'Add Rule'

(Next it may ask you here to select a callsign if you have more than one account. If so, select the callsign you want to change).

If there is only one callsign in the account the next screen will say 'Save Account Changes'

Click this and your account should be OK now.

Note, if you feed more than one WAS account for different locations you must do this for each account.

Some accounts are very simple and will only require a callsign rule. Other accounts may be more complex requiring multiple rules to accommodate your operations. WAS accounts can be configured to automatically select those of your QSOs that both qualify for a WAS award and also match a set of rules you specify. A QSO Set is a list of rules that define QSOs that will be matched. Your account can include more than one QSO Set if needed to encompass all of your QSOs that are eligible for the awards.

The rules that make up a QSO Set each compare the value of a field related to the QSO. The fields that may be used for this comparison are the call sign you used to make the QSO, the QSO date, and several geographical fields. At least one rule must be included in a QSO Set in order to match any QSOs. If more than one rule is present in the QSO Set, you may choose whether the QSOs must match all of the specified rules or any of the specified rules.

73 es DX!

Bill Moore NC1L
ARRL Awards Manager