I've been bothered by something that came in the mail today. I can't quite
put my finger on what it is... so I'm going to risk throwing it out to the
group to see what you think. I could well be over-reacting, I don't know.
Before I say another word... let me be very clear that I am not upset with
or picking on the individual in question. I actually have the utmost
respect for him and his abilities as a DX'er and DX'peditioner. Which is
probably part of why this is bothering me.
In today's mail were my QSL cards from St. Bart's from G3TXF. Very nice
looking cards, and I am thankful to Nigel both for working me and for
responding so quickly to my request. That's not the problem.
Also included in the envelope was a note from Nigel to support making Kosovo
a DXCC entity... and a pre-printed post card addressed to K1ZZ as an "open
letter" to try and persuade him to change the DXCC rules as they currently
stand, to add Kosovo to the list of entities. (I thought they preferred
"Kosova"? I'll stick to "Kosovo" for now, just to be consistent)
Frankly, and again with all due respect to Nigel and the other recent
operators, I find this a little unsettling, to say the least.
There are a couple of things that bother me.
First is that I don't necessarily agree with the wording of the post card...
that is to say, some of the statements made therein may well be true, but I
haven't personally checked them out, and as such would be loathe to claim
them as facts before doing so. (Kind of like signing a "save the
__" petition based on what you're told, not on what the petition
actually says because you didn't read it. Just ask all the Star Trek fans
who successfully lobbied to have the first Space Shuttle named "Enterprise,"
without reading the fine print that the first one wouldn't actually fly into
space but was just a shell to test the aerodynamics!)
Second... look. The DXCC eligibility rules are what they are. You may not
agree with them, but I think that it is fair to say that the current "DXCC
2000" rules that have been in effect for the last ~10 years, as amended,
have been applied consistently. Yes -- in the past, some rules were open to
"interpretation," and certain operations sometimes had a hint of, well,
backscratching -- you know, "hey, you're my pal, do me a favor!" I don't
believe that that's the situation we have today.
So, we have a group that operated from Kosovo immediately after they
declared independance. And yes, many governments around the world
recognized that declaration. But -- and this is a big "but" -- none of the
"trigger events" cited in the past by the DXCC desk have taken place yet.
So by strict interpretation of the rules... let alone not so strict...
Kosovo doesn't go on the list - yet. It may well one day... that is another
issue. But not today.
The irony should not be lost that one of the operators of the Kosovo
operation was Martti OH2BH. Martti, of course, was also one of the
operators of the first St. Bart's operation after it went on the list... not
after the political changes that France implemented, but after the "trigger
event" of the political change going on the US State Department's list of
dependencies. And another operator was our own Bernie W3UR, who may be one
of the most knowledgeable DX'ers when it comes to the rules and regs around.
(Both are people I consider friends, and both are people I hold in the
highest regards). So I think it would be fair to state that it can not be
said that no one on that team had prior knowledge of what is and is not
considered a trigger event. (My High School English teachers will get me
for THAT run-on sentence one day!)
So, in light of this... what can this post card campaign really hope to
accomplish?
Should the ARRL be in the position to determine what is or isn't a country?
(That, after all, appeared to be one of the underlying reasons for adapting
the term "entity" instead of "country") I would think that the entire
purpose for relying on the US State Department list, or UN membership, or
even ITU prefix assignment (all "trigger events") is to take the heat off
the League and the DXCC desk for that... for them to have a legitimate,
independant, non-amateur radio-related source to back them up.
Should Dave Sumner be in the position to over-rule the DXCC desk on this?
To do so would be to at least somewhat undermine the integrity of the DXCC
2000 rules, to say nothing of the folks actually running the program. But
if he chooses to not act on, or even acknowledge, the cards, he then risks
being accused of ignoring the League membership and/or the DX community. To
say nothing of reviving those old, ugly, and somewhat bigoted rumors and
slurs about how much influence Martti allegedly had over the DXCC program.
For some reason, I also keep having the original Swain's Island DXpedition
pop up in my thoughts. This was the operation that tried to establish a
"new" IARU Society for American Samoa, to
