Skip to content

Nexus manual · DX & awards

Awards & Journey

This section has two tabs under one roof: Official Awards, the offline tracker for the official programs (DXCC, Challenge, Honor Roll, WAS, WAZ, VUCC, IOTA), and Journey, a local-only achievement layer that turns your log into progress you can feel — firsts, ladders, collections, and personal bests. Both read straight from your logbook; neither needs an account or a network.

Awards is an opt-in section, nudged on after your first QSO. Turn it on any time in Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ Features.

The Official Awards tab, its ten award cards wrapped onto two rows: DXCC 233/100, Honor Roll 233/340, Challenge, a 53% confirmed rate, 5-Band DXCC and WAZ across the top, then WAS, VUCC, Sat VUCC and IOTA below — WAS and VUCC outlined as achieved, Sat VUCC still 0 of 100 with one grid worked via satellite. Under the cards a DXCC-by-band chart runs 160 m down to 6 m beside a "Confirm for a new one (46)" list, each entity chipped with the bands it is waiting on a confirmation for.

Awards — the official programs

Awards are computed offline from cty.dat entity resolution — no upload required to see where you stand:

  • DXCC with per-band and per-mode slots, and 5-Band DXCC,
  • DXCC Challenge,
  • Honor Roll, with a current-entity denominator and a countdown — confirmations still needed to get in, then “N to #1” once you’re in,
  • WAS (Worked All States), with the 5BWAS count beside it,
  • WAZ (Worked All Zones),
  • VUCC, with satellite grids kept on their own Sat VUCC card — Nexus doesn’t tag a satellite contact as one, so that card only moves for records you tagged yourself (Satellites explains why),
  • IOTA (Islands On The Air).

Under the cards, DXCC is broken out by band, and the chase lists start with Confirm for a new one — entities you have worked but not confirmed, chipped with the bands each is waiting on.

Confirmation handling is source-aware — a distinction most loggers blur. eQSL confirmations never count toward LoTW-grade awards; the confirmed and award_confirmed flags are separate and enforced at every computation. So a contact can be “confirmed” (you have an eQSL) yet not “award-confirmed” (no LoTW or card), and the awards math respects the difference. The logbook diagnostics explain per-QSO why a credit hasn’t landed.

Journey — progress you can feel

Journey exists to carry a newer operator through the motivational dead zone between QSO 1 and QSO 100 — but it credits an imported logbook immediately, so a veteran importing years of ADIF sees their history light up at once. It’s local-only: no accounts, no network, no decaying daily streaks.

What’s on the board:

  • XP and levels, with a hero card.
  • Firsts — auto-detected milestones (“first DX,” “first CW,” “first park”), each named with heritage context.
  • Ladders — tiered progress toward the official awards, plus:
    • DX Marathon — entities and zones worked this calendar year vs. your best year (resets Jan 1),
    • Grid Gems — rare/ultra-rare grids worked (rungs at 1/5/10/25/50),
    • Park Hunter and Summit Chaser — distinct POTA/SOTA references hunted (they appear after your first hunt),
  • Seasonal feats — earned in a season, permanent once earned, with no FOMO:
    • Sporadic-E Summer (6 m ≥ 1000 km in season),
    • Top-Band Season (160 m ≥ 1500 km).
  • Collections and personal bests.

Some feats read your station power (from Settings ▸ Modes ▸ Digital) — set it to unlock the miles-per-watt and QRP feats.

Optional weekly streak

Off by default: a gentle “weeks on the air” counter (never a daily streak, never a penalty for a break). Enable it under Journey in Settings ▸ Modes ▸ Digital.

Share a card

The ⤴ Share control renders the hero card (and any unlocked feat) to a PNG on your clipboard — nothing is uploaded. Click it, then paste into a message, an email, or a post.

Honest limits

  • Everything here is local. Journey never leaves your machine — no leaderboards, no accounts, no telemetry.
  • Awards are as complete as your log and its confirmations. Offline computation shows worked/confirmed from what you have; pull confirmations with the LoTW / eQSL sync to fill in the award-confirmed column.
  • eQSL and HRDLog.net don’t earn ARRL award credit — Nexus won’t pretend they do.

This page is synced from docs/guide/awards-journey.md in the Nexus repo. Corrections belong there.