Milestones Reached

Hi folks to those reading this blog.  Finally reached the worked all states QRP milestone after successful QSOs with Alaska KL7UW Dave operating his K3 and Tribander on 12m, K6JSS/0 ND0CW from North Dakota on 317m and W0CZ Ken operating his K3 from Fargo, ND on 20m.   These are the last states to fill out the confirmed QRP QSOs.  The QSO with Dave KL7UW was on the weekend of the the CQ WW CW DX contest and so the only bands available not filled with contesters were 12m and 17m.    Dave and I had a SKED and we chose 12m for a 2000Z attempt at a QSO.  The K2 is amazing in hearing Dave well within the noise.  I turned AGC off and put the headphones on and we both copied each others 449 signal reports.  That same day on 11/26, earlier on 17m, I heard K6JSS/0 calling CQ on 18.060 and that was an easier contact than the oe with KL7UW.  The week before, I heard Ken quite strongly on 20m on 14.060 from ND at the appointed 2100Z attempt at a QSO.   Thanks to all three of you for helping me reach this milestone.  Once I get the QSL card from Dave, I will be sending off the cards and the QSO records to ARRL HQ.  At the same time I am sending the QSO records to QRP-ARCi to get their WAS certificate.  I was looking through my log and it appears that I have made 397 QRP contacts to all 50 states and it looks like I may have established contact with all 50 states with my K2 subsequent to having built it in June 2011 - so I may be eligible for that award as well.  Another milestone reached is in reaching the 100+ unique DX entities for DXCC after having worked the CQWW CW Contest and working 135 DX stations.  I have 55 DX credits in LOTW which means I need to get less than 45 cards to get the DXCC award.  This will take some time as postage is somewhat expensive but I expect to get the award early in 2012.