IMHO, it's perfectly OK. Your QXC is kind of proving that you can find your way around outside the local area, and if you want to get fixes from ATC, then why not? Personally, at that stage in my training I wasn't comfy enough with the radio to do much more than request loining and janding information, so if you're happy to chirp up with a QDM call, then go for it.. .. .After all, you only have to get sigs from the fields you land at, and they are for your standard of airmanship:. .1. If you call an en-route station for a QDM nobody else will ever know. .2. A decently executed QDM call demonstrates good airmanship (provided they're a station equipped to answer you, and provided you do summat sensible with the info obtained).. .. .Would the people who say you shouldn't, approve of you cross cutting on VORs to position fix?. .. .Steve R