Well I got news for you about VU4. It will be active again, only a matter of time.
Let me relate a story about VU4. It point out that things happen overnight that we cannot foresee. Here is the story. An Indian citizen, Mani, VU2ANI, was in Port Blair on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands within the last 7 or so years. However there was a lot of moaning about why he had a VU2 license instead of a VU7 (should be VU4 I think). However Mani was very active. Mani had built everything in his shack, homebrewed everything! It was a real credit to him to have built all his own equipment, well not exactly copy book homebrewing but nevertheless it worked and he was quite active. However it was sometimes unreliable and Mani would suddenly for no apparent reason disappear. An amateur radio license in India is linked to an address. If you move to a new house, your license must be re-indorsed for that new location. Mani worked for All India Radio as a junior engineer and was posted to Port Blair. Once he had moved, he sent his license in for re-issue which it was and it clearly showed his Port Blair address, Government House, Port Blair, duly issued by the Indian WPC in New Delhi. Government House in Port Blair is a compound for All India Radio. Mani's license was also endorsed by the Senior Engineer in Charge of All India Radio, a component of the Indian government. Mani enjoyed his initial posting to VU4 and subsequently decided to extend his stay. When that happened a sponsor came forward to donate used equipment to him so he could perhaps enjoy a bit more reliability and work the world. An import license was duly issued by WPC in New Delhi and equipment was flown into Mani post haste. Mani was soon on the air with the new equipment and his Indian Government approved re-issued license for Port Blair. However the controversy about him using a VU2 license, which was his call, from VU4 just would not disappear. So, Mani decided to go again to the WPC and request a new license with VU4 as the prefix. This apparently woke someone in WPC (I don't know what this stands for-perhaps Wireless Postal Commission- I don't have a clue) and once that re-issue application hit someone's desk in New Delhi, they suddenly realized that they had issued a modification to a license that allowed someone to operate from Port Blair without realizing it and duly canceled Mani's license. The bottom line, ARRL did not allow VU2ANI contacts from VU4 to count even though he had what certainly was a valid license, no question! Mani had done everything legal and above board and his contacts should have been legal and count. But alas, this was not the case. Needless to say, Mani did not extend his stay and the rest is history. The moral of this story is that nobody can predict what will happen. As others have said, Mt. Athos' status will change at some point with a new operator, new equipment, guest operator or all three. P5 will be active again. The same for VU7. In this changing world, anything is possible, even the Israelis making peace with the Palestinians! Who would have thought that? Delete a country from the DXCC list because it is inactive? Get serious. All us gray headed geezers need something to look at after all these years of climbing the ladder. This proposal has been floated lots of times and perhaps at some time, it might fly. However count me as a negative vote when this comes up. Lets all keep our fingers crossed these extremely rare countries come on sooner than later. It will happen!!! 73, Charlie, W0YG..>> Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, [EMAIL PROTECTED] This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
