This is one of the problems with country lists. I believe country lists should be like the SWBC NASWA list where countries are geographic entities and not tied to a range of dates due to politics that usually have no relation to reception of radio stations.
How many people really use the country list as it is today? I'm not a fan but I don't do much foreign DX. Luckily it's just a hobby and we can pretty much do what we want to. Martin > Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 2:45:26 +0000 > From: <[email protected]> > To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] > Cc: Chris Black <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] Fw: Countries new or not new? > Message-ID: <20101020024526.klujw.169587.r...@hrndva-web05-z02> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > A couple of DXers have noted the recent changes in the Dutch islands in > the Caribbean. Here are some additional comments to muddy the water > further: > > Aruba had previously moved to a separate status within the Kingdom of > the Netherlands, so for strict country counters it had already become > ATN and Aruba as separate "countries". > > The NRC list had long ago separated the eastern portion of the > Netherlands Antilles (Sint Maarten and Eustacia)from ATN because of an > arbitrary "water separation". By arbitrary I mean that the club set a > standard distance - 75 miles I think - so that portions of a country > separated by that much water were deemed two "radio countries". This > standard distance is a pure fiction that has no basis in inernational > law or boundaries, it's just a hobby convention. Hawaii and Alaska are > well beyond that standard distance also, and have long been considered > seperate "radio countries". > > With the official change in the relationship of the different > Netherlands Antilles to the home country and to one another there is > some rationale to add new radio countries to the list. I don't have > all that info in front of me (I'm out of town right now), but new > degrees of autonomy coupled with water separation creates new countries > if we use traditional club standards. The big philosophical question, > though, is whether a DXer can count having heard one of these new > entities when the actual logging preceded the new arrangement. Does a > logging of Bonaire in 1973 now count in your book as Netherlands > Antilles, ABC islands, or Bonaire? Questions like this have long > slowed my effort to rewrite the NRC country list, and the anticipated > but uncertain changes in the Netherlands Antilles have been a major > sticking point. > > Only Aruba is truly independent, the other islands now have different > shades of autonomy, as I recall, some with a strong link to the > Netherlands, and some weaker. > > Should my logging of a station in the former East Germany now count as > Germany or is "East Germany" still considered a separate radio country? > I heard it earlier this year for the first time - seems a stretch to > call in East Germany, since that country has not existed politically > since 1990 or so. But Ben Dangerfield heard it long before then, and > it doesn't seem right to take it away from him. But that leaves me > unable to match Ben's country total, even though we actually heard the > very same station. Yikes, who knew that a simple hobby like DXing > could become such a philosophical exercise! > > Jim Renfrew, Holley NY _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
