 Membership Services Manager Wayne Mills, N7NG (left) and DX Century Clubs Manager Bill Moore, NC1L, check out the QRP DXCC certificate. In addition to the basic DXCC, DXCC Challenge and single-band awards, the DXCC Branch handles applications for spinoff awards, such as the QRP DXCC and Satellite DXCC. [ARRL Photo] |
NEWINGTON, CT, Mar 20, 2002--ARRL's DXCC Desk now is down to days in terms of application turnaround time. It was not long ago that DXCC hopefuls waited in line for more than two months to get their certificates or updates processed. Now, applications are taking a week or less. As of today, DXCC was working on applications received March 13.
"At one time this past year, we were up to nearly a quarter million cards and about 2500 applications," said ARRL Membership Services Manager Wayne Mills, N7NG. "This is a good time to send in your cards!" He chalks up a lot of the earlier activity to the popularity of the DXCC Challenge. According to Mills, the DXCC workload shot up during 2001 by 60% or more over the previous year. (Things have been much worse. In the days before computer automation in DXCC, the backlog was at one point on the order of 750,000 cards.)
The basic ARRL DXCC is awarded to amateurs who submit confirmation for contacts with 100 or more "entities" (formerly called "countries") on the DXCC List. The DXCC Challenge grew out of the work of the DXCC 2000 Committee, which reviewed the DXCC program and recommended some changes. The revised rules that went into effect in 1998 included additional single-band DXCC awards, which have proven very popular in themselves. The DXCC Challenge grew out of that initiative as an overall competitive award for DXCC.
 The DXCC staff (L-R): Rear, DX Century Clubs Manager Bill Moore, NC1L; Judy Miller; Ann Figat. Front, Mahjabeen Kabir; Bev Fernandez, N1NAV; Diana Lamson-Lucas and Kathy Kostek. [ARRL Photo] |
At one point, awards trailed applications by nearly 12 weeks. Mills attributes the much shorter DXCC wait now primarily to the fact that additional staff members were brought aboard last summer. It also helped that the DXCC Challenge application bulge for 2001 passed through the pipeline as the DXCC "season" ended last September. "We've been able to catch up," Mills said, despite the fact that application volume remains at about the same level as it was during the first quarter of 2001.
On a related note, Mills said the DXCC Desk will begin offering the last of the single-band DXCC awards--for 30 meters. An official announcement is pending, but it's expected the new award will debut October 1, 2002. Mills pointed out, however, that those planning to participate can send cards now to get a leg up on the new award--and avoid the rush as business at the DXCC Desk starts to pick up again.
A list of DXCC applications received is
available on the ARRL Web site.
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