Getting back to the original question, the DXCC award scheme arose from a piece in QST by Clinton V DeSoto in the ‘30’s. 

 

 

… See http://www.arrl.org/desoto for the rest of that excellent piece, and to appreciate the fundamental design of the DXCC award.

 

DoSoto eloquently discussed the issue of reaching consensus on what constitutes “a country”.  He wrote: “The basic rule is simple and direct: Each discrete geographical or political entity is considered to be a country.”  Ambiguities in that ‘simple and direct’ rule led eventually to today’s DXCC rules needing ~1900 words just to describe the criteria for qualifying ‘DXCC entities’ as they are now known (since ‘countries’ would be inappropriate for some of them e.g. UN HQ).

 

73

Gary  ZL2iFB

 

PS  In hope of avoiding yet another outbreak of “Entity X is impossible to work so it ought to be removed from the list”, I’ll just say that DXCC is designed to be a progressive award: while it takes effort to gain the basic award for contacting 100 entities, it is deliberately difficult to complete the full set.  The ‘possibility’ of contacting entities has never been part of the DXCC rules, as far as I know.  Therein lies the challenge, the accomplishment … and the fun. 

 

From: ARRL-Awards@... <ARRL-Awards@...> On Behalf Of HH Brakob
Sent: Wednesday, 23 February 2022 7:33 am
To: ARRL-Awards@...
Subject: Re: [ARRL-Awards] Two potential “new ones”

 

Not to worry, Ria.   I would have thought that the sheer outrageousness of my question would have signaled that “my tongue was in my cheek”.

 

Back under my rock.

 

73, de Hans, KØHB

“Just a Boy and his Radio”™

---

From: ARRL-Awards@... <ARRL-Awards@...> on behalf of Ria, N2RJ <rjairam@...>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2022 12:05:59 PM
To: ARRL-Awards@... <ARRL-Awards@...>
Subject: Re: [ARRL-Awards] Two potential “new ones”

 

Can’t tell if you’re kidding or not. 

 

These two areas are not UN member states nor are they recognized by the US state department. 

 

Therefore they do not qualify as separate DXCC entities.  Therefore the DXCC list remains unchanged for now. In the unlikely event that those two areas are recognized by the UN or US state department and they have an IARU member society, they’ll be added. But that’s as likely as me operating from P5.

 

73

Ria

N2RJ

 

On Tue, Feb 22, 2022 at 1:03 PM HH Brakob <kzerohb@...> wrote:

Is Vladimir Putin a ham?

 

He has recognized 2 new ones, Peoples Republic of Donetsk, and Peoples Republic of Luhansk.

 

73, de Hans, KØHB

“Just a Boy and his Radio”™