Award-Check
Award check for hunters and collectors - what's to expect from WAG and DCL?
Contest is more than 59 - that is known especially by award hunters. With more than 2000 active German stations in WAG there be not many DL-awards for which WAG does not allow for additional valuable contacts. And DARC's online QSO database and QSLing system DCL (DARC Community Logbook) allows for paperless application for about 30 German awards. DCL also shows you your personal score for each of the available awards based on your QSOs in DARC contests (which are imported after crosscheck) and QSOs you have added via adif.
We checked for some of the DCL awards how much could be collected for them during a WAG activity. Of course this is no recommendation for forced competitions of the kind "How many awards can I complete during one WAG?"
Basic activity in WAG
2300 different German stations were qrv in WAG 2015. This resulted in several 100 000 QSOs with more than 3400 foreign stations. The 2186 submitting stations logged more than 624 000 QSO-lines of which more than 500 000 made it into DCL after crosscheck. 915 different DOKs were logged and of course all districts. Amongst them were 859 "regular" DOKs and 56 special "Sonder-DOKs". Further down we will present only awards for which German stations count as you can only work DL-stations during WAG. But DCL contains a lot of additional awards like WAE for which you can add QSOs by other contest logs our from your regular logbook.
Multitasking DOKs
A DOK like X06 is the abbreviation of a local DARC subchapter with the letter designating the district (X=Thuringia) and the numbers the local groups. Additionally there are permanent or sporadic special DOKs ("Sonder-DOKS") for board members of DARC, club stations of DARC branches like DK0DX with DOK DX for the DX and HF contesting committee or for local jubilees of a DOK itself or its city. So you may run across things like DVX, 100BTI or IKS16. Have a look at "District and DOK overview" with links to their websites, Z-DOKs (association VFDB), and the lists of "Sonder-DOK".
DOKs score for a multiude of German awards. The most famous is DARC's DLD. Its basic version requires 100 confirmed DOKs and runs upwards with additional pins. Again: The more than 2000 German stations with at least five QSOs in WAG 2015 brought 915 different DOKs on the air, with 56 having been "Sonder-DOKs". Based on the submitted logs the DCL offered paperless confirmation of 502 different DOKs.
DOKs - for the regional awards
The awards of DARC's districts, too, make use of DOKs. For most of them the basic grade is possible with WAG or even with the confirmed QSOs imported into DCL. Of course only statistically as the activity is spread over 24 hours and you still have to catch 'em. One not soooo scret tip: CQing. As it is Germany's contest there is additional activity which means also a lot of more casual contesters or operators. Some of them do not always enjoy being sought after so much as it is common in WAG, so they stroll the bands mostly in S&P mode. Based on our survey in 2015 about 30 percent of all German participants never call CQ by themselves.
One of the tougher jobs at least in WAG is the Berlin-Diplom of the capital city (which is a federal state, too). It requires 100 QSO points for EU and 50 for DX with stations from at least 20 DOKs in Berlin. In WAG 2015 there were stations from 21 DOK qrv. Imports into DCL for paperless confirmation counted for 29 stations from 15 DOK. Not an easy one, too, is the award of the district Brandenburg (Y) surrounding Berlin for its Brandenburg-Diplom. But the WAG participants 2015 had a nice percentage of log submission = QSOs into DCL: 65 stations from 29 DOKs with an average of 397 QSO (needed for the award are 20 resp 10 for EU/DX).
Even more regions...
The traditionally very healthy participation from district V in the northeast allows kind of full house in WAG for the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Diplom requiring 25 (EU) or 10 QSOs. DCL shows 42 stations with an average QSO number of 392. The Trophy as fourth and higest level needs 100 resp. 30 QSOs with stations from V-district.
Somewhat also doable due to high activity seem Sachsen-Anhalt-Diplom and Thüringen-Diplom. Sachsen-Anhalt (district W) has 10 (EU) and 5 (DX) different DOK as entry level of which 25 were qrv in WAG 2015 and 14 importing logs into DCL. 10 stations from 5 DOKs up to 40 stations from 30 DOKs are required for the different levels in Thüringen (district X). Which may sound much is not so much because Thüringen is the most active district together with its neighbour Saxony (district S). 82 stations provided more than 30 000 QSOs from 33 Thüringen DOKs for DCL.
More of a case for patient hunters is district K from the center of Germany. The RLP-Diplom of Rheinland-Pfalz requires 30 QSOs with 15 DOKs for EU stations and 20/10 for DX stations. Participants from district K fed DCL with 26 Logs from 19 DOKs - but on the air were 40 DOKs.
DCL from far north to the southern border
With DCL you can not only collect for DARC awards but also for more regional awards regulary offered by DOKs. Some examples are "700 years Eckernförde", a city in the far north (tough to do with only WAG), the "Romanik-Diplom" from Sachsen-Anhalt (district W) or the Limes-Diplom remembering the wall separating once Roman occupied territory from the lands of German tribes (a higher level of the award comes with a wooden sword - whatever influence that might have in your shack). The latter two are possible by bare numbers in WAG alone like also the Neckar award (regions along the river Neckar in the Southwest). A real tough challenge is the Titisee award from the southwest corner of Germany. With twenty QSOs needed by stations from DOK A34 and clubstations from district A WAG 2015 could only provide eight. More contests and QSOs needed ;-)
Disclaimer: All calculations mention the total sum of activity in WAG but the overwhelming majority of participants is not active the full 24 hours to vacuum the bands continuously.