The ALBA PSK Award Series was devised by the European PSK Club (EPC) on 7^th September 2009. This was to sponsor a series of PSK awards for contacts with amateur radio stations from various Scotland's 10 x 10 km National Grid Squares (also known as WAB Squares). The system used is the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain «National Grid Reference» (NGR). This form the basis of the ALBA Award.

Alba is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is cognate to Albain in Irish and Nalbin in Manx, the other Goidelic Insular Celtic language, as well as similar words in the Brythonic Insular Celtic languages of Cornish (Alban) and Welsh (Yr Alban) also meaning Scotland. Hence also the early classical name Albion. It was used by the Gaels to refer to the island as a whole until roughly the ninth or tenth centuries, when it came to be the name given to the kingdoms of the Picts and the Scots (Pictavia and Dál Riata), north of the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde, traditionally considered to have been unified by Kenneth MacAlpin. The region Breadalbane (Bràghad Albainn, the upper part of «Alba») takes its name from it as well. The Latin word alba is the feminine singular form of albus, meaning white in English.

Scotland is covered by 100 x 100 kilometre grid squares, each grid square is identified by two letters - HP, HT, HU, HW, HX, HY, HZ, MC, NA, NB, NC, ND, NF, NG, NH, NJ, NK, NL, NM, NN, NO, NR, NS, NT, NW, NX, and NY. These squares are further divided into smaller squares by grid lines representing 10 kilometre spacing, each numbered from 0 to 9 from the south-west corner, in an easterly (left to right) and northerly (upwards) direction, e.g. HY61, NL79, NS56. Please use this PDF leaflet as a visual aids. And here is a list of all 1161 squares available in Scotland. Quite handy Locator Calculator can be used at G0HZK website. Please note that Rockall Island is located in the north Atlantic Ocean, 461.5 kilometres from Ardnamurchan Point, the nearest point on the Scottish mainland. Rockall Island lies in MC01 square for the purposes of this award program.

ALBA 25, ALBA 50, ALBA 75, and ALBA 100 Awards may be claimed by any licensed radio amateur, club station or DMS/SWL eligible under these Rules who can produce evidence in a form of ADIF log of having contacted or monitored amateur radio stations from 25, 50, 75, and 100 squares respectively on BPSK31, BPSK63, BPSK125, QPSK31, QPSK63, and/or QPSK125 modes. Credit will be given for contacts made on any of the amateur bands below 30 MHz. Each square counts only once. Contacts made to claim ALBA awards have no time or date restrictions. The award manager is John Scott, GM0WRRThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

QSL-cards are not required. Awards are issued to the person or club. The person or club can use any legal call sign. Contacts made from club stations or special event stations count to the credit of both the club and the operator. All stations must be operated in accordance with their licensing conditions. Contacts may be made from any location in the same DXCC country. Confirmations from the DMS/SWL stations are accepted as confirmed contacts. All stations contacted must be «Land Stations». Contacts with ships and boats, anchored or underway, and airborne aircraft, cannot be counted. For the purposes of this award, remote control operating points must also be land based.

Please make sure that the COMMENT field in your ADIF log contains #WAB code for each contacted station from Scotland, # tag is required. This is a mandatory requirement to make able the manager's software to check your application correctly. The award manager reserves the right to spot call sign for inspection of applied contacts. The purpose of this is not to call into question the integrity of any individual, but rather to ensure the overall integrity of the EPC award program. More difficult attained specialty awards are more likely to be so called. Failure of the applicant to respond to such spot check will result in non-issuance of the EPC award. The decision of the award manager on this and other matters of dispute will be finals. The submission for credit of any altered or forged log extractions or, equally, bad behaviour on or off the air which is judged by the European PSK Club to bring a particular programme into disrepute may result in disqualification of the applicant from the Award Programme.

All awards are issued FREE of charge in a high quality PDF format and sent via email to the applicants. Awards can be printed with the highest quality and with optimal performance by applicants themselves. The ALBA Award Series is issued to the EPC members only. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the award manager.

ALBA Award Series Application Procedure

All claims for the EPC awards should be made using our UltimateEPC Award Management Software written by DK5UR. The award applicant should re-submit his application when claiming for higher classes of awards. The award manager will keep all your records in our database. Please make sure before you submit your ADIF log that you have checked it with the appropriate software.