Let me have a go at this for you. Antarctica, South Orkney and South Shetland are three separate entities however they are all in the Antarctica zone which means each nation licenses their own nationals operating from any of the bases in the zone so R1 is a Russian, KC4 would be an American, VP8 is an operator from the UK, CE-Z is a Chilean, ZS5 a South African ZL5 a New Zealander FB8 is French, 8J is Japan, etc. So in each entity you can have many different callsigns. So you need to map each Callsign and in some cases as the operator moves from base to base he may operate from several places each different DXCC entity. SO there is no definitive one answer that will always be true for all callsigns. Some countries assign a club call to a base in which case they can be mapped and will not change and are known as in the case of the KC4's ZL5 and FB8 etc. Others like Chile and Russia assign the call to the individual and so they can move from base to base with the operator and may appear in VP8 or KC4.
Why KC4 for Antarctica. There was never one nation to claim all of Antarctica. Several nations have maintained bases there for many years before the treay, but under treaty all nations agreed to create the Antarctic Trust Territory where none have exclusive sovereignty but could maintain bases and carry out scientific research and weather observations. Since the program was developed in the US maybe it was a natural thing to choose KC4 being an America prefix, but it could as easily have been CE or ZS or VP8 or any of several others. Why VP8 for South Shetland Islands. It was claimed by Great Britain and they actually maintained a community in the islands. Why VP8 for South Orkney Islands, same story as South Shetland. When the Trust Territory was set up Great Britain agreed to have these two island groups included in the treaty zone south of 60 degrees south. DXBase has to have a master prefix for each entity in the database so KC4 was chosen for Antarctica, VP8 continued to be used for South Shetland and South Orkney as they were for many years the only prefix to be used there. After the treaty this changed, but as in the case of Antarctica in the DXBase database there must be a Primary prefix so they chose to use VP8H for South Shetland and VP8O for South Orkney. DXBase is not confused the multiple licensing authorities make is so, and we are left trying to keep track of it all. 73 Garth VE3HO At 08:14 PM 08.01.2003 -0500, you wrote: >Can someone please explain to me how Antarctica is treated by DXBase? >For example, I worked R1ANF on King George Is. in the South Shetlands >(VP8S). It is logged by DXB as CQ Zone 13 (correct), ITU Zone 73 >(correct), but classified as prefix KC-Antarctica. I have also worked >D88S on King George I., which shows as HL because it is a Korean base >with a Korean license/callsign. Then there is R1ANC. I tried getting >Bill NC1L, Mr. DXCC, to explain the treatment to me, but after two >emails I am still confused. DXCC shows Antarctica and So. Shetlands as >two separate entities. It seems that anything below 60deg south >latitude is considered by DXCC as Antarctica, which has no licensing >authority itself. My question is: does R1ANF (for example) count as >BOTH So. Shetlands AND Antarctica for DXCC? That hardly seems likely. >And if that station is nominally on King George I. in the So. Shetlands, >why does DXBase not show it as VP8 instead of KC? > >George W1EBI > > > > >_______________________________________________ >DXBase Reflector - Please visit us on the web at www.dxbase.com >- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >To UNSUBSCRIBE please visit: >http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase
