The good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, DixieFest 2006 will once again have DXCC QSL Card and Worked All States Card Checking at the Hickory Withe DX Club's booth.  Tom Vickers, N4TV and possibly another Field Checker or two will be at your service.  Having cards checked at DixieFest 2006 will prevent the risk of loss associated with shipping your cards to and from Newington.   By the way, all fees collected at DXCC Card Checking time go to the ARRL to defray the costs of the DXCC and/or WAS Program(s).

Here are a few suggestions to make your DXCC card checking experience even easier:

1. You need to have your forms filled out before you come to DixieFest 2006, with the cards in the order they appear on the  forms.  Be sure and read the instructions on the form.  Two forms are required.  They are available via the ARRL web page at these URLs:

Application form  http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/dxccapp.txt or http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/dxccapp.pdf

Record form  http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/dxccrec.txt or http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/dxccrec.pdf

Note:  If you already have Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 or higher, the .pdf files should be the best ones to use.  If you don't have the reader file, you may either download the .txt version or you can download the free reader file by clicking on this link 

2. Any cards with multiple QSOs need to be on the record form together at the end.

3. Get your cards to the checking location as soon as the hamfest opens.  Generally it is first in, first out.

4. Fees are listed on the Application form.  Payment needs to be by check only.

5. Be sure and bring a #10 business size stamped envelope addressed to the DX Desk, ARRL, or be prepared to pay $.50 cash for an envelope and stamp.

6. Remember, Field Checkers can NOT check 160M cards, cards for Deleted Countries nor cards that are over 10 years old at the date of checking.  These cards can ONLY be checked by an authorized ARRL HQ staff supervised session (like at Dayton.)

The WAS card checking procedure is much the same as the DXCC procedure.  The forms to use are located at: http://www.arrl.org/awards/was/wasapp.pdf  and  http://www.arrl.org/awards/was/wasrec.pdf

Hope to see you getting all those "new ones" verified at DixieFest 2006!