Contacts Timeline: June 7, 2026, through August 2, 2026.
Contact Type: Members or nonmembers. Mixed band contacts are allowed.
OMISS Nets: Contacts must be made on OMISS Nets.
Enhancements: None. This is a mixed band award only. You may earn 3 of the 4 certificates only once.
Certificate numbers: Each category (Liberty Bell, Drum & Fife, Stars and Stripes & Eagle) will have the next available certificate number assigned. The #1 certificate in each is reserved for Bruce AB0TL as winner of the certificate design contest.
Details:
Liberty Bell Certificate Work the 13 original colonies first, they do not need to be in order.
Drum & Fife Certificate Work the contiguous 48 states.
Gold bordered Stars and Stripes Certificate Points total to exactly 1776
Silver bordered Eagle Certificate – Points total is over 1776.
Points Matrix:
Each state is assigned a points value. Points are assigned in reverse order of
entry into United States: Delaware 50, Pennsylvania 49, New Jersey 48, Georgia 47, Connecticut 46, Massachusetts 45, Maryland 44, South Carolina 43, New Hampshire 42, Virginia 41, New York 40, North Carolina 39, Rhode Island 38, Vermont 37, Kentucky 36, Tennessee 35, Ohio 34, Louisiana 33, Indiana 32, Mississippi 31, Illinois 30, Alabama 29, Maine 28, Missouri 27, Arkansas 26, Michigan 25, Florida 24, Texas 23, Iowa 22, Wisconsin 21, California 20, Minnesota 19, Oregon 18, Kansas 17, West Virginia 16, Nevada 15, Nebraska 14, Colorado 13, North Dakota 12, South Dakota 11, Montana 10, Washington 09, Idaho 08, Wyoming 07, Utah 06, Oklahoma 05, New Mexico 04 , Arizona 03, Alaska 02, Hawaii 01
Bonuses Alaska & HI are not required to receive the award…but receive a 250-point bonus if you get both.
Contacts made on July 4 Zulu time earn double points.
You may use the contacts made for the Liberty Bell and Drum & Fife for points.
Be careful, any contact before the 13th colony you worked must be one of the 13th colonies to count. If you apply for liberty bell (working 13 colonies first) you can't use contacts in states that were not colonies that were before the 13th colony was contacted. For example- you contact Maryland as your final colony on June 12 and you receive Liberty Bell. The contact made with TX on June 11, even though it's in the time line, it is not eligible because you claimed you contacted the 13 colonies first.
You may use an operator/station/call sign only once.
If you contact a club station you may use either the operator or the club station on that contact (not both). If you contact the combo or operator again at a later time you may choose to use the other station’s call.
Documentation to Submit: Documentation to Submit: Logs in chronological order with a column showing points. Bonus points for AK/HI listed below subtotal.
A little look back and the reason the dates were chosen:1776
• June 7 Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, receives Richard Henry Lee's resolution urging Congress to declare independence.
• June 11 Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston appointed to a committee to draft a declaration of independence. American army retreats to Lake Champlain from Canada.
• June 12-27 At the request of the committee, Jefferson drafts a declaration that is the basic text of his “original Rough draught.” Jefferson’s draft—now in the manuscript collections of the Library of Congress—is reviewed by the committee before being submitted to the Congress.
• June 28 A fair copy of the committee draft of the Declaration of Independence is read in Congress.
• July 1-4 Congress debates and revises the Declaration of Independence.
• July 2 Congress declares independence as the British fleet and army arrive at New York.
• July 4 Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence in the morning of a bright, sunny, but cool Philadelphia day. John Dunlap prints the Declaration of Independence. These prints are now called "Dunlap Broadsides." Twenty-four copies are known to exist, two of which are in the Library of Congress. One of these was Washington's personal copy.
• July 5 John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, dispatches the first of Dunlap's broadsides of the Declaration of Independence to the legislatures of New Jersey and Delaware.
• July 6 Pennsylvania Evening Post of July 6 prints the first newspaper rendition of the Declaration of Independence.
• July 8 The first public reading of the Declaration is in Philadelphia.
• July 9 Washington orders that the Declaration of Independence be read before the American army in New York from his personal copy of the "Dunlap Broadside."
• July 19 Congress orders the Declaration of Independence engrossed officially inscribed and signed by members.
• August 2 Delegates begin to sign engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence. A large British reinforcement arrives at New York after being repelled at Charleston, S.C.