A little horn blowing here. If you take a look at the list of names and calls of those who have achieved the new LoTW "Triple Play Award" you will see a few familiar names and calls, but only two board members so far. The Award began on January 1, 2009. and requires that you work all fifty states on all three modes and have the 150 QSOs confirmed via LoTW. The awards are number and this has really added to the interest. At the moment there are 74 names on the list. The familiar ones are: Dave Patton, NN1N is at number 31 on January 25 Frank Fallon, N2FF is at number 43 on January 26 Rick Linquist, WW3DE is at number 65 on the January 29 Dwayne Allen, WY7FD is at number 66 on January 30 As today is the last day of the month I wonder if anyone else from the board family will join the group. There are only a few hours left in this super bowl. Kay Craigie, N3KN, gave an inspirational keynote speech at Ham Radio University held here on Long Island on January 11th just before the board meeting in which she encouraged her listeners to try something new in ham radio in 2009. Although she did not specifically mention the TP Award some of us have taken her up on that challenge and we have had fun and met a lot of new people in the process. Just as she told us we would if we tried a new thing or activity. It was a very rewarding positive experience to find so many helpful hams ready to make the contact s you could get the award. One ham I have never met except in the e-mails I sent pleading for a schedule in his rare state even went so far as to send me his cell phone number. When he was called upon to fix the club repeater some 60 miles from his home he finally worked me mobile for the phone and cw contact. Dwayne in rare Wyoming has spent a few hundred hours working guys who need his state. That probably stopped him from getting higher number I would like to thank the HQ crew, especially Jon Bloom, who set this up and also Harold Kramer, Dave Patton and Norm Fusaro. You might also want to listen to 3618, a net that has sprung up to help get the needed states and also visit the "K3UK LoTW Sked Page" at http://www.obriensweb.com/sked/index.html to get an idea of the level of activity the award has generated. It is certainly proving to be an interesting ham activity for the cold weather as hams across the country sit in their shack for long hours avoiding the ice and snow outside. It is also a revenue stream. We might want to start a pool here and pick numbers as to how many folks get the LoTW TP Award in 2009, ARRLs Super Bowl for 2009. I pick 1857. 73 de Frank...N2FF......