Re: [IRCA] TAs Last Night - Country List

["Martin Foltz" <martinfoltz@xxxxxxx>]

Jim, the IRCA has a country list. It was published in last year's DXM and I
think it's published every year. I'm sure it's on the website. I just don't
hear much foreign DX so I'm not a big country counter.

Martin Foltz
Mission Viejo CA



Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:31:04 -0500
From: Jim Renfrew
To: "Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America"
	<irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IRCA] TAs Last Night

You're talking to the guy who volunteered too long ago with the NRC to 
create a revised country list and hasn't done it yet after at least 5 years!

It's actually fairly complicated, with various traditions of 
country-counting:  (1)  Hams seem to count anything that has a spot of water

in between as two countries, (2) NASWA has the approach of "once a country, 
always a country" - so there are three post-war countries in Germany instead

of one post-Wall country today - this acknowledges that people don't like 
giving up countries even though they no longer exist.   (3) NRC has an old 
modified list, with some water separation, e.g. France and Corsica are two 
countries, Hawaii and Alaska are separate countries, but not nearly as many 
as the ham lists I've seen.  The thing that had me stumped was the Dutch 
islands in the Caribbean, which have various degrees of autonomy from the 
Netherlands and with each other with rolling dates for activating the 
changes. On top of that DXers are as independent-minded about counting 
countries as we are about counting domestic stations, e.g. call changes, 
facility changes, COL changes, etc., so as many as would use an official 
list an equal number would go their own way!

Having said all that, I'm still willing to work on something like this. 
Maybe some others are interested, too.

Jim Renfrew


_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx