Part of our Getting On The Air: Modes, Operations, and Making Contacts guide.
There’s a quiet debate simmering in the awards chasing community, and it’s worth dragging into the open: award programs that lump FT8, SSB, and CW together into a single “mixed” category are measuring three very different sports with one ruler. A worked-all entity on FT8 and a worked-all entity on SSB are not the same achievement, and pretending they are does a disservice to everyone who has ground out contacts the hard way.
The problem with mixed-mode awards
DXCC Mixed is the classic example. You can chase 100 entities using whatever mode gets the job done, and for most operators today that means firing up WSJT-X and letting FT8 do the heavy lifting. There’s nothing wrong with that on its own. The trouble is that a Mixed award now tells you almost nothing about how an operator got there. Did they pull weak-signal DX out of the noise on 20 meter phone during a marginal opening? Or did they let the software decode a minus-22 dB signal that no human ear could ever hear? Both count the same, and that’s the issue.
When a single certificate can represent wildly different amounts of skill, patience, and station capability, the certificate stops meaning much. Separating awards by mode fixes this. An FT8 DXCC, an SSB DXCC, and a CW DXCC each tell a clear story about what the operator actually did.
How much harder is DXCC on SSB than on FT8?
The gap is enormous, and anyone who has tried both knows it in their bones. FT8 was engineered from the ground up to extract signals from below the noise floor. It can decode signals around 20 to 24 dB below the noise, which is roughly the difference between hearing someone across a quiet room and hearing them shout from the far end of a stadium during a concert. That capability turns marginal band conditions into workable openings.
SSB gives you none of that help. To complete a phone contact, both stations need enough signal-to-noise for a human to copy a callsign and a signal report through QSB, splatter, and pileup chaos. During a solar minimum, or on a difficult path, an FT8 signal might sail through while the same station is completely inaudible on SSB. This is why so many operators who breezed to FT8 DXCC in a matter of weeks find that SSB DXCC takes years.
Consider the practical realities that stack against phone work:
- Power and antenna demands. Working a rare entity on SSB during a poor opening often requires real power and a decent antenna. On FT8, modest stations with wire antennas routinely work the same entities.
- Pileup discipline. A phone pileup for a rare DXpedition is a wall of noise. Getting through takes timing, technique, and a signal that stands out. FT8’s structured protocol and software queuing takes much of that chaos out of the equation.
- Band conditions. Phone needs the band to genuinely be open. FT8 works openings that are barely cracked, extending your effective operating windows dramatically.
- Language and clarity. Copying an unfamiliar callsign through a heavy accent and deep fading is a real skill on SSB. FT8 hands you a clean decode every time.
Where CW fits in
CW sits in an interesting middle ground. A skilled CW operator can copy signals far weaker than any SSB contact would allow, and Morse punches through noise remarkably well for a mode a human is decoding in real time. But CW carries its own barrier: you have to actually know the code and be able to work it at speed under pressure. That’s a learned skill that takes months or years to develop, which is exactly why a CW DXCC deserves its own recognition rather than being blended away into a mixed total.
Recognizing the achievement for what it is
None of this is an argument that FT8 is somehow lesser mode but it’s definitely an “easier” mode. It’s a spectacular mode that has opened DX chasing to operators with small stations, tough locations, and limited time. That’s a genuinely good thing for the hobby. The point is simply that different modes represent different challenges, and awards should honor that instead of erasing it.
When someone shows me a single-mode SSB DXCC, I know exactly what went into it: patience, a capable station, and a lot of nights chasing openings. When someone shows me a CW DXCC, I know they put in the work to master the code. Single-mode awards keep those stories intact. Mixed awards blur them into a number that could mean almost anything. If our awards are meant to recognize accomplishment, they should be honest about what was actually accomplished.
Chase whichever mode you love. Just let the certificate say which one it was.
For more on award chasing, see QSLing and Awards 101 and DXing 101.