Mission Accomplished !

That's Snoopy, of course; and he's helping me do the "Happy Dance"! At 1809 UTC on 20 Meters, I managed to nab KL7RA to finally work Alaska via QRP CW. Interestingly, my trusty ol' G5RV was ineffective on this one. After much calling without an answer, I switched over to the Butternut HF9V. I got an answer within a few minutes. Granted, there were some repeats requested; but we got 'er done.

Like the kids say about Pokemon - "Gotta catch 'em all". Well, I caught 'em all, now.

A QSL will go out, for sure, in tomorrow's (Tuesday's) mail; and once that confirming QSL comes back, I'll have those babies on their way to Newington faster than you can say "Jack Robinson".

Wow! QRP WAS during (for the most part) a solar minimum. This has got me licking my chops for the conditions we'll be seeing in a few years as more and more sunspots appear in the upswing of cycle 24!

Bonus! As Bob W3BBO so aptly pointed out to me; not only does this finish WAS for me, but AK also counts as a DXCC entity. That brings me closer to DXCC QRP to boot! Shortly before working Alaska, I also worked Antigua for a new one also. And going over my list, I see I made the "rookie mistake" of not counting a W station in my totals. So with Alaska, Antigua and the US, that brings my QRP DXCC total to 75 entities worked.

73 de Larry W2LJ

PS: A little while later, I got back on 20 Meters and managed to work 4U1UN for the very first time in my 30 year Ham career. I have NEVER heard 4U1UN without a pileup; and today they were calling CQ without takers! A double bonus day that I'll remember fondly for quite some time.