The world gets divided up in many ways. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) carves up the world into three regions for administrative purposes. Region 2 consists of the continents of North and South America. The FT8 Digital Mode Club (FT8DMC) sponsors the Worked Region 2 Award (WR2A) for working Ham Radio stations in the countries of the area.
You can obtain the entry level Bronze certificate for working just 10 different countries using the FT8 digital mode. This is an easy entry point for modest home stations. Silver, Gold and Platinum certificates require an ever increasing number of countries up to the max of 35.
You might think the number 35 is low for “countries” in the Americas. And you’d be right. But we’re talking about real countries here and not DXCC entities. So, the United States gets counted once. Other US DXCC entity countries such as Guantanamo Bay, Navassa Island, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are all encompassed by the United States.
The WR2A certificate sports a colorful map of the world.
To apply for the Worked Region 2 Award, and all other FT8DMC awards, you must install the UltimateAAC application on a Windows machine. That application scans your WSJT-X ADIF log file and will inform you when you’ve qualified for the award at various levels. FT8DMC issues the award in digital form only (JPG or PDF) with no printing or shipping costs. In fact, the award is completely free, like all of their other awards.