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 use that (now removed) rule to change the status of KH8, and thus make Swain's eligible. When the ARRL pointed out that THEY were the IARU society for all US possessions, and always has been... well, remember, it got ugly for awhile. I guess I'm seeing something of a parallel in someone trying to bend or break the rules to do what they want, even though the rules at present don't support it. (And I'm still not comfortable with all the rules changes that made Swain's an entity after all... but that too is another story) And, incidently, Dave's support of Swain's and his efforts therein are also noted on the card. Read into that what you will. My personal feeling is that the Kosovo operators took a risk, and had hoped that the UN would recognize the new independent status of Kosovo or that the ITU would assign a prefix right away, which would cause the "trigger event" and get them status as a new entity. If that is the case, well, this time, the risk didn't pay off. But that's the nature of a gamble. To try and manuever the rules, no matter how worthy the cause, after the fact and after the risk failed... just doesn't seem right. The political status of Kosovo is being handled on the world stage, and will be settled (one way or another) in due course. Our time has not yet come... and one has to wonder if adding Kosovo to the entity list at this time could be construed by more volatile elements (looking for excuses to heat things up) as kindling for the fire. This could backfire in many ways that we may not even be able to anticipate. So what's the rush? Anyway... that's what's been bugging me all evening. Am I way off base here? 73, ron w3wn Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, dx-chat@njdxa.org This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
