What is “exposed” here is that DXCC rules written in an entirely different era did not always get “adjusted” to a new regulatory environment.

In the early going of DXCC and up into at least the 1970’s, there was a clear distinction between an operator license and a station license.

An OPERATORS license grant defined your license class (and thus your operating privileges). 

A STATION license authorized you to establish an Amateur Radio station at a specified location.  This license (not your operators license) assigned a call sign to that station.  It may be a fine distinction, but in fact the call sign identified the STATION, not the operator. 

If I came to your station to operate (or operated your station from remote) I was required to use the call sign OF THE STATION that I was operating, not my own call sign.  The STATION LOG (a required thing) had to have an entry which named the person operating.  Remote operation was allowed, but only after being authorized.  Here is an excerpt from the rules:

Paragraph §12.64 (Yes, it was Part 12, not Part 97) “Location of Station.  Every amateur station shall have a fixed transmitter location.  Only one fixed transmitter location will be authorized and will be designated on the license for each amateur station, except that when remote control is authorized, the location of the remote control position as well as the location of the remotely-controlled transmitter shall be considered as fixed transmitter location and will be so designated on the station license……”

If you wanted to operate from a different location (other than briefly) you needed to apply for an “Additional Station License” which would be assigned it’s own call sign.  (At one time I owned three station licenses.  My primary station (KG6AQI) was on Guam, and I had additional stations licensed in Minnesota (WA0PQF) and Wisconsin (WB9DLL).

Since then the rules have been dramatically relaxed, and the distinction between an Operator license and a Station license has become quite blurry, although it still exists (see §97.5 and §97.9).  In any case, the “portability” of call signs is greatly expanded from those days.  Back then I could only sign with the call of the station I was using (RHR couldn’t exist in it’s current form), and I couldn’t “borrow” my buddies high power/high antenna station to bag a “new one”.

In fact, looking at one of my early 1960’s DXCC certificates (from KG6AQI), the language reads “This certifies that Hans Brakob, KG6AQI has submitted evidence satisfactory to the American Radio Relay League that his station has conducted two-way communications…..”   That (emphasis mine) “his station” seems to allow any licensed operator who operates my station to contribute to the DXCC totals of the station.  Under those conditions, I could go up the road to station K0IR and work Ralph Fedor on expedition to VK0IR, and Station K0IR could properly claim credit for Heard Island.  Later certificates on my wall from the 1990’s do not include the “his station” language.

So the situation is quite nuanced.

Maybe the first fact to nail down is:  “Is DXCC (today) awarded to a Station, or is it  awarded to an Operator?”  (My DXCC Certificate #4198 was clearly issued to my Station.)

73, de Hans, KØHB

“Just a Boy and his Radio”™