Continuous Wave Order

Do you guys know what challenge slots are? Basically through your life of DXing there are often two primary goals: 1) work as many of the existing entities as possible, and 2) work the entity on as many bands as possible. Every time you work an entity on a band that's a DXCC challenge slot. Keep in mind "mode" is irrelevant. So whether you work CY0S on SSB, FT8, or CW doesn't matter. You'll just get credit for that entity on the band you get confirmation on first.

Admittedly I don't use SSB or FT8 to chase DX at all. I'm pretty much CW only when it comes to DXing so when I got my DXCC it was "endorsed" with CW as that's the mode I got all 100 with. There's an ARRL DX challenge certificate and you get little coins as you hit milestones. I'm mostly excited just to get a new entity since I'm so new to DXing (I'm at 165 confirmed on CW). But I've got friends who are DXCC honor roll (they worked 330+ of the existing 340 entities). And now they're basically just chasing challenge slots — reworking entities they already have confirmed but trying to get them on new bands.

Club Log is a fantastic website to import your LOTW QSOs and see grids of which entities you've worked and on which bands. Of my 165 confirmed, I have 416 confirmed slots. So I have 584 more QSOs with entities on new bands until I hit 1,000 slots to get my challenge certificate.

Basically POTA got me into the hobby, and I'll always love POTA and SOTA (I live in the Mecca of SOTA) but recently I've really enjoyed chasing DX. Just the fact that some of these DXpeditions are extraordinarily rare (Bouvet Island) and you're not always guaranteed another chance to work some of these places. Or the next opportunity might be a decade from now. Keep in mind solar cycles as well.

DXing is a lifelong journey so you're just tallying points and awards. Pretty cool. But this is why I tell all my buddies to import their logs into LOTW — it's the most universally accepted (internationally) platform for DX credit.