The 13 Colonies Special Event occurs annually around the 4th of July. The point of the event is to celebrate our independence from England. It is an event that I look forward to each year. There are stations operating from each of the 13 original colonies, hence the name of the event. All HF bands (except for 60M) are used and all modes of operation may be used (SSB, CW, RTTY, Digital, etc.) The exchange with a station is simple CALL SIGN, RST, STATE / PROVINCE or COUNTRY.
This is not a contest, but they will provide a certificate for a nominal fee confirming the contacts you made with each of the stations. Making contact with all 13 stations is considered a clean sweep. There are also two bonus stations WM3PEN (Philadelphia) and GB13COL (Great Britain.) The GB13COL station can often be difficult to get considering the distance in time and geography but can they are usually available on D-Star (REF063B). This year they were also working on DMR. This year was my first year completing my contact with GB13COL on HF. I made the contact using FT8 but it is still HF!
For more information or to see an example certificate head on over to their website http://www.13colonies.us/.