There are a large number of awards available just for working a given number of unique stations in a defined area. This area can be a DXCC Entity, a Continent or anything else the award manager chooses.
You can easily qualify for many such awards with a relatively small number of QSOs and obtain endorsements, or new awards altogether, as you make contacts with more stations. Note that we are talking about unique stations and not simply the number of contacts or QSOs. So making contact with the same station on 5 different bands still counts as one station.
For US Amateur Radio operators an easy one to start off with would be the Worked United States Stations Award (WUSSA) from the FT8 Digital Mode Club (FT8DMC). Although it requires a minimum of 100 unique stations for the first award, this is quite easy to achieve with the FT8 digital mode, even with a modest station using a wire antenna.
One hundred stations is just the start since FT8DMC issues other awards at different station counts up to 10,000! You don’t need to worry about the expense and time spent handling a large number of QSL cards though. The FT8DMC awards are free. And you submit applications for the awards electronically based on your FT8 logs in ADIF format.
Awards for contacts with stations in other countries don’t always start off at 100 unique stations. For example, the Japan Award (WDM-JA) from the YB6_DXC Digital Modes Club starts off requiring just 10 stations. You can obtain separate awards for increasing numbers of unique stations up to 300.
Although countries are the most common area defined for unique stations awards there is some variety out there. The Europe Stations Award (EUSA) counts unique stations worked across the continent of Europe and not just one country. It also has a very high ceiling with the current top award of 10,000 unique stations. So that should keep you busy for some time.
Here is just a sampling of the different awards that are available.
| Area | Awards |
| Alaska | WALSA, WDAR-KL7 (ERC) |
| Asia | ASSA, WDAR-AS (ERC) |
| Australia | WDAR-VK |
| Brazil | WDAR-BR |
| Canada | WCASA, WDAR-VE (ERC) |
| China | WDAR-China, WDM-B |
| Cuba | WCUSA, WDAR-CO (ERC) |
| England | WESA |
| Europe | EUSA, WDAR-EU |
| France | WDAR-FR (ERC), WFSA |
| Germany | GSA, WDAR-DL (ERC) |
| Hawaii | WHSA, WDAR-KH6 (ERC) |
| Japan | WDM-JA, WDAR-JA (ERC), JSA (FT8DMC) |
| Mexico | WMSA, WDAR-XE (ERC) |
| New Caledonia | WANKA |
| Oceania | WDAR-OC, WOSA (FT8DMC) |
| South America | WDAR-SA |
| United States | WUSSA, WDAR-USA |
Unique stations awards represent some of the easiest awards to chase if you are just getting started. So fire up your radio and just start making contacts with anyone, anywhere. You might be surprised what you qualify for in short order!