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The Worked All Zones (WAZ) award recognizes operators who have confirmed two-way contacts with amateur stations in all 40 CQ Zones. Sponsored by CQ Magazine (now part of CQ Communications), WAZ has been issued since 1934, making it one of the oldest awards in amateur radio.
While DXCC counts individual countries and territories, WAZ divides the world into 40 numbered zones based on geographic boundaries. Completing WAZ requires truly global reach — you must work stations in every major region of the world, from the Arctic to the South Pacific.
The 40 CQ Zones divide the Earth's surface into irregularly shaped regions. The system was created by CQ Magazine to provide a straightforward geographic framework for awards and contests (the CQ Zone is used as the exchange in the CQ World Wide DX Contest).
The zones are numbered 1 through 40 and cover the following general areas:
A complete CQ Zone map is published by CQ Magazine and is available in most amateur radio atlases and logging software. The zones do not correspond exactly to political borders — a single country may span multiple zones, and some zones contain very few active amateur stations.
To earn the basic WAZ award:
There is no time limit — contacts from your entire career can count.
Like DXCC, WAZ is available in multiple forms:
WAZ Mixed — The standard award. Any band, any mode.
WAZ SSB — All contacts must be on voice modes.
WAZ CW — All contacts must be on Morse code.
WAZ RTTY — All contacts must be on RTTY.
WAZ Digital — Contacts on qualifying digital modes (FT8, FT4, PSK31, etc.).
Single-band WAZ — Separate awards for 80, 40, 20, 15, and other bands. As with single-band DXCC, some bands are extremely difficult — completing WAZ on 160 metres is one of the rarest achievements in amateur radio.
5-Band WAZ (5BWAZ) — Requires WAZ on five bands: 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 metres.
WAZ is a significant step up from WAS in difficulty. While some zones have abundant amateur activity, others are sparsely populated or geographically remote:
Zone 2 — Northeastern Canada, covering Labrador and parts of Quebec. This zone has relatively few resident operators, though it is regularly activated during contests and by portable expeditions.
Zone 23 — Central Asia, covering parts of western China, Mongolia, and Tibet. Amateur activity from this zone is uncommon, and when stations are active, propagation may not cooperate.
Zone 26 — Eastern Siberia and parts of the Russian Far East. While Russian amateur radio is active, the extreme northern and eastern portions of Zone 26 have very few operators.
Zone 34 and 35 — Parts of the central and southern Pacific Islands. Some islands in these zones have no permanent amateur population and are activated only by rare DXpeditions.
Zone 39 — Parts of the Southern Pacific and sub-Antarctic regions.
General strategies for hard zones:
Operators sometimes ask how WAZ compares to DXCC. The two awards are complementary rather than competing:
Many operators pursue both awards simultaneously. Progress toward one often advances the other, since DX contacts tend to accumulate both new entities and new zones.
WAZ is administered by CQ Communications. Applications are submitted with the required QSL card documentation and a fee. Check the CQ Magazine website for current application procedures, fees, and the list of WAZ checkpoints (if available in your region).