It might surprise some that amateur radio can be
competitive or have associated rewards. I mean really!
Getting an award for talking to people?! Amateur radio can
be much more than just a series of casual conversations. As
one web site put it,
Ham
Radio is 99 Hobbies. There are any number of things
that you can do within the hobby. Chasing awards is one of
them. There are different types of awards. There are awards
for contacting a minimum number of countries or
possessions, contacting someone in each of the 50 US
states, and awards for contacting each of the different
continents. There are also awards for operating in some
special way such as with a minimum of power or using
special modes. You can rest assured that if something is
difficult to do there is an awards for it!